It goes "I lived like a rake IN a young man". A rake is a debauched man(like adeyar wrote), an immoral person, commonly used to mean a male slut.
In the beginning he's living this great nightlife and only having to deal with the consequences during the day: "The sun she would come and beat me back down
but every cruel day had its nightfall
I'd welcome the stars with wine and guitars
full of fire and forgetful"
He's young, lives in the moment, and he doesn't anticipate his lifestyle ever catching up with him. "And time was like water but I was the sea
I'd have never noticed it passin'
except for the turnin' of night into day
and the turnin' of day into cursin'".
Now he's old and feeble and young people are incredulous of his stories of debauchery. "You look at me now, and don't think I don't know
what all your eyes are a sayin'
Does he want us to believe these ravings and lies
they're just tricks that his brains been a playin'?
A lover of women he can't hardly stand
he trembles he's bent and he's broken"
He thought he would get away with it:"I was takin' my pride in the pleasures I'd known
I laughed and SAID I'd be forgiven"
and that at the worst he'd have to settle down someday. "but my laughter turned 'round eyes blazing and said my friend, we're holdin' a wedding".
But it takes it's toll on his life because the consequences catch up to him:"I buried my face but it spoke once again, the night to the day we're a bindin'
and now the dark air is like fire on my skin
and even the moonlight is blinding".
The marriage of night and day is the morphing of daily hangovers and nightly pleasures into a wholesale downgrading of his life.
It goes "I lived like a rake IN a young man". A rake is a debauched man(like adeyar wrote), an immoral person, commonly used to mean a male slut.
In the beginning he's living this great nightlife and only having to deal with the consequences during the day: "The sun she would come and beat me back down but every cruel day had its nightfall I'd welcome the stars with wine and guitars full of fire and forgetful"
He's young, lives in the moment, and he doesn't anticipate his lifestyle ever catching up with him. "And time was like water but I was the sea I'd have never noticed it passin' except for the turnin' of night into day and the turnin' of day into cursin'".
Now he's old and feeble and young people are incredulous of his stories of debauchery. "You look at me now, and don't think I don't know what all your eyes are a sayin' Does he want us to believe these ravings and lies they're just tricks that his brains been a playin'? A lover of women he can't hardly stand he trembles he's bent and he's broken"
He thought he would get away with it:"I was takin' my pride in the pleasures I'd known I laughed and SAID I'd be forgiven"
and that at the worst he'd have to settle down someday. "but my laughter turned 'round eyes blazing and said my friend, we're holdin' a wedding".
But it takes it's toll on his life because the consequences catch up to him:"I buried my face but it spoke once again, the night to the day we're a bindin' and now the dark air is like fire on my skin and even the moonlight is blinding".
The marriage of night and day is the morphing of daily hangovers and nightly pleasures into a wholesale downgrading of his life.
@seanmft You nailed it. Thank you.
@seanmft You nailed it. Thank you.