(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? Lyrics

Lyric discussion by DjangosClouds 

Cover art for (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? lyrics by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

First, I really love this song (I used to sing it I was in a band at Uni).

Second, I always saw it as someone looking back on the quest for love. The disappointment that he expresses when he sings, "Oh, we will know, won't we? The stars will explode in the sky, Oh, but they don't, do they? Stars have their moment and then they die" It sounds like the crushing disappointment of finding that love isn't like it is in films and books, but still he's looking and so he's asking, "Are you the one that I've been waiting for?"