Shooting Star

Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you.
You were trying to break into another world
A world I never knew.
I always kind of wondered
If you ever made it through.
Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you.

Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of me.
If I was still the same
If I ever became what you wanted me to be
Did I miss the mark or
Over-step the line
That only you could see?
Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of me.

Listen to the engine, listen to the bell
As the last fire truck from hell
Goes rolling by, all good people are praying,
It's the last temptation
The last account
The last time you might hear the sermon on the mount,
The last radio is playing.
Seen a shooting star tonight
Slip Away.
Tomorrow will be another day.
Guess it's too late to say the things to you
That you needed to hear me say.
Seen a shooting star tonight
Slip away.

This is not a song of regret, but it's a song in which the narrator looks back. A shooting star comes out of the blue, and that's the place from which the past, very much like the future, comes too. And the thing about the past is that even if it's over and done with, it still changes - the way we look at it changes. As a familiar landspace that hits you in a completly different way when the light shines on it in an unusual way. Our present is constantly shining a different life on the past. There's an undeniable melancholy on this song, but, as Joni once said it, "there's comfort in melancholy when there's no need to explain", and the narrator seems to feel very lilneed to explain any of his actions.The same shooting star that makes the narrator think of someone makes him think of himself. By that we can tell that this person on his mind was very close to him. The same shooting star that makes him think of the past, makes him think of the present ("if I everbecame what you wanted me to be") and of the future ("tomorrow will be another day"). And that's many time how we measure the past, by comparing it to the present, or to our expectations towards the future (for they sometimes are not the same as they were in the past).This past is not a hauting one, it's more of inquisitive one. There are questions that were never answered and the narrator is asking himself these questions. He's asking them to this person too, through this song, but we don't get the feeling he's expecting an answer. "I always kind of wondered/ if you ever made it through", "was I still the same, did I ever became what you wanted me to be". The shootingstar makes him think of himself and that person cause he's seeing himself through this person's eyes - trying to find in himself what that other person would have liked to see or not. What would she/hesay if he/she saw me now?

The bridge comes to remind us all to ask ourselves questions that may point out if we're on the right track. If it was our last day,if we were to face today our final judgement, would there be much to regret? What would we like to forget, who would we forgive, and for what should be beg for forgiveness?All questions end when he realizes a new day will be there soon, a new day to shine a different light on the past. Again, it's not about regret, it's about what he's become and who he is. It's just a moment of reflection, slip away. Back into reality it just dosen't make much sense since it's too late to say anything or take back anything that's been said. Everyday is judgment day cause it just might be our last one. If there was something that he could say and he didn't, he won't be able to say it now. Elusive like a shooting star the past comes to us and leaves in a sigh. And then it's back to reality, to facing a new day, the present.

Well, I tag Mac to do...mmm.."In The Summertime".

J.