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"
Shayla worked in a factory
She wasn't history
She's just a number
One day she gets her final pay and she goes far away
Green trees call to me
I am free but life is so cheap
Scenery is still outside of me
All alone trapped by its beauty
Shayla turned to run away to leave in peace and end her stay
Years of fear were in her way
Lost in space and down she came
Suddenly some subtle entity, some cosmic energy, brushed her like shadows
Down here we stop to wonder
Cause on the freeway
Bright lights and thunder
She wasn't history
She's just a number
One day she gets her final pay and she goes far away
Green trees call to me
I am free but life is so cheap
Scenery is still outside of me
All alone trapped by its beauty
Shayla turned to run away to leave in peace and end her stay
Years of fear were in her way
Lost in space and down she came
Suddenly some subtle entity, some cosmic energy, brushed her like shadows
Down here we stop to wonder
Cause on the freeway
Bright lights and thunder
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar, edited by SofaKingAwesum
Shayla Lyrics as written by Chris Stein
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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My name is Shayla, which I understand probably matters to none of you, but I think it's cool, because I can sorta relate to the song. The way I interpret it personally is that it's about a girl who had really nothing special going on in her life and was pretty bored, and one day she just decides to leave to find something else.
It's about a suicide.
I think this is one of Blondie's best and most overlooked songs. It's beautiful and there's some beautiful imagery in the song "Bright lights and thunder". I think it's about a girl who is very ordinary and no one takes much notice of her. One day, she just takes off.
my name is Shayla too =D
you both pretty much said exactly what i thought, but for some reason at the end, it always makes me think that she dies or something...which i don't ACTUALLY think, it just sort of seems like it...i don't know what i'm trying to say now haha.
If she (indeed) dies, she dies in a car accident, on a slippery road.<br /> <br /> I am free but life is so cheap<br /> Scenery is still outside of me<br /> All alone trapped by its beauty<br /> <br /> That's a wonderful lyric.
Me, too. I always thought she committed suicide. She left her job because she planned to kill herself, but she went on one last trip down the freeway. I thought the "lost in space and down she came" part was her jumping off a bridge, and passerbys wondered who this lovely, anonymous dead girl was. <br /> <br /> A more optimistic interpretation is that "lost in space" refers to Shayla daydreaming and the "cosmic energy" is God or some source of inspiration that encourages her not to end her life after all. I would like to believe that this is what really happened to her.
this song is about transcending the mundane. shayla gets a glimpse of the immortal and has a life changing moment. maybe she gets enlightened. chris stein deliberately leaves the answer vague and open to interpretation. debbie's vocals create more of a sense of futility and despair than chris' somewhat trite lyrics, IMHO.
Oh, by the way, the lyric is "Cars" on the freeway...Debbie's Joisey accent must have thrown you off! Ha Ha
I think, at the end, Shayla dies ("bright lights and thunder")
"Life is so cheap"... Suicide? "Scenery is still outside of me"... Shayla cannot escape her body and this life. "Lost in space and down she came"... She jumps. "some subtle entity, some cosmic energy"... What comes next? "Down here we stop to wonder"
@jdidy great insight, thanks!
Well, it strikes me as an ordinary girl with a boring job goes to the woods to commune with nature for awhile to help her overcome her depression. She contemplates suicide again (by jumping off a cliff or something), but then she gets abducted by aliens.
“Shayla” is absolutely one of the best tracks by Blondie.
Here's my interpretation.
"Shayla" tells the story of a very an ordinary depressed who first works a dull blue-collar life. After some years of this existence, she begins to meltdown. She impulsively quits her job in a search for that elusive happiness. She goes to a pretty, scenic-type area to ponder, but still finds no solace. ("Scenery is still outside of me; All alone trapped by its beauty...”)
She finally bottoms out ("Shayla turned to run away to leave in peace and end her stay; Years of fear were in her way...") and kills herself in an automobile accident. ("Cause on the freeway; Bright lights and thunder...")
Then, at the very moment she perished, a spirit lifts her out of her misery to a better life. ("Lost in space and down she came-Suddenly some subtle entity, some cosmic energy, brushed her like shadows…”)
@VWs best and most interesting comment. Thank you!<br />
@VWs Another song with an amazing lyric is "Double Take" from the NO EXIT album. Print out the lyrics and see how rather complex they are.