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3 AM

by Seamas Manly

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about

This song was written at 3 AM, hence the name. I woke up from a dream, with two thirds of the song fully formed in my mind. I got up, wrote it down, and finished it the next day. It's about a young fool who loses his identity, looks for it in all of the wrong places, and then finds it again by singing.

lyrics

3 A.M. 中文在下面

I used to be afraid to open my mouth,
Back when the story all began,
I’d sing about life the way I saw it,
And sometimes my audience disappeared,
It was like I was too loud or too grating,
Or my ears were too full to listen,
I was a sonic volcano,
Until the day I wrote this song

I lost my ability to smile,
And I lost my will to live,
I almost lost my will to talk about it,
I was afraid that no one could hear me,
Look at me I’m special,
Aren’t I great, but I’m not good enough,
I wish everybody would notice me,
But I’m too busy choking on self pity.

So if you’ve got a song to sing,
And you’re not sure if anyone can hear it,
Perhaps you’d better open your mouth,
Cause that’s the only way to share it,
You might think the world isn’t ready,
Or you might disappear in a puff of smoke,
You might think that no one will like your lyrics,
Because they might be in bad taste.

And if you think that no one likes the music,
Maybe you better sing it anyway,
Even if you just do it for yourself,
You might write a great song someday…
Don’t bother taking my advice,
I’m not saying anything that you don’t already know,
Just do it because you feel it,
Everyone has to let go at some point.
Everyone has to melt down at some point,
Even I have to let go at some point.

我曾經很怕張嘴出聲
回到故事的開端，
我曾以自己的方式歌頌生活，
有時我的聽眾會消失，
也許是我太大聲或太刺耳，
或許是我的雙耳充塞而無法聆聽，
我曾經是一個聲波火山
直到我寫這首歌的那天

我失去了微笑的能力，
我失去了生存的意願，
我幾乎不願去談論它，
我怕沒人聽見我
看著我，我很特別
我是不是很棒?但我還不夠好，
我希望每個人都會注意到我，
但是我忙著顧影自憐。

因此，如果你有一首歌要唱，
而且不確定是否有人可以聽見，
也許最好的辦法就是張開嘴唱出聲，
因為那是共享它的唯一方法，
你可能會認為世界還沒有準備好，
或者你可能會煙消雲散，
你可能會認為沒有人會喜歡你的歌詞，
因為它們可能品味不好。

如果你認為沒有人喜歡這音樂，
也許你最好還是唱出來
就算只為了自己做，
總有一天你會寫出一首好歌...
別費心接受我的建議，
我不會說任何你還不知道的話，
放手去做順著你的感受，
每個人都必須在某個時候放手。
每個人都必須在某個時候融化，
總有一天，我也不得不放手。

credits


© Seamas Manly 2004/2018
Written by Seamas Manly, all instruments and vocals performed by Seamas, except: Oliver Hsieh on drums, and Cindy Wu on background vocals.
Recording engineers: Oliver Hsieh, Seamas and Ephrem Manly, Craig Sheffield. Coproduced by Seamas Manly and Craig Sheffield. Final Mix by Craig Sheffield. Mastered by Ulysses K. Coppard of Big Gift Sound.

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Seamas Manly Taiwan

Canadian born Seamas Manly creates and performs original music that honors spirit, emotions, heart, and body. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, he lives in Taiwan. He often makes things up as he goes along, and  is constantly seeks the rhythm, melody, and harmony in life. A busker, he is a walking jukebox with the ability to easily call to mind and perform many songs. ... more

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