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"
All the faces
All the voices blur
Change to one face
Change to one voice
Prepare yourself for bed
The light seems bright
And glares on white walls
All the sounds of
Charlotte sometimes
Into the night with
Charlotte sometimes
Night after night she lay alone in bed
Her eyes so open to the dark
The streets all looked so strange
They seemed so far away
But Charlotte did not cry
The people seemed so close
Playing expressionless games
The people seemed so close
So many other names
Sometimes I'm dreaming
Where all the other people dance
Sometimes I'm dreaming
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes I'm dreaming
Expressionless the trance
Sometimes I'm dreaming
So many different names
Sometimes I'm dreaming
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes I'm dreaming
She hopes to open shadowed eyes
On a different world
Come to me scared princess
Charlotte sometimes
On that bleak track
(see the sun is gone again)
The tears were pouring down her face
She was crying and crying for a girl
Who died so many years before
Sometimes I dream
Where all the other people dance
Sometimes I dream
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes I dream
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes I'm dreaming
There are so many different names
Sometimes I dream
Sometimes I dream
Charlotte sometimes crying for herself
Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself
But it's always with love
With so much love it looks like
Everything else
Of Charlotte sometimes
So far away
Glass sealed and pretty
Charlotte sometimes
All the voices blur
Change to one face
Change to one voice
Prepare yourself for bed
The light seems bright
And glares on white walls
All the sounds of
Charlotte sometimes
Into the night with
Charlotte sometimes
Night after night she lay alone in bed
Her eyes so open to the dark
The streets all looked so strange
They seemed so far away
But Charlotte did not cry
The people seemed so close
Playing expressionless games
The people seemed so close
So many other names
Sometimes I'm dreaming
Where all the other people dance
Sometimes I'm dreaming
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes I'm dreaming
Expressionless the trance
Sometimes I'm dreaming
So many different names
Sometimes I'm dreaming
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes I'm dreaming
She hopes to open shadowed eyes
On a different world
Come to me scared princess
Charlotte sometimes
On that bleak track
(see the sun is gone again)
The tears were pouring down her face
She was crying and crying for a girl
Who died so many years before
Sometimes I dream
Where all the other people dance
Sometimes I dream
Charlotte sometimes
Sometimes I dream
The sounds all stay the same
Sometimes I'm dreaming
There are so many different names
Sometimes I dream
Sometimes I dream
Charlotte sometimes crying for herself
Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself
But it's always with love
With so much love it looks like
Everything else
Of Charlotte sometimes
So far away
Glass sealed and pretty
Charlotte sometimes
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It's based on the book "Charlotte Sometimes" by Penelope Farmer, the songs makes a lot more sense if you've read it. In the book, a girl goes to a boarding school, and every other day, when she wakes up, she's many years before, in the body of a different girl, who switches places with her, which is why she's crying for a girl who died so many years before.
@Chloe le Fay <br /> It's one of quite a few Cure songs that are based on literature: others include: "How Beautiful You Are" (based on Baudlaire'a poem "The Eyes of the Poor") and "Killing an Arab" (probably best known: from _L'Etranger__ by Albert Camus). A lot of people who apparently aren't familiar with Camus have found the latter offensive, to the point that it's gotten very difficult to get the original version, and it has been Bowdlerised into "Killing Another." <br /> <br /> I find it intriguing that Robert Smith's lyrics are so much more intellectual than those by most popular musicians who graduated from university.
@Chloe le Fay You right, precious is based on the first chapters and the end chapters of the children's novel en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CharlotteSometimes(novel)<br />
The "Glass sealed" is at the end "When Charlotte, back in her own time, places the marbles from the solitaire set sent to her by the adult Emily in a jar of water, she notes how big they look in the water, yet ordinary when taken out."
I'm guessin' it's about a girl called Charlotte who is all depressed, like :' Night after night she lay alone in bed Her eyes so open to the dark ' and she cries over the girl who she used to be and mourns her old self: 'She was crying and crying for a girl Who died so many years before... ' but had not literally died.
I'm not sure tho. But I like it anyway.
this is one of my favorite cure songs. the live version on "paris" is better than the original. everyone needs to respect robert smith.
@ltjpezgirl 100% it's an overlooked masterpiece and I came here looking for that live version which is way better for some reason...
this song always tends to remind myself of me in parts. 'Charlotte sometimes crying for herself Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself But it's always with love ' seems like me in my not doing so good moods. and the part where it says 'crying for a girl who died so many years ago.' it reminds me of my childhood and when i was so happy, but ive grown and changed so much now so that i'll never have it again.
Thank you Chloe le Fay, I knew it was based on a story, but I wasn't sure which. So; is the song about how it's pointless to lament for the tragedies of others? Is it better to leave others to suffer their own tragedies alone, do our tears do anything for them? Reading the lyrics again, especially with the "wall around herself" in mind, I think that the song is saying we all have to share in someone's tragedy, otherwise it isolates and hurts us more.
Chloe is Correct. This song is written about an incredible book called Charlotte Sometimes By penelope farmer, An amazing book and incredible song Bradleyb are you a complete fuckwit or what?!
Some of the lyrics are direct quotes from the book such as, "The light is bright and glares on white walls"
Hetfield, no need to be rude.
Robert often uses literature and film as a BASIS for a song. Would you say that the song "Burn" is about a guy who dies, but comes back to life as a character called "The Crow" to avenge his death? No, certainly not. The movie is just an inspiration for the song. Charlotte Sometimes is the same way. Yes, this song is inspired by the book Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer. But there's MUCH MORE going on in the lyrics than just a re-hashed synopsis of the book -- which I too have read.
It is one thing to disagree with someone's interpretation, but it's another to name-call. Especially when you haven't even heard the other person's side of the story.
And to answer your question: No, I am not a complete fuckwit. Maybe a half fuckwit, but certainly not a complete one.
I read the book "Charlotte Sometimes" before the band had even formed! I was only a child at the time. Many years later I started to get into the band and was pleasantly surprised to discover the song. Chloe is correct - some days, when Charlotte wakes up she is Claire and it's 100 years earlier - great story.
It is the book and a synopsis of it. In a very haunting way. Absolute gold by the cure
Gothic in it's full glory... amazing.