Everything Happens to Me
Life's Comedy: Embracing Misfortune in 'Everything Happens to Me'
Lyrics
Black cats creep across my path
Expressing superstition and bad luck with the presence of black cats.
Until I'm almost mad
Intensifying the impact of bad luck on the speaker's mental state.
I must have 'roused the devil's wrath
Suggesting that the speaker may have angered or provoked negative forces.
Cause all my luck is bad
Reflecting the theme of consistently experiencing unfortunate events.
I make a date for golf and you can bet your life it rains
Highlighting the irony of planning activities that are thwarted by external factors.
I try to give a party and the guy upstairs complains
Indicating challenges in celebrating and enjoying life due to external complaints.
I guess I'll go through life
Expressing resignation and acceptance of a life filled with difficulties.
Just catchin' colds and missin' trains
Summarizing a pattern of catching colds and missing opportunities.
Everything happens to me
Conveying a sense of fatalism and acceptance that everything goes wrong for the speaker.
I never miss a thing
Stating the speaker's constant awareness and experience of misfortunes.
I've had the measles and the mumps
Listing past illnesses as a metaphor for facing various hardships.
And every time I play an ace
Describing a recurring pattern where success is always undermined.
My partner always trumps
Emphasizing the speaker's consistent failure, even in favorable situations.
Guess I'm just a fool who never looks before he jumps
Admitting a tendency to act impulsively without considering the consequences.
Everything happens to me
Reiterating the idea that misfortune is a constant companion in the speaker's life.
At first my heart thought you could break this jinx for me
Initially hoping for a positive change in luck through a romantic relationship.
That love would turn the trick to end despair
Believing that love could overcome and alleviate the speaker's troubles.
But know I just can't fool this head that thinks for me
Realizing that the initial optimism about love was unfounded.
I've mortgaged all my castles in the air
Expressing the speaker's losses and the abandonment of unrealistic dreams.
I've telegraphed and phoned
Describing attempts to communicate, possibly symbolizing efforts to salvage the relationship.
I send an "Airmail Special" too
Using the metaphor of telegraphing and phoning to illustrate desperate attempts at reconciliation.
Your answer was "Goodbye"
Receiving a definitive and painful response to the attempts at reconciliation.
And there was even postage due
Highlighting the emotional cost of attempting to reconnect, with "postage due" indicating additional pain.
I fell in love just once
Narrating a singular experience of falling in love, suggesting a rarity in positive emotions.
And then it had to be with you
Revealing that the one instance of love was directed towards the person addressed in the song.
Everything happens to me
Reaffirming the ongoing theme that misfortune is a constant in the speaker's life.
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