What do these song lyrics mean???

[Funk*Sonic*7]

But when a man is wrong
Facing all the mistakes
That he's done
There can be no right

This is a song from SEAL called, When A Man Is Wrong, which is an amazing song from his Human Beings studio release.

Anyway, what does he mean by that? How can there be no right if and when you're facing all the mistakes that you've done? I mean how can there be no right if and when you are facing up to all your mistakes?

Maybe it would be more helpful to post the lyrics to the complete song:

The perils of loneliness
The pleasures of love
That we find

The argument's imminent
The look on her face
As we cry

There's nothing when you fall alone
There's hate when you fall by the side

You know that I didn't mean to hurt you love
I just need some light
On my life

But when a man is wrong
Facing all the mistakes
That he's done

There can be no right

Now if I was a holy man
And you were the devil song
And if I liked what you played
Does that mean you're right and I'm wrong

Know there's danger in a serenade, my friend
There's even love if you find what you want

And there's reasons to be afraid
And reasons to open your heart

But when a man is wrong
Facing all the mistakes
That he's done

There can be no right

Oh my friend
I sometimes get things wrong to get things right

Oh my friend
You know I sometimes get things wrong to get things right

Oh my friend
Nana naa na naa

When a man is wrong
Facing all the mistakes that are done

When a man is wrong
When this man is wrong
There can be no right

There can be no right

[Zanahoria_Picante]

Could it mean that a person's mistakes, if viewed as a whole collection, make it impossible to put up a pretense of being "right"?

Or that seeing such a collection overshadows any attempt to compensate for them by doing right?

Or that "righteousness" (being right) is only a distant, seemingly unreachable, thought in view of so much wrong?

It is rather vague, though; it could mean whatever you'd like it to mean (and be "right"). :D

[Funk*Sonic*7]

^ It's kind of hard to draw your own meaning to that set of lyrics when it seems to be ironic to me, that's why I'm curious to make sense of it...

[Zanahoria_Picante]

Originally Said by Funk*Sonic*7

^ It's kind of hard to draw your own meaning to that set of lyrics when it seems to be ironic to me, that's why I'm curious to make sense of it...

Hmmm. Well, then. I don't know. It could be one of those three hypothetical meanings (in my first post). Or maybe it is more ironic: This man feeling helpless to reach this level of "perfection" expected of him from whomever this girl is.

*Shrug*

[Narnar]

After reading through the lyrics the first thing I got from it as a whole was that it was about a relationship based around all the wrong things. When looking back at the reasons he was there and the mistakes he's made he came to the conclusion that even if he faced all his mistakes there was no way to make it right. Everything was there for the wrong reasons.

[Yugoloth]

When you get in an argument with your girlfriend, she's always right.

Look at the second and fourth stanza. No matter what he says, she's going to bring up shit that he did in the past, "all the mistakes/That he's done" to try to blame him for everything.

Then "I sometimes get things wrong to get things right" is where he admits he's wrong, regardless of whether he is or not, so he can get make up sex.

[The-Chadster]

I kind of got that he is saying when a man is wrong and facing his mistakes, there is no justification for them. He is wrong.

[psychoDiablo]

^to add to that, I thought a Man wouldn't make mistakes, therefore he's always right. infallible even