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"
I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(Gonna take the time)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(Gonna take the time)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)
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I didn't really care for the lyrics of this song, but one day I actually listened to it, not just the lyrics but also the music. That's what I imagined while listening. It's a whole story, haha. So, there's a man. And a woman. She went to Africa a while ago and he didn't know what she meant to him before she left. But while she was away, he was going insane. He realized he had to tell her what he feels. So, this song is about the day she gets back. He is impatient, waiting for her. He drives to the airport and because he is so excited, he can hear the drums, or maybe his heart beating so fast and loud ("I hear the drums echoing tonight"), but she doesn't know that he'll be there, waiting for her, she hears people around, talking. ("But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation") She always loved him, but he didn't at first, so she was disapointed with him. She is excited to get back home and see him again, but at the same time kind of sad, because she thinks he hasn't changed. ("She's coming in, 12:30 flight") I thought that's at night because of the next verse ("The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation"). He is driving, looking up the sky, so excited to finally meet her again. He kind of doesn't know what he's doing, he just wants to see her, so he stops a stranger and asks him, maybe if he knows what to say to her to make her forgive him for being such a fool. But the old man says he should just go for it. ("I stopped an old man along the way Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you") I think the chorus goes back in time, when she was still in Africa, but he already realized he loves her. ("It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had") He decides that when she'll come back, he won't let her go, he will tell her the truth about his feelings. He blesses the rains down in Africa, because he knows she's there and he wants her the best, he wants the blessed rains touch her. And when she comes back, they'll take some time to do all the things they never did. ("The wild dogs cry out in the night As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company I know that I must do what's right As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become") I think he's one of those wild dogs, crying out fot her. He wants company, but no just anyone, he wants her to be with him. He's frightened of what he's become, because he cannot be the same without her, he's not happy when she's gone. So I thought that's a song playing when he's driving to the airport to pick her up, surprise her and he is impatient, just cannot wait to see her again. That's what I think.