Explain The Lyrics

I’ve been thrown the gaijin glare for so long
By now i take the scorn in stride
Got no time for pride that only serves to divide
Got no time for miscommunication
I’ve been trying to set this straight for so long
Trying to hammer out what’s bent
You trust in my intent
You must be heaven sent
And i’ve been trying to let you know that i love you so

I’ve been trying to find a girl for so long
That tears have often filled my eyes
Under azure skies as we said our last goodbyes
I was trying to let you know that i love you so

I love you so
You’ll never know
But i love you so

You suck if you love beautiful romantic tunes that will melt your heart and you have not heard this one.  They sing this in English and Japanese.  As far as the lyrics, they are rather self-explanatory, but I can help clear up some vocabulary that you might not know:

“I’ve been thrown the gaijin glare for so long” means he has stood out by being an American who lives in Japan (“gaijin” meaning alien, or foreigner).

“azure” in “azure skies” means a deep blue, which was used for royalty centuries ago.

“Utsukushii Shibuya” refers to the singer’s fond memories of the city he lived in, presumably with his girlfriend.  Utsukushii means beautiful, and Shibuya is a suburb of Tokyo.

Here are the Japanese lyrics, just in case you know them.  By the way, I sang this song in Japanese to my Chinese girlfriend and killed it (in a good way).  You should try it!

gaijin dato yubi wo sasu
tanin (hito) wo mikudasu youna me de
(mizo wo fukame rudakeno)
puranodo ya _ ha no kabe ni kakawatsu teru baai janai
sou, zutsuto, sai kiro utoshiteta
hizun da kokoro (mono) tataki naoshi
kun ha, sonna boku wowakatsutekureru megami
kun ni _ eyou
I love you so…
detsuto, kun wo sagashi _ ke nando mo naki takunatsuta
ano aozora no shita, wakare no kotoba wo majiwa shita
kun ni _ etakatsuta
I love you so…
wasure naide
temo, I love you so…

Ok, here are the Japanese characters, the best I could work out… They are probably not very accurate.  PLEASE comment or email me the right lyrics if you know Japanese.  Thanks!

私は長い間、外国人のまぶしさを投げてきた
今では私はストライドで軽蔑してください
のみ分割する役割を誇りには時間を持っていない
誤解のための時間を持っていない
私はあまりにも長い間、この直線を設定しようとしてきた
曲がっているかを打ち出すこととして
あなたが私の意図で信頼
あなたは天国に送信する必要があります。
と私はそう私はあなたを愛しているあなたが知っているようにしようとしてきた

私はそう長くのための女の子を見つけるためにしようとしてきた
その涙は、しばしば私の目を埋めている
紺碧の空の下で我々は最後の別れは言ったとして
私は、そう私はあなたを愛しているかを知らせることを試みていた

私はあなたを愛して
あなたが知っていることは決してないだろう
しかし、私はとてもあなたを愛して

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p20buwlisAY#!

In a little while from now
If I’m not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to who
Ever what it’s like when you’re shattered
Left standing in the lurch at a church
Where people saying: “My God, that’s tough
She’s stood him up”
No point in us remaining
We may as well go home
As I did on my own
Alone again, naturally

To think that only yesterday
I was cheerful, bright and gay
Looking forward to well wouldn’t do
The role I was about to play
But as if to knock me down
Reality came around
And without so much, as a mere touch
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt
Talk about God and His mercy
Or if He really does exist
Why did He desert me in my hour of need
I truly am indeed Alone again, naturally

It seems to me that there are more hearts
broken in the world that can’t be mended
Left unattended
What do we do? What do we do?

Alone again, naturally
Now looking back over the years
And whatever else that appears
I remember I cried when my father died
Never wishing to hide the tears
And at sixty-five years old
My mother, God rest her soul,
Couldn’t understand why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken
Leaving her to start with a heart so badly broken
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again, naturally
Alone again, naturally

It is an introspective ballad, starting with the singer telling of his plans to commit suicide after being left at the altar, and then telling about the death of his parents. O’Sullivan has said that the song is not autobiographical, as he did not know his father (who died when O’Sullivan was 11) very well, and that his father had mistreated his mother.

I’m lying alone with my head on the phone
Thinking of you till it hurts
I know you hurt too but what else can we do
Tormented and torn apart
I wish I could carry your smile and my heart
For times when my life feels so low
It would make me believe what tomorrow could bring
When today doesn’t really know, doesn’t really know

Chorus:
I ‘m all out of love, I’m so lost without you
I know you were right believing for so long
I ‘m all out of love, what am I without you
I can’t be too late to say that I was so wrong

I want you to come back and carry me home
Away from this long lonely nights
I’m reaching for you, are you feeling it too
Does the feeling seem oh so right
And what would you say if I called on you now
And said that I can’t hold on
There’s no easy way, it gets harder each day
Please love me or I’ll be gone, I’ll be gone

Chorus

Oh, what are you thinking of?
What are you thinking of?
Oh, what are you thinking of?
What are you thinking of?

If you only knew
What I feel for you
If you only lived for me
The way I lived for you
I’d be in heaven
My dreams would come true

‘Cause all I’ve ever wanted
Is you
And you alone
And I love you so
More than you could ever know
All I’ve ever wanted
Is you

If you were my own
To caress and hold
I would shower you with love
And drown within your soul
Because I live and breathe for you
And I really need to know

That all I’ve ever wanted
Is you
And you alone
And I love you so
More than you could ever know
All I’ve ever wanted
Is you

Everything I do is for you
You are every part of me
And I don’t want to face
Another day
Alone
Without your love

‘Cause all I’ve ever wanted
Is you
And you alone
And I love you so
More than you could ever know
All I’ve ever wanted
Is you
All I’ve ever wanted
Is you

I will not relent no no
Never live with defeat, never falter
It’s like the air that I breathe(like the air I breathe)
I will not choke on failure
Cause I will not choke on failure

I am a mortal man
But I’m not falling, I’m not broken yet
I am a mortal man
But I hold tight to my beliefs now

I have suffered defeat, pain, loss
Still I push to the edge, never falter
For this cements my beliefs (this cements my beliefs)
I’ll remain my own master

I will not relent no no
Never suffer defeat, never falter
For this cements my beliefs (this cements my beliefs)
I will not choke on failure

I am a mortal man
But I’m not falling I’m not broken yet
I am a mortal man
But I hold tight to my beliefs now

I am a mortal man
But I’m not falling I’m not broken yet
I am a mortal man
But I hold tight to my beliefs now

I will not relent
I will not relent, no no
I will not relent
Never suffer defeat never falter
I will not relent, no no

Never suffer
Never falter
I will not relent, no no
Never suffer
Never falter

So I sing you to sleep
After the lovin’
With a song I just wrote yesterday
And I hope you can hear
What the words and the music have to say.

It’s so hard to explain
Everything that I’m feelin’
Face to face I just seem to go dry.
But I love you so much
That the sound of your voice can get me high.

Thanks for takin’ me
On a one way trip to the sun.
And thanks for turnin’ me
Into a someone.

So I sing you to sleep
After the lovin’
I brush back the hair from your eyes.
And the love on your face
Is so real that it makes me want to cry.

And I know that my song
Isn’t sayin’ anything new.
Oh, but after the lovin’
I’m still in love with you.

So I sing you to sleep
After the lovin’
I brush back the hair from your eyes.
And the love on your face
Is so real that it makes me want to cry.

And I know that my song
Isn’t sayin’ anything new.
Oh, but after the lovin’
I’m still in love with you.

Yes, after the lovin’
I’m still in love with you.

Hmmm, after the lovin’
I’m still in love with you.

Two, three, four

(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

Well my heart knows me better than I know myself
So I’m gonna let it do all the talking.
(woo-hoo, woo-hoo)
I came across a place in the middle of nowhere
with a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo, woo-hoo)

I fell in fear, upon my back
I said don’t look back, just keep on walking.
(woo-hoo, woo-hoo)
When the big black horse that looked this way,
Said hey lady, will you marry me?
(woo-hoo, woo-hoo)

But I said no, no, no, no-no-no
I said no, no, you’re not the one for me
No, no, no, no-no-no
I said no, no, you’re not the one for me

(ooooo,woo-hoo)

And my heart had a problem, in the early hours,
So it stopped it dead for a beat or two.
(woo-hoo, woo-hoo)
But I cut some cord, and I shouldn’t have done that,
And it won’t forgive me after all these years
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

So I sent her to a place in the middle of nowhere
With a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo, woo-hoo)
Now it won’t come back , cause it’s oh so happy
And now I’ve got a hole for the world to see
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

But it said no, no, no, no-no-no
I said no, no, you’re not the one for me
No, no, no, no-no-no
Said no, no, you’re not the one for me

(ooooo,woo-hoo) (not the one for me, yeah)
(ooooo,woo-hoo)
Said no, no, no, no, no, no, no
You’re not the one for me
Said no, no, no, no, no, no, no
You’re not the one for me

Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can’t quite get there cause they’ve all forsaken me
Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can’t quite get there cause they’ve all forsaken me

This song was basically copied from The Pointer Sisters’ song “Neutron Dance”.  Some lesbian rumors were fuelled by a demo version of “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” which surfaced on the Internet in April 2005. It has different backing vocals to the released version, with the phrase “pubes in the teeth” being chanted between the “woo hoo” refrain. Tunstall told lesbian magazine Diva in June that the recording had been made as a joke during some drunken hijinks at a recording session and was later leaked without her knowledge.

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways,
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’,
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’,
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’,
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’,
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’,
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’,
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ‘fore the rain starts a-fallin’,
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’,
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’,
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.

Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1962 in Chip Monck’s apartment in the basement of the Village Gate (now The Village Theater) on the corner of Bleecker and Thompson Streets in Greenwich Village.  This song is about the aftermath of a nuclear war.  The song was written at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the bleakness of the lyrics reflects the worried mood of the time.

However, the meaning behind the words has stayed relevant throughout the years as they seem to have a broader sweep in their descriptions of injustice, suffering and warfare.  Though Dylan has denied that this song is about anything more than simple rain falling down, it’s obvious that he is not being straight-forward.  This is not an uncommon thing for writers to do, aka Pink Floyd denying that Dark Side of the Moon had anything to do with The Wizard of Oz.

I wanna have the same last dream again
The one where I wake up and I’m alive
Just as the four walls close me within
My eyes are open up with pure sunlight
I’m the first to know
My dearest friends
Even if your hope has burned with time
Anything that is dead shall be re-grown
And your vicious pain, your warning sign
You will be fine

Hey oh here I am
And here we go
Life’s waiting to begin

Any type of love it will be shown
Like every single tree reach for the sky
If you’re gonna fall
I’ll let you know
That I will pick you up
Like you for I
I felt this thing
I can’t replace
When everyone was working for this goal
Where all the children left without a trace
Only to come back as pure as gold
To recite this all

Hey oh here I am
And here we go
Life’s waiting to begin
Tonight
Hey oh here I am
And here we go
Life’s waiting to begin
Tonight
Hey oh here I am
And here we go
Life’s waiting to begin

I can not live
I can’t breathe
Unless you do this with me
I can not live
I can’t breathe
Unless you do this with me
I can not live
I can’t breathe
Unless you do this with me
I can not live
I can’t breathe
Unless you do this with me
I can not live
I can’t breathe
Unless you do this with me
I can not live
I can’t breathe
Unless you do this with me

Hey oh, here I am (do this with me)
Here we go
life’s waiting to begin (do this with me)
Hey oh, here I am (do this with me)
Here we go
life’s waiting to begin
life’s waiting to begin

On February 8, in a Rolling Stone interview, when asked about this song, Tom DeLonge said: “The song was inspired by a friend whose marriage was kind of falling apart. It touched me so deeply that I was up one night crying for him — I felt so hurt.”

Prison gates won’t open up for me
On these hands and knees I’m crawlin’
Oh, I reach for you
Well I’m terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can’t hold my soul in
All I need is you
Come please I’m callin’
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I’m fallin’, I’m fallin’

[Chorus:]
Show me what it’s like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I’ll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I’ll leave this life behind me
Say it if it’s worth saving me

Heaven’s gates won’t open up for me
With these broken wings I’m fallin’
And all I see is you
These city walls ain’t got no love for me
I’m on the ledge of the eighteenth story
And oh I scream for you
Come please I’m callin’
And all I need from you
Hurry I’m fallin’, I’m fallin’

[Chorus]

Hurry I’m fallin’

All I need is you
Come please I’m callin’
And oh, I scream for you
Hurry I’m fallin’, I’m fallin’, I’m fallin’

[Chorus]

Hurry I’m fallin’

This song is about a man who has the horrifying ability to see timers over people’s heads that tell him when they will all die.  The music video is a MUST-SEE to help understand the lyrics:  A man is saved by a random stranger before he blindly steps onto the street and almost gets struck by a bus. He begins to see timers above the heads of other people, but he appears not to have one of his own. He attempts to figure out what the timers represent, yet he is unable to until an old woman’s reaches 0:00:00 and she dies. He makes the connection that the numbers within the timers are an indicator of how long the people have to live. At the end of the video, he manages to save a woman’s life from getting crushed by a falling stone-statue as she approaches her (her time had been close to 0:00:00); it is then that the woman begins to see timers over people’s heads. Although not explicitly presented, the implication appears to be that once the person has saved another, they are “released” from their burden and can no longer see the timers. It becomes the newest person’s job to save another.

The video also features brief shots of the band performing the song casually in an apartment that appears to be above the street where the main part of the video is taking place.