Sunk deep in the night
I sink in the night
Standing alone underneath the sky
I feel the chill of ice
On my face
I watch the hours go by
The hours go by...
You sleep
Sleep in a safe bed
Curled and protected
Protected from sight
Under a safe roof
Deep in your house
Unaware of the changes at night
At night
I hear the darkness breathe
I sense the quiet despair
Listen to the silence
At night
Someone has to be there
Someone has to be there
Someone must be there
I sink in the night
Standing alone underneath the sky
I feel the chill of ice
On my face
I watch the hours go by
Sleep in a safe bed
Curled and protected
Protected from sight
Under a safe roof
Deep in your house
Unaware of the changes at night
I hear the darkness breathe
I sense the quiet despair
Listen to the silence
At night
Someone has to be there
Someone has to be there
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suicidemoon and rabbithowl are right. Here is the story:
"Deeply lost in the night. Just as one sometimes lowers one's head to reflect, thus to be utterly lost in the night. All around people are asleep. It's just play acting, an innocent self-deception, that they sleep in houses, in safe beds, under a safe roof, stretched out or curled up on mattresses, in sheets, under blankets; in reality they have flocked together as they had once upon a time and again later in a deserted region, a camp in the open, a countless number of men, an army, a people, under a cold sky on cold earth, collapsed where once they had stood, forehead pressed on the arm, face to the ground, breathing quietly. And you are watching, are one of the watchmen, you find the next one by brandishing a burning stick from the brushwood pile beside you. Why are you watching? Someone must watch, it is said. Someone must be there."
excellent song.
One of the 5 best cure songs in my book. The version on paris is good - but nothing can beat the original for all of its minimilistic and simple sounds. great bass, guitar and keyboards in this one. Simon Gallup is a bassist!
i read somewhere it was written after robert read Franz Kafka's short story "at night"....which does fit
Robert is known for writing songs after books(or being inspired by them). i.e. Killing An Arab, Charlotte Sometimes, A Letter To Elise . . .
Amazing eerie song
This song is the best i think on the Paris album. The album version is barely audible anyway. The paris version howvere is loud and clear and funky.
It's about a man (the narrator) who is possibly insane who breaks into people's houses and... It's never really explained, is it?
This song actually is about the Kafka story, Robert admitted in a magazine article back around 1984. The Top had just come out, but the interviewer didn't give a shit about that and just kept asking about Seventeen Seconds.
I suppose it makes sense that this song be about Kafka's story, but for me it holds another meaning. For me, this song is about someone in a really dark state of mind, perhaps psychotically depressed. "The changes at night" refer to his tormented mental state and the people who "sleep in a safe bed" are the society around him that don't share his torment and are simply getting on with their lives. These people are "unaware" of the torments he is going through, and the narrator feels increasingly alienated from them. For me, this song reflects the sense of alienation and despair that some people feel and the contrast with others who can't relate to their anguish, but it seems someone always "has to be there" in that dark tortured inner world. Another sad and moving song about the human condition. At least that's how I interpret it.