Prayer For The Dying Lyrics
Careless needle.
Harsh words spoken,
And lives are broken.
Help me I'm fading.
Heaven's waiting,
It's time to move on.
With lessons I've learned.
Playing with fire,
And not getting burned.
I may not know what you're going through.
But time is the space,
Between me and you.
Life carries on... it goes on.
And that would be pessimistic.
In your mind,
We can walk across the water.
Please don't cry,
It's just a prayer for the dying.
I just don't know what's got into me.
With lessons I've learned.
...learned...............
And not getting burned.
...burned burned...
But time is the space,
Between me and you. (L)
...light through that window...
Hold on say yes, while people say no
...on on on...
Ohh!
It goes on....oh-ee-oh, whoa-ee-oh ho oh...
With lessons I've learned.... (L)
I'm playing with fire, (L)
And not getting burned.... (L)
I may not know what you're going through.
But time is the space,
Between me and you. (L)
There is a light through that window. (L)
Hold on say yes, while people say no
It goes on....oh-ee-on,
It goes on.
Whoah.
Whoah.
Life carries on.
...dying dying dying dying...

Man, this one's deep.
This song is written at a spiritual level. 2 Heroine addicts broke up as one came down with aids and the one talking in the first person learned his lesson and stoped the addiction. Forceful aging is sending the one with aids near death and this song take places right before the Aids victim passes away.
Seal is crossing a bridge to a new life while his once spiritual partner and co-addict is going on living - with a couple of hard lessons. Seal acknowledges he was stupid and came out better by luck.
In the song it is a sad time as time has cured him and let him go past that relationship. He may not know what his former partner is going through as time as changed them - but he's telling us all that spiritual connections can't be broken - but time can stagnate it in the past.
He's crying to the world - by saying I don't know what got into me. It's a cry for the living and a prayer for the dying - it digs down to the divide between our conscious and unconscious/spiritual sides and the uncertainty we all have of the after and of where the choices we make take us.
Absolutely stunning song.
@rscherwin@yahoo.com good take on the song.
@rscherwin@yahoo.com good take on the song.

This is such a beautiful song...
He speaks about how people in the world are suffering and such.. at least that's what I get from it, and most of you should too. Excellent song.

The beginning of this song clearly describes different situations in which a person is dying, or on the verge of death. Perhaps the people dying are friends/family of Seal's. The first one seems to be about a drug addict, the second one about a person dying of old age.
Then the chorus-ish part begins with "Crossing that bridge..." . In this part of the song, Seal is basically saying that death is not "the end", and that without death, life would be meaningless. He also says that he will be with the dead ---in heaven or wherever--- in only a matter of time, but that life will carry on despite his death.
I think in the second verse, beginning with "Just say die..." is telling the listener to make the most out of life while s/he is still alive and to persue his/her dreams. When he sings "please don't cry" I think he's telling the listener ---and probably himself-- not to be frightened by what he's singing, that it's only "A Prayer for the Dying". He sings "I just don't know what's got into me" because he can't figure out why his mind wandered to such a morbid place.
The last verse, beginning with "there is a light through that window", is again stating that death is not the end, and that there is a better place after death.
The song winds down with "Life carries on. When nothing else matters... I just don't know what's got into me." This is tricky, but I believe he is saying that life moves on even when you feel hopeless (when nothing else matters), and again, Seal wonders why he is thinking about things like death.
It is truly an amazing song, with incredible lyrics that contain subject matter that not many artists have bothered to explore.

I'm not going to over analyze this song, as other people have. I think it ruins the beauty. But it definately is a cry to the world and I'm glad I heard it. After going to a suicide prevention thing with my HS (no, I'm not suicidal) I guess I'm thinking that its about someone who is going to commit suicide and he's telling them. . .well. . . no

I think its about surviving the ups and downs of life.

This song is comforting.

This song made me cry.

Seal wrote this song for a friend who was dying of AIDS.

I do not believe he specifically talking about a heroine addict he knew necessarily in the first verse. I gather that he is eluding to careless needles in general and how people who use them must not value there life if they would throw it away like that. They are fearless people, maybe more like foolish really is what it comes down to, or their life is so messed up, they feel it isn't worth living anymore. (Forceful ageing, Help me I'm fading. Heaven's waiting, It's time to move on.} I think this verse is the person who is dying of a disease (such as cancer, alcholism or drug addiction), coming to terms with accepting their condition and that they're going to die but at the same time a part of them is still reaching out for help of any kind to get them through. {Crossing that bridge, With lessons I've learned. Playing with fire, And not getting burned. I may not know what you're going through. But time is the space, Between me and you. Life carries on... it goes on.} This verse is the person whom the dying one is asking for help, saying the dying person that they too have been carelessly living (Playing with fire) and through watching what they're going through, they are now realizing they need to move on from their careless ways (crossing that bridge) and be more cautious and value life more than they have. (With lessons I've learned). Realizing seeing their friend this way, has made them realize how mortal we all are. So he says (But time is the space, Between me and you.) Meaning we are not all that are from death, in reality, you could die tomorrow. {Just say die, And that would be pessimistic. In your mind, We can walk across the water. Please don't cry, It's just a prayer for the dying. I just don't know what's got into me.} Here the person who's watching their friend as they're dying is contemplating the word die, saying yes it's a pessimistic word, for even his friend as he's dying is having visions of the next life (n your mind, we can walk across water). He's then saying to his dying friend {Please don't cry, It's just a prayer for the dying. I just don't know what's got into me} Meaning he doesn't want his friend to be sad about whats happening to them, he wants them to not cry, that he's praying for them with every fiber of his being. That is prayer is a spiritual one that seems to be permeating from deep within his own soul. (I just don't know whats got into me) {There is a light through that window ...light through that window... Hold on say yes, while people say no Life carries on ...on on on... Ohh! It goes on....oh-ee-oh, whoa-ee-oh ho oh...} This verse is continuing with the spiritual journey the friend of the dying person is now going on, the enlightenment he's experiencing as this prayer emits itself from his soul. He is overcome with the realization of life on the other side, that death is not the end, but in a sense, another beginning. (There is a light through that window ...light through that window...)
{When nothing else matters.
When nothing else matters.
I just don't know what's got into me.
It's just a prayer for the dying. ...dying dying dying dying...
For the dying.} At this piont the person who's seeing their friend at the most fatal stages of their dying is stating to te friend and to themselves that nothing else matters to their friend at this stage accept the next life as that is the fate thats been assigned to them by their god, and he spiritually will continue to pray that they do reach that next stage safely into that next life, their new journey. (It's just a prayer for the dying. ...dying dying dying dying...
For the dying.)
This analysis I have done in dedication to someone very important to in my life, who's on the verge of dying and can go any day now as I type this.

When I was growing up, my friend's mom was a nurse at the local hospital. This was the mid-1990s, in the worst of the HIV epidemic. All it took was one little prick from a "careless needle", and one year later she died of AIDS.