Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
It's not right, but it's now or never
And if I wait, could I ever forgive myself?
On a night when the moon glows yellow in the riptide
With the light from the TV's buzzing in the house
'Cause I'm gonna cut it where I can
And then I'm gonna duck out behind them
If I ever had a chance it's now then
But I never had the feeling I could offer that to you
To offer it to you would be cruel
When all I want to do is use, use you
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81, oh-oh, oh-oh
Dressed in white with my car keys hidden in the kitchen
I could sleep wherever I lay my head
And the sight of your two shoes sitting in the bathtub
Let me know that I shouldn't give up just yet
'Cause I'm gonna take it from Simon
And then I'm gonna duck out behind them
If I ever had a chance it's now then
But I never had the feeling I could offer that to you
To offer it to you would be cruel
When all I want to do is use, use you
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81, oh-oh, oh-oh
I know, you'll say I'm not doing it right
But this is how I want it
I can't go back to how I felt before, there's
That night I smoked a joint with my best friend
We found ourselves in bed, when I woke up, he was gone
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
Looking out at the ice-cold water all around me
I can't feel any traces of that other place
In the dark, when the wind comes racing off the river
There's a car all black with diplomatic plates
And if I wait, could I ever forgive myself?
On a night when the moon glows yellow in the riptide
With the light from the TV's buzzing in the house
'Cause I'm gonna cut it where I can
And then I'm gonna duck out behind them
If I ever had a chance it's now then
But I never had the feeling I could offer that to you
To offer it to you would be cruel
When all I want to do is use, use you
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81, oh-oh, oh-oh
Dressed in white with my car keys hidden in the kitchen
I could sleep wherever I lay my head
And the sight of your two shoes sitting in the bathtub
Let me know that I shouldn't give up just yet
'Cause I'm gonna take it from Simon
And then I'm gonna duck out behind them
If I ever had a chance it's now then
But I never had the feeling I could offer that to you
To offer it to you would be cruel
When all I want to do is use, use you
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81, oh-oh, oh-oh
I know, you'll say I'm not doing it right
But this is how I want it
I can't go back to how I felt before, there's
That night I smoked a joint with my best friend
We found ourselves in bed, when I woke up, he was gone
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
He was a diplomat's son, it was '81
Looking out at the ice-cold water all around me
I can't feel any traces of that other place
In the dark, when the wind comes racing off the river
There's a car all black with diplomatic plates
Lyrics submitted by ContravoltStudios
Diplomat's Son Lyrics as written by Ezra Koenig David James Andrew Taylor
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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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
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This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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that's an M.I.A. sample! from "hussel," which is on her album kala... it's a great song too