4 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Midnight Man Lyrics
Hold that chrysalis in your palm,
see it split and change.
It won't do you any harm,
it's just trying to rearrange.
It was born to live a day,
now it flies up from your hand.
It's beautiful,
it's the one they call your ever-loving man.
Wolves have carried your babies away,
oh, your kids drip from their teeth.
The nights are long and the day
is bitter cold beyond belief.
You spread yourself like a penitent
upon the mad vibrating sand,
and through your teeth
arrange to meet your midnight man.
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round.
Oh, baby, don't you see?
Everybody wants to be
your midnight man
Don't disturb me as I sleep,
treat me gentle when I wake.
Don't disturb me as I sleep,
even though your body aches
even though your body aches
to serve at his command.
Between the wars
she still adores her ever-loving man.
Close your eyes, sleep in him,
dream of your lost sons and daughters.
Me, I'll raise up the dorsal fin
and glide up and down the waters.
I'll glide up and down the waters
then I'll walk upon the land,
and call 'em out,
the ones who doubt your midnight man.
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round.
Oh, darling, don't you see?
Everybody wants to be
your midnight man
It's early in the morning
and I don't know what to do.
It's early in the morning
and I can't believe it's true.
It's early in the morning
and it's happening again;
I called you once, I called you twice.
Ain't I your midnight man?
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round.
They want you, they love you.
They need to be
your midnight man.
Everybody's coming round to be your midnight man.
see it split and change.
It won't do you any harm,
it's just trying to rearrange.
It was born to live a day,
now it flies up from your hand.
It's beautiful,
it's the one they call your ever-loving man.
oh, your kids drip from their teeth.
The nights are long and the day
is bitter cold beyond belief.
You spread yourself like a penitent
upon the mad vibrating sand,
and through your teeth
arrange to meet your midnight man.
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round.
Oh, baby, don't you see?
Everybody wants to be
your midnight man
treat me gentle when I wake.
Don't disturb me as I sleep,
even though your body aches
even though your body aches
to serve at his command.
Between the wars
she still adores her ever-loving man.
dream of your lost sons and daughters.
Me, I'll raise up the dorsal fin
and glide up and down the waters.
I'll glide up and down the waters
then I'll walk upon the land,
and call 'em out,
the ones who doubt your midnight man.
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round.
Oh, darling, don't you see?
Everybody wants to be
your midnight man
and I don't know what to do.
It's early in the morning
and I can't believe it's true.
It's early in the morning
and it's happening again;
I called you once, I called you twice.
Ain't I your midnight man?
Everybody's coming round to my place.
Everybody's coming round.
They want you, they love you.
They need to be
your midnight man.
Song Info
Submitted by
everloving On Mar 04, 2008
More Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Red Right Hand
Into My Arms
Where the Wild Roses Grow (feat. Kylie Minogue)
O Children
The Mercy Seat
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
so, why no comments on this song? I guess it's not an easy one to interprete, but surely someone has to have some nice ideas...
what comes to my mind after hearing it a zillion times:
the chrysalis, the 'ever-loving man' is a fragile, almost unreal dream of the perfect guy, 'Mr Right', the one every woman out there dreams of; the perfect match, the father of her future babies, the best lover she ever had.
the midnight man is just one of her many lovers, a guy she's simply killing time with while still dreaming about someone else. it seems to be a purely sex-based relationship, at least for her... the 'midnight man' though is not really happy about the situation he's involved in. He's fully aware that he's just a toy, a lover whom she'll leave eventually, but he doesn't want to give in and tries to proove that a 'midnight man' is just as good for her.
He knows she's dreaming of someone else, he knows she probably had several other relationships like the one he's currently in, but still he keeps on fighting until one day he finally wakes up to realize that she left him and there is nothing he can really do about it...
It may be a stretch but because so much of this album alludes to The Odyssey, I again saw some allusions in this song. Everybody coming around to my place could be Penelopes suitors, Raising dorsal fin and walking upon the land reminds me of Odysseus' shipmates who were turned into dolphins and helped his ship in troubled times. "Between the wars she still adores her ever-loving man." Penelope longing for odysseus while away at troy. And so on and so on.
It may be a stretch but because so much of this album alludes to The Odyssey, I again saw some allusions in this song. Everybody coming around to my place could be Penelopes suitors, Raising dorsal fin and walking upon the land reminds me of Odysseus' shipmates who were turned into dolphins and helped his ship in troubled times. "Between the wars she still adores her ever-loving man." Penelope longing for odysseus while away at troy. And so on and so on.
I definitely agree. Even the lines,
I definitely agree. Even the lines,
It's early in the morning and I don't know what to do. It's early in the morning and I can't believe it's true. It's early in the morning and it's happening again; I called you once, I called you twice. Ain't I your midnight man?
It's early in the morning and I don't know what to do. It's early in the morning and I can't believe it's true. It's early in the morning and it's happening again; I called you once, I called you twice. Ain't I your midnight man?
work with the Odyssey, when Penelope tests Odysseus after he reveals himself the morning after he killed the suitors.
work with the Odyssey, when Penelope tests Odysseus after he reveals himself the morning after he killed the suitors.
LOL...y'all are wickedly creative, but soooooo far off. Women are not men. Most women don't want more than one man. One is plenty. One is work. Granted, he may be wonderful and take care of the bills; the bedroom; fixing crap around the house, but I have yet to meet EVEN ONE woman that wants a second man:) You've obviously never been married!
LOL...y'all are wickedly creative, but soooooo far off. Women are not men. Most women don't want more than one man. One is plenty. One is work. Granted, he may be wonderful and take care of the bills; the bedroom; fixing crap around the house, but I have yet to meet EVEN ONE woman that wants a second man:) You've obviously never been married!
NO CLUE whatsoever what this song is about, but I do know I love the band:)
I always feel like "Everybody's coming round to my place" is about all the guys who want to shag his wife. She is a model, and it does make sense with the whole Odyssey thing. If that shouldn't make me laugh, well, I don't care, it makes me laugh.
I believe that this song is little more complicated than just a statement of a man who is in relationship with a woman who is looking for someone better (possibly perfect) than him. Here we have a man who is fully committed to a woman and cannot break free from her spell even know that she will never be his wife and we have a woman who is blind and does not see that she had created her ever-loving man a long time ago and he is still around. The first stanza is about the change which she did not notice. She once has a man for a while, they broke up (or are just the close friends which experienced an intimate experiment which is now passé) but he was transformed (a chrysalis) into her ever-loving man and live in her world. While some others including him can see it, she does not. She is occupied by the thoughts of what may could be if she had a man she wishes for (second stanza) - babies being carried away by wolfs. She finds herself miserable and disgusted and surrenders to a world or rather an idea of a world she created waiting for some other unperspective man (midnight man) come around her so she can engage in the mostly sexual relationship with no real tomorrows with him. This is where it gets somehow uncertain for me. I dare to believe that the refrain is about this particular man (a chrysalis or ever-loving man) telling this woman that she is always wanted by everybody, that she is very attractive and any man would like to be by her side for at least a while. What is interesting is a second meaning that lies under the surface- “Everybody want you, even at my house they adore you. But I am here always, being one of them with just one difference- I am still by your side in one sense or another- I am more than them or at least I would like to be.” The next for stanzas are about him being kind of fed up her wails, gloominess and unanswered affection. “Don´t disturb me” and “treat me gentle” because I have my limits as well. And even though she is broken by her way of life she cannot change. But she is blind to the truth and is rather thinking about what might be “dream of your lost sons and daughters”. This is a sad moment when she had the last chance to see the truth, that he was her ever-loving man but rather she did not recognize him even as a potential midnight man no more. Leave me be- “glide up and down the waters”- I will slide this live easily, on my own, with you or without you because I am way too much tired of this situation. In the end even he gets back where he started “Well, I called you once, I called you twice. Ain't I your midnight man”.
@MindBlocker
@MindBlocker