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"
mama was queen of the mambo
papa was quuen of the congo
deep down in a djungle
i started bangin' my first bongo
every monkey'd like to be
in my place instead of me
cause i'm the king of bongo, baby
i'm the king of bongo bong
i went to the big town
where there is a lot of sound
from the djungle to the city
looking for a bigger crown
so i play my boogie
for the people of big city
but they don't go crazy
when i'm bangin' on my boogie
i'm the king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
hear me when i come, baby
king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
they said that i'm a clown
making too much dirty sound
they say there is no place for little monkey in this town
nobody'd like to be
in my place instead of me
cause nobody go crazy
when i'm bangin' on my boogie
i'm the king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
hear me when i come, baby
king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
bangin' on my bongo
all that swing belongs to me
i'm so happy there's nobody
in my place instead of me
i'm a king without a crown
hanging loose in a big town
but i'm the king of bongo, baby
i'm the king of bongo bong
king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
hear me when i come, baby
king of the bongo
king of the bongo...
papa was quuen of the congo
deep down in a djungle
i started bangin' my first bongo
every monkey'd like to be
in my place instead of me
cause i'm the king of bongo, baby
i'm the king of bongo bong
i went to the big town
where there is a lot of sound
from the djungle to the city
looking for a bigger crown
so i play my boogie
for the people of big city
but they don't go crazy
when i'm bangin' on my boogie
i'm the king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
hear me when i come, baby
king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
they said that i'm a clown
making too much dirty sound
they say there is no place for little monkey in this town
nobody'd like to be
in my place instead of me
cause nobody go crazy
when i'm bangin' on my boogie
i'm the king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
hear me when i come, baby
king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
bangin' on my bongo
all that swing belongs to me
i'm so happy there's nobody
in my place instead of me
i'm a king without a crown
hanging loose in a big town
but i'm the king of bongo, baby
i'm the king of bongo bong
king of the bongo
king of the bongo bong
hear me when i come, baby
king of the bongo
king of the bongo...
Lyrics submitted by Nelly
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How do you mean that Five, coming out of your shell and being introduced to the bigger world?
I've always thought that it's about migration, or maybe refugees, and maybe especially about african people. About how they come from their own lifes, their world, in a total different world, with people who are not interested in them and don't appreciate their special identity and culture. He is very happy and proud with his life, but the people from the country where he ends up don't understand what is special about him, and they prejudice immediately everything that is different about him. They are racists too, because they call him a clown and a monkey, so to me that sounds that they don't see him as a real person, but something less. Just because they judge him in advance and don't even try to get to know him. In the last part, I get the idea that he went back to his hometown and his own life, where he feels good and where no people reject him or ridicule him.
Maybe it's meant to people who want to go to the north to look for a better life there, to tell them that the image of the rich, nice west is not so nice at all as they think.
Touché! That's what I see in the lyrics too. The last part to me means that after the sadness of not being special anymore, he realizes that despite the fact that "nobody wants to be in my place instead of me" could be actually good; no matter what the (rather racist) people in the big town think, he´s still a special human being and his culture is just as important as any other else.<br /> <br /> That´s a great song, Manu is a genius.
i love this song, it's so cool...but were is the rest of the song? the french part!
the french part is actually the song that follows it on the cd called "je ne t'aime plus"........:D
lol funny song :D
crazy! great song
This song is so cute! I love it!
i think the french part goes like: i love you no longer, my love i love you no longer, every day but hey, what do i know
And that's true !!! :) Je ne t'aime plus mon amour, je ne t'aime plus tous les jours, je ne t'aime plus mon amour, je ne t'aime plus tout les jours... this song is so cute, i love the accent of manu Chao, his english is so cute. Did you konw that is has AIDS ans that the following song is in part about it ?
what about AIDS?
this song is so beautiful.
sure "funny song" but with meaningful lyrics. talks about coming out of your shell and being introduced to the bigger world.