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"
Come make we play some ketchy shuby
And when me shuby, you feel ketchy
And when you ketchy, don't make it drop
'Cause if it drop, it will pop
And if it pop, no one can mend it
'Cause if they mend it, you can easily bend it
So we all go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Tell me if you like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
It don't take too long to learn
Just you do as I say
It may only take one hour or two
And by the next time you will know what to do
We a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Me and you a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Come make we play some ketchy shuby
And when me shuby, you feel ketchy
And when you ketchy, don't make it drop
'Cause if it drop, it will pop
And if it pop, no one can mend it
'Cause if they mend it, you can easily bend it
So we all go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Your mama don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Your papa don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Long time I'm waiting, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Get you right where your ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Me and you a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Tell me if you like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long, all night long, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
I'm always free to ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
I know you like it ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
And when me shuby, you feel ketchy
And when you ketchy, don't make it drop
'Cause if it drop, it will pop
And if it pop, no one can mend it
'Cause if they mend it, you can easily bend it
So we all go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Tell me if you like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
It don't take too long to learn
Just you do as I say
It may only take one hour or two
And by the next time you will know what to do
We a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Me and you a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Come make we play some ketchy shuby
And when me shuby, you feel ketchy
And when you ketchy, don't make it drop
'Cause if it drop, it will pop
And if it pop, no one can mend it
'Cause if they mend it, you can easily bend it
So we all go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Your mama don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Your papa don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Long time I'm waiting, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Get you right where your ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Me and you a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Tell me if you like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
All night long, all night long, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
I'm always free to ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
I know you like it ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight
Lyrics submitted by wailers564
Ketchy Shuby Lyrics as written by Peter Tosh
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Neither the cricket variation nor sex interpretation is convincing. First, cricket is played during the day and not at night. Few, if any, cricket fields have lights. For example, the main cricket stadium in Jamaica, Kensington Oval, does not have lights. So how can you play a game similar to baseball without lights all night long? Second, since cricket is the Jamaican national sport, and second most popular sport in the world (after soccer), why would mama and papa not like it?
The lyrics suggest "ketchy shuby" is not a term or words intended to be construed together but two separate words each with their own meaning. It also suggests cause and effect, that is, when one person becomes shuby and the other feels ketchy. The lyrics primarily are about the person who feels ketchy and not the person who has become shuby.
The lyrics indicate the shuby person is advising the ketchy feeling person not to let "it" drop. What does sex or taking a woman's virginity have anything to do with dropping? The effect of dropping "it" causes a popping sound, suggesting that "it" is something fragile.
To me, the lyrics are unclear. The lyrics proclaims that if "it" pops, "it" cannot be mended. The next verse, however, suggests "it" can be mended but that such mending would cause it to be easily bent. A plausible conclusion is that "it" is a solid object that is difficult to bend but one that becomes malleable if it is dropped and a popping sound occurs.
So we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> Your mama don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> Your papa don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> Long time I'm waiting, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> Get you right where your ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> Me and you a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> Tell me if you like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> All night long, all night long, shuby-shuby tonight<br /> Shuby-shuby tonight...<br /> <br /> <br /> If you don't realize this song is about sex, you are quite frankly an idiot.<br /> <br /> It's not only about sex, but about a guy getting a presumably young virgin girl to go to bed with him<br /> <br /> <br /> Oh, and @ Plato: while CRICKET may be the national Jamaican sport, Catchy Shubby is a faster version played by kids who can't stand the slow-moving nature of regular cricket, so it would actually make sense that the older folk wouldn't like the game.<br /> <br /> "Ketchy Shuby" is obviously being used as a euphemism for sex, but he didn't just get the words out of his head, he instead modified the name of a popular game.<br /> <br /> I'm still not sure what "if it drop it will pop" exactly means, but the best explanation is the "popped" hymen - losing your virginity. I'm not sure how the "easily bend" fits in.