Lyric discussion by Wimmachine 

Cover art for Babel lyrics by Massive Attack

these lyrics are pretty close but there are some errors here, as i see (hear) it. it is definitely hard to get the correct lyrics just by listening to this track because martina's accent and vocal style. with that in mind, there's almost an entire verse - second to last one - that i cannot interpret. even watching so many live videos i have no idea what she is singing during that part. although if you listen closely you can tell that it's not really close to what is listed here..


say what's on paper said it was my babel it was my babel tell all people

now you know it's over rolling off her shoulder you can take a ladder to the shadows and forget was it how she kissed you and then dismissed you was it purposeful and was it just to hook you in

hallucinating, chasing, changing, racing, breaking hating till you lost it all well you lost your girlfriend she was not knowing where you were going you are on your own

he was quick to burning he was slow to learning though his eyes are misted he still kissed her when she cried and you did your best to please her you didn't up and leave her you befriended the harsh way it ended now sleep tight

hallucinating, chasing, changing, pacing, bracing breaking a few walls at all ?? was that all you're doing ?? ?? ?? ??

you wanna be the one that shoots that truth i'm not dead i'm running so far out of my head the sprain of heart that ripples my day you can never sail by thinking away


this is just my interpretation.. and some of the words can be heard other waya, even i hear different words sometimes (like 'ripples' for instance). and yeah, that one verse is really hard to understand so if anyone else knows wtf she is saying i'd like to know for sure!

Lyric Correction

I just listened to maybe a dozen live versions of that one spot where you have question marks because I really wanted to know. The words sound REALLY different from one performance to the next, and yes granted it's not always the same singer and their accent is a little heavy in places but still, this is what I could most closely hear as being possible lyrics.

breaking til' you lost it all would you listen to me ('too, see'?) she ('he'?) led you to me we fell in too deep (or 'my passion to thee' or 'he felt that you & me') could...