This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Katy tried
I was halfway crucified
I was on the other side
Of no tomorrow
You walked in
And my life began again
Just when I'd spent the last piaster
I could borrow
All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang
I knew was true
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy
Have you done all you can do
Are you with me Doctor
Don't seem right
I've been strung out here all night
I've been waiting for the taste
You said you'd bring to me
Biscayne Bay
Where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day
I went searching for the song
You used to sing to me
Katy lies
You could see it in her eyes
But imagine my surprise
When I saw you
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me Doctor
I was halfway crucified
I was on the other side
Of no tomorrow
You walked in
And my life began again
Just when I'd spent the last piaster
I could borrow
All night long
We would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang
I knew was true
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy
Have you done all you can do
Are you with me Doctor
Don't seem right
I've been strung out here all night
I've been waiting for the taste
You said you'd bring to me
Biscayne Bay
Where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day
I went searching for the song
You used to sing to me
Katy lies
You could see it in her eyes
But imagine my surprise
When I saw you
Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me Doctor
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The Night We Met
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Punchline
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Like HexKaster said, this song is about heroin abuse. Fagen has said in many interviews online, however, that while heroin abuse is a major part of this song, the FOCUS of the song is on the "love-triangle" between the narrator, "Katy," and "Doctor Wu."
I think that it is "Doctor Wu," not "Katy," who is heroin personified. This may seem weird, but stick it out with me.
I see this song as being about an addict, the narrator, who is really down on his luck, really poor, a big bum off his friends ("just when I'd spent the last piaster I could borrow") in order to finance his addiction. Then he meets Katy, whom he believes will help him through this time, maybe get him clean, whatever.
He hangs out with Katy, and they "sing that stupid song"--probably here that means telling themselves over and over again how everything is going to be okay. They're trying to use a little positive reinforcement, or brainwashing, however you see it. :>)
But even then things don't seem right, somehow, so he gets to talking to his dope, his heroin, who, as I said, is "Doctor Wu." The doctor is his old buddy, so the narrator is just checking in, making sure he's still there, still the same old "ordinary" cat as before.
Something happens to our narrator while he's talking to Doctor Wu. Sometime during that astounding alto sax solo, Katy has "left" him. It's obvious--he's looking for her everywhere, after all, all through the slums ("Biscayne Bay"), looking for that "song," that bit of reinforcement/brainwashing they gave one another.
When he finds her, he finds that she's been lying. She's been a two-timer. She's been betraying him. He finds "Doctor Wu" (dope) in Katy's eyes.
In her attempts to be our poor narrator's angel, his therapist, Katy has become an addict herself.
So it's all over from there, obviously. The 'Dan love miserable endings, and this is one of their rawest. Katy was just a two-timing little thing after all. She was going to help the narrator, but she got caught "cheating" on him with his own "lover." It really is a "love-dope triangle," as Fagen put it in an interview.
So the end, therefore, is just the narrator talking to his heroin once more, after he realizes what has happened to Katy. In the first chorus, he questions the heroin (and, through the heroin, himself), wondering whether things are as bad, as crazy as they seem. In the second chorus, he confirms that things ARE as bad as he thought, and that Katy has finally gotten to Doctor Wu, taken him in, become a fellow slave of addiction.
Just my long opinion, based on what I've read of what Fagen has said on the song. What makes this song so strange to deal with is the lack of a clear direction on who "you" is. Sometimes the narrator is talking to Katy, and sometimes he's talking to heroin and to his heroin-laden self.
He's just another 'Dan protagonist who's been tricked, is all.:>)
@WritingIsMyReligion <br /> I Love your interpretation, thanks for sharing it.<br />
@WritingIsMyReligion That explanation gave me goose bumps.
@WritingIsMyReligion <br /> Ummm, no.<br /> <br /> Katy tried [Katy is the addictive drug (heroin? we don't know) Short for “Katy was tried”. Narrator tried the drug and then:]<br /> <br /> I was halfway crucified <br /> I was on the other side <br /> Of no tomorrow [Narrator hits rock bottom from drug use]<br /> <br /> You walked in <br /> And my life began again [drug user gets help from Dr Wu who runs a treatment program]<br /> Just when I'd spent the last piaster <br /> I could borrow [Got help after he hit rock bottom, out of money]<br /> <br /> All night long <br /> We would sing that stupid song <br /> And every word we sang <br /> I knew was true [Narrator has bought into the treatment and knows the approach is the way to go, the truth]<br /> <br /> [The chorus is the narrator questioning himself when he gets cravings. The “you” in the chorus is the narrator questioning himself, not a conversation with Dr. Wu.]<br /> <br /> Are you with me doctor wu? [Asking himself if he has the will to reject drugs]<br /> Are you really just a shadow<br /> Of the man that I once knew?<br /> Are you crazy are you high <br /> Or just an ordinary guy?<br /> Have you done all you can do? [You is the narrator questioning himself, you here is the narrator, not a conversation with someone else]<br /> Are you with me Doctor? [Dr Wu is a stand in for the treatment program. Is what Dr. Wu taught him still with the narrator]<br /> <br /> [Back to being strung out on drugs]<br /> Don't seem right <br /> I've been strung out here all night <br /> I've been waiting for the taste <br /> You said you'd bring to me <br /> [The "you" in this passage is Katy= the drug, which makes promises but it is not delivering]<br /> <br /> Biscayne Bay <br /> Where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day <br /> I went searching for the song <br /> You used to sing to me [This passage is about the warm feelings generated when first taking the drug like a pleasant afternoon on the beach. After addiction sets it, the pleasant feeling is not the same. In this passage, the song is the craving for drugs, not the same “stupid song” in the previous passage. That leads to, "Katy lies". Does not get the feeling Katy promised.]<br /> <br /> Katy lies <br /> You could see it in her eyes [Narrator did not find what katy’s song (=drug addiction) promised]<br /> <br /> But imagine my surprise <br /> When I saw you <br /> [Narrator is surprised to find that the treatment program provides what he is seeking. Dr Wu is the help he needs to quit drugs. He learns a new song from Dr Wu, every word of it is true.]<br /> <br /> [Back to narrator fighting the drug cravings]<br /> Are you with me Doctor Wu [Narrator asking himself if he has the will to quit.]<br /> Are you really just a shadow <br /> Of the man that I once knew [Narrator challenges himself]<br /> <br /> She is lovely yes she's sly [Narrator still has cravings and addiction is "sly"]<br /> And you're an ordinary guy <br /> Has she finally got to you <br /> Can you hear me Doctor [Narrator is fighting internal demons, calls upon Dr. Wu (his treatment] to ward them off.
@WritingIsMyReligion agree... Doctor Wu = China White (ultra clean and potent form of Heroine that H-addicts salivate for)
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