The Evening Starts

Song Meaning

The lyrics open with a stark declaration of exclusion: "Something for everyone / But nothing for me." This immediately establishes a feeling of isolation amidst a world full of "arrangements." A pervasive sense of waiting hangs over the scene, both for the speaker and for an unnamed "you." The core tension here is the speaker's profound stasis against the backdrop of others' apparent movement and fulfillment. While the world offers "all kinds of arrangements," the speaker is left with "little nothings / Coming my way." This creates a quiet, almost resigned melancholy, a feeling of being an observer rather than a participant in life's flow. The repetition of "waiting, waiting" powerfully underscores this emotional paralysis. It's contrasted sharply with the vivid image of someone else "Riding the horse of your dreams." This juxtaposition highlights the speaker's stagnant reality against another's triumphant journey, making their own inaction feel even more pronounced as life, symbolized by the "boulevard," continues "Blowing down." These lyrics are effective because they don't explicitly state despair but rather illustrate it through quiet observation and stark contrast. The final lines, "As the evening starts / To meet the night," offer a poignant, almost cinematic close. It frames the speaker's unchanging vigil against the natural, inevitable progression of time, amplifying the sense of a day ending without their own personal dawn.