Last Christmas - Verse 3

A crowded room, friends with tired eyes
I'm hiding from you and your soul of ice
My God, I thought you were someone to rely on
Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on

Hello and welcome to Learning English with Lyrics! I am your host Jake, and today we are talking about verse 3 of the song "Last Christmas", originally by the band Wham! If you haven't heard the first 3 episodes of the series, I highly recommend going back and starting with the first episode in this series where we talk about the chorus of the song. If this is your first time ever listening to this podcast, welcome! I also recommend pausing right here, and going back to listen to the episode titled "Introduction" for a very quick overview of the podcast and how it works. Ok, enough of that, let's get started!

"A crowded room, friends with tired eyes"

Verse 3 starts out with a description of where our singer is. I don't know about you, but up until this point in the song, I've wondered where the singer keeps running into this other person! They were together last Christmas and they just ran into each other again coincidentally the next year, presumably on Christmas again!

So as I explain this first line, think about where you think this might be.

So what is a crowded room? A crowded room is simply a room full of people. Now, don't get this confused with the word crowd. While a crowd is a large group of people, it is possible that a room could be crowded, but not have a crowd in it. How can that be? Well it really depends on the size of the room. A closet might be crowded with just 2 people in it! Whereas a massive ballroom might need 100s of people to feel crowded. Crowded is a description of the amount of people relative to the size of the room. That is to say, the bigger the room, the more people it takes to make a room feel crowded. The smaller the room, the fewer people it takes for the same feeling.

So our singer is describing a crowded room. He describes the people in the room as "friends with tired eyes". So these are his friends...what does it mean that they have "tired" eyes? We all understand how people can be tired, but what does it mean that eyes are tired? We could rephrase this as "Their eyes made them appear tired." or "You could see their tiredness in their eyes."

This is saying that there is something about their eyes making them look tired. This could mean several things. Firstly, hey could physically look tired. When you are physically tired, one of the first "signs" or "indicators" of tiredness is near your eyes. Often, underneath your eyes, there is some light swelling or puffiness. In English, we call this a "bag". Although it's almost never used singular. You almost always will say "He has bags under his eyes." or "Bags formed under her eyes." If someone has bags under their eyes, this usually indicates that they are very tired! This could be what the singer is referring to.

But it's also possible that he's being a bit more poetic. Perhaps the look in their eyes sems tired. This could be because they are physically tired and their eyes aren't very lively. They don't seem to be awake. Or it could be an emotional weariness. Perhaps it has just been a long day and they don't have a lot of energy. Often, you can see this in somebody's eyes.

So, given the clues we've gotten so far, what do you think?

I think it's a mix of both things. It's Christmastime, which is a time of joy and celebration! But when you have spent all day celebrating and eating, you can become very tired! We come back to the question of where exactly our singer is right now. He's in a crowded room filled with tired friends on Christmas. I think it's seems most likely that this is a Christmas party or perhaps just a gathering of friends who are together to celebrate Christmas, probably in the evening. It's traditional or customary to spend Christmas morning at home with your family, but it's normal in the evenings to celebrate with friends or your extended family, such as cousins and aunts and uncles.

It sounds like this group of friends gets together every year to celebrate Christmas together. This explains why our singer sees the same person there every year.

Our next line says "I'm hiding from you and your soul of ice".

Whoa. Quite a line! We can tell that now he's definitely being poetic with his language. So in this crowded room, he's hiding from this other person. He is probably glad that the room is crowded, because it is easier for him to hide! Now, this doesn't mean that he's hiding behind the Christmas tree or something like that. He's probably just avoiding the other person, by talking to other people. But he's not just hiding from them, he's hiding from them and their "soul of ice". That's some strong language! What does he mean by "soul of ice"?

We discussed the word "soul" a bit in one of our earlier episodes, when we discussed "I Will Follow You Into the Dark." and I will assume that most of you are familiar with this word. Obviously, somebody can't literally have a soul made of ice, since a soul isn't a physical thing. But what this means is that their core, the thing that makes them who they are, is cold like ice.

When we talk about somebody being "cold" what do you think that means? Generally speaking in English, and many other languages, someone who is "cold" is somebody who is unfeeling or inexpressive. They either don't care, or they are good at hiding the fact that they don't care. If it's your birthday and I said "Happy Birthday!" and you look at me, and without smiling you say "Okay." that is acting cold. I would probably wonder if I had offended you or hurt you in some way. If somebody has a "cold demeanor" or a "cold attitude", this means that, in general, they are cold to people. They don't express a lot of feelings.

What do you think the opposite of being "cold" is? Careful, this one is a bit tricky. When we are talking about the temperature, the opposite of cold is obviously "hot". But the word "hot" has several other meanings in English, that we will almost certainly talk about in a future episode. So, when we are talking about behavior, the opposite of acting cold towards someone, is acting..."warm" towards them. When someone is warm that means that they are friendly, and kind, and maybe even loving. Warm feelings are good feelings. If somebody has a lot of "warmth" that means that they are very friendly and kind and that they express their kindness.

When we talk about love, it certainly makes more sense that somebody who loves you would be warm and not cold.

So when our singer says that this person that he fell in love with last year has a "soul of ice" that's quite a strong statement! But I think it's easy to understand. He told them that he loved them and the very next day they rejected him! You would definitely think that someone who could do something like that must be very cold and unfeeling!

So our singer seems a little bit scared to talk to this other person. He's very sad, and he's maybe even a little bit angry. It's probably not the wisest thing to get into a conversation with this other person right now, especially at Christmastime!

Our next line says "My God, I thought you were someone to rely on."

The first two words "My God" are just an exclamation, in this case, it's our singer exclaiming his frustration. It's directly connected to the following phrase "I thought you were someone to rely on". I'm gonna modify this second part a bit, just to make it a little easier to explain "I thought that you were someone that I could rely on."

So once again, he's complaining about this other person. By saying he "thought that they were someone that he could rely on" he's implying that this "thought" was wrong. We could even add the phrase "but I was wrong" at the end. "I thought that you were someone I could rely on, but I was wrong." The reason we know that's what he means, is because he's using the past tense of "think". This implies that he used to think that, but he no longer thinks that. He "thought" this, and he no longer "thinks" this.

To "rely on" somebody means that you can trust them to help you when you need them. They will always be there to help you. They are "reliable". You can trust them. Our singer thought that he could rely on this other person, but just one day after he expressed his love to them, they disappointed him. He now knows that he can't rely on them.

The final line starts out with a one word question: "Me?"

What does our singer mean by this?

Well, in our previous line, he was describing how HE related to this other person. He thought that this other person was reliable.

Now he's turning it around. What did the other person think of him at the same time?

He says "Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on."

What does it mean that he was "a shoulder to cry on"?

Well, if you think about someone who is crying, if they go to someone and that person holds them or gives them a hug, the person who is crying is usually crying INTO the other person's shoulder. That's where this phrase comes from. So, a "shoulder to cry on" is somebody that you are able to tell your troubles to and cry with them. If you are a shoulder for someone to cry on, you are someone that they can come to and complain to or even cry with.

Are you a shoulder to cry on for somebody? Perhaps a family member or a close friend?

Now normally, this a very nice thing, but in this case, our singer doesn't mean it to be nice. He's contrasting it with his own feelings. He felt deeply about this other person. He loved them, he trusted them, he relied on them. But to this other person, he was simply a shoulder for them to cry on, nothing more. The other person didn't care about him at all, only what they could get from him. It was a one-sided relationship. We could say that the other person "used" the singer. That is to say, they only wanted the relationship for what THEY could get from it, and they didn't care about the singer at all!

Well, I'm sorry to say, I have to leave us on that sad note. However, our final verse is going to be a bit more cheerful. Join us next time as we wrap up the song with verse 4! I hope that you'll join us!