Red and black are generally considered to go together really well. Typically as a symbol of energy or power or something similar. He's saying that he and
this girl went together really well, and he's not used to there being an awkward space between them.
"I'm alive like the sound of the wrecking crew" is seriously one of my favorite Max-lines, period. He feels alone, but at the same time, very much alive, and very free. (A really common theme in Sugi Tap songs; freedom, liberation, etc.)
I don't think there's a really deep meaning in the second verse. It's very literal, compared to the symbolic nature of the chorus. The chorus tells a story, the verses paint pictures. I just gather that the narrator is walking through his neighborhood, and happens to pass a busker. It would seem to me that said busker is encountered frequently, or at least more than once. Notice how there IS a kid who bangS a drum on the corner. It's not "There was a kid, who banged a drum, on the corner." It's happening right at the moment, and Max has accepted this busker as part of the area. "Walking to the time" is pretty simple. The drum beat is simple and repetitive (also awesome how the drums come in during that verse.) And, consciously or not, Max begins walking in rhythm with the beating of the drum (AKA the "time.") It keeps going, unchanged and unaltered. It has become a soothing, steady noise combined with the typically chaotic, unorganized noises of city life; an "urban lullaby."
My take on the whole song is the narrator trying to "clear his head" so to speak, after encountering an ex-girlfriend. (Which, since she looked like she was "looking at a spectre" was probably a bit shocked, too.) He feels that there was a lot he had built with this girl, and they knew each other deeply, but he feels alive at the prospect of a new beginning, just walking aimlessly around at night. (I say night because of "In the dark of the night..." and the mention of being alone with the lights of the avenue. A) It's more likely to be out alone at night, and B) I'm assuming the "lights" are streetlights.) He has no real direction, but all that's fine, he's realized how much of the world is still out there, and he's starting fresh. Then, to bring everything full circle. Back "in the dark of the night by the Sapphire," he's put this girl behind him. He doesn't know the back of her hand like the back of his hand, anymore, they don't go like red and black anymore, and he's come to terms with the distance he's felt instead of love between them. Because of this, she's only somebody he used to know, and going back to when he first saw her outside the Sapphire, he recognizes that at the moment, she became nothing but a memory. My take on it, at least.
"I'm alive like the sound of the wrecking crew" is seriously one of my favorite Max-lines, period. He feels alone, but at the same time, very much alive, and very free. (A really common theme in Sugi Tap songs; freedom, liberation, etc.)
I don't think there's a really deep meaning in the second verse. It's very literal, compared to the symbolic nature of the chorus. The chorus tells a story, the verses paint pictures. I just gather that the narrator is walking through his neighborhood, and happens to pass a busker. It would seem to me that said busker is encountered frequently, or at least more than once. Notice how there IS a kid who bangS a drum on the corner. It's not "There was a kid, who banged a drum, on the corner." It's happening right at the moment, and Max has accepted this busker as part of the area. "Walking to the time" is pretty simple. The drum beat is simple and repetitive (also awesome how the drums come in during that verse.) And, consciously or not, Max begins walking in rhythm with the beating of the drum (AKA the "time.") It keeps going, unchanged and unaltered. It has become a soothing, steady noise combined with the typically chaotic, unorganized noises of city life; an "urban lullaby."
My take on the whole song is the narrator trying to "clear his head" so to speak, after encountering an ex-girlfriend. (Which, since she looked like she was "looking at a spectre" was probably a bit shocked, too.) He feels that there was a lot he had built with this girl, and they knew each other deeply, but he feels alive at the prospect of a new beginning, just walking aimlessly around at night. (I say night because of "In the dark of the night..." and the mention of being alone with the lights of the avenue. A) It's more likely to be out alone at night, and B) I'm assuming the "lights" are streetlights.) He has no real direction, but all that's fine, he's realized how much of the world is still out there, and he's starting fresh. Then, to bring everything full circle. Back "in the dark of the night by the Sapphire," he's put this girl behind him. He doesn't know the back of her hand like the back of his hand, anymore, they don't go like red and black anymore, and he's come to terms with the distance he's felt instead of love between them. Because of this, she's only somebody he used to know, and going back to when he first saw her outside the Sapphire, he recognizes that at the moment, she became nothing but a memory. My take on it, at least.
