Song Meaning
The song opens with a stark image of solitary waiting: "Four o'clock in the morning / And I'm here waiting for you." This sets a tone of anxious anticipation, a feeling amplified by the narrator's resigned question, "But what else can I do?" The immediate repetition of "Ain't it strange / What some people will do" functions as a bewildered refrain, a comment on the inexplicable actions of others that leave the narrator in this suspended state.
The central tension arises from this persistent, perhaps unreciprocated, waiting. The shift to "Four o'clock in the evening" suggests the passage of a full day, yet the narrator remains trapped in the same cycle of expectation. The surreal image of "Your face in the mirror / But you're not there to see" hints at a profound disconnect, a presence that is felt but not truly present, or perhaps a reflection of the narrator's own internal state mirroring the absent person.
The most striking aspect of the craft is the deliberate temporal ambiguity and the stark, almost accusatory, repetition of the titular phrase. The contrast between morning and evening, both marked by waiting, underscores a sense of timelessness in the narrator's predicament. The phrase "What some people will do" is left deliberately vague, allowing the listener to project their own experiences of confusing or hurtful behavior onto the situation, making the narrator's bewilderment feel universally resonant without explicit detail.
This lyrical construction effectively captures the disorienting feeling of being caught in someone else's unpredictable orbit. The simple, direct language and the insistent refrain create a hypnotic effect, mirroring the obsessive nature of waiting for an elusive or unreliable person. The power lies in its ability to evoke a specific emotional landscape – one of confusion, resignation, and a quiet, persistent ache – through minimal, yet potent, imagery.
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