ESL go.com's "Cry" English listening class lyrics interpretation
Let's look at a few parts of the song in more detail:
It was late in September
And I've seen you before (and you were)
You were always the cold one
But I was never that sure
Question: Did the singer know the person she's singing about? Try to answer this question by yourself or by talking with a friend before you read my answer. Remember that our answers may be different; there are usually many ways to interpret a song.
My answer: I think she knew the person, but not very well. We know for sure that she has seen the person at least once:
"I've seen you before." We can also guess that she knew him because she says, "You were always the cold one." A cold person is someone who is not very emotional and usually not very kind.
So she says that person is cold, but also "I was never that sure". If a person is not sure, it means she doesn't know. So the singer is saying that this person always acts cold (unemotional) but that she wasn't sure if really was a cold person.
I think that seeing this person cry, made the singer realize that even though the other person acted cold, he really did have some emotions (that he had been hiding). Let's look at another part of the song:
...
The moment I saw you cry
I wanted to hold you
I wanted to make it go away
Question: What does this mean?
My answer: Well "The moment" means that two things happened at the same time. So "I saw you cry" and at the same time, "I wanted to hold you." What does "I wanted to hold you" mean?
In this case, it means "I want to hug you, to put my arms around you." We often want to hold or hug someone to make that person feel better.
So you can you guess what "it" means in the next line: "I wanted to make it go away"? I think it probably means the other persons pain. The singer wants to hug the other person and make that person feel better.
This English listening class consists of:
| Class part | Activity | Time |
| Intro | General information about the class and listen for for the main idea of the song. | 5 minutes plus however long it takes you to get the song. |
| Part A | Introduction to some difficult vocabulary. | 10 minutes |
| Part B | Listen for the new vocabulary words. | 10 minutes |
| Part C | Examine the song's lyrics. | 10 minutes |
| Part D | Talk about this song or any other music. | As much (or as little) time as you like. |
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