"It's a black cloud over head, that's me" says the very first line.
Well, really, this says farewell to the title already and reassures us : Metallica is not going sweet.

It goes on "The poison ivy chokes the tree, again it's me ; I'm the filthy one on Bourbon street you walk on by ; I'm the little boy that pushes hard and makes him cry" : this guy is describing himself, simple.
He's being quite honest here. He's warning us in a way. He's a bad guy, we'd better watch out.
But it's not as simple as this.

"There's a dirty needle in your child…" If he's describing himself, the child should be him, right ?
By the way, English is amazing here : this could lead to a double meaning. Of course, the main allusion concerns the use of drugs, but it could also describe an upsetting child : "to get the needle" is a British way of saying "to get pissed off". But it goes on "ha ha, stick me". Wait. What ?
This means he's the needle. Could it be he's the dirty needle and the child ?
Personally, it sends me back wondering on the beginning… The "black cloud over head" would be describing him as both the head and the cloud. And so he would be the ivy and the tree, the filthy one and the one that walks by him, the little boy that pushes hard and the one who cries.
Ok, I get it. He's talking about the evil inside, this part of us that longs for death, for braking everything, moved by anger and pain. You hurt me ? I'm going to hurt you back harder so you won't come back at me.

"Empty bottles still in hand, still dead, still me" : oh ! Deep one !
That's the guy who's trying to drink himself away. He empties bottles one after another, hoping he will loose tracks of his pain, problems, sickness of mind in alcohol. Always "dead" : he's spending entire days laying on a couch, on the floor, drunk… but still alive, still him, still him with his pain, problems, sickness of mind…
And who's the bottles ? The evil inside. This thing inside of him he's trying to fight yet can't resist.

"I'm the suit and tie that bleeds the street and still wants more" : personally -this may be far from track- it reminds me of the character of John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction", a killer in suit and tie who saw his "co-worker" getting shot in front of his eyes and escaping each bullet as if it was a kind of miracle… And still John's character keeps on doing his "job", not taking a minute to ponder on this strange event… And he gets shot for good himself.

"I'm the 45 that's in your mouth", "I'm a dirty, dirty whore" … Speaks for itself now, no?
The evil inside is tempting us by any mean… If you resist to the temptation of braking everything, killing everyone, the anger can turn against you and can become a gun in your mouth. If you still resist, it will bring different temptations : you think you're so clean but deep down inside, something wants what's "dirty".

Here comes the chorus now. "Look it's me, the one who can't be free" : tied to the temptations, to the anger.

"Much too young to focus but too old to see" : do I have the correct lyrics ? Ah ah !
That's difficult.
A kid to young to focus, ok. "But too old to see" ? Could it mean he used to see but sees no more ? That he's already tied to a past/memories that muddles his vision of life in the Now ? And that once old enough to focus, he'll have nothing to focus on because "blind"?

"What no one wants to see": ok, "See what you brought this world, just what you want to see" : huh ? "Hey ma, hey ma look it's me": so, his ma wanted to bring what no one wants, the rejected part of human nature, into light ? And it happened through her kid…
Well, I should be careful there. Sensitive material.
But I feel I can say how it makes me feel : such a woman could be someone in search of truth and honesty, someone who's fed up with everybody's hypocrisy and lies, who wants to brake free from it, who wants to become true and honest to herself, to get the dirt out of her… But who, for some reasons, can't. So she passes on this heavy task to her son who finds himself struggling with all that she didn't face.

"He wants to become father now, me again, me" : having a child to do the same as his mother's did, getting rid of the task… Getting rid of the cleaning… He finds that job doesn't belong to him, he doesn't want to keep his hands in the dirt forever… Blurred for me I admit.

"The marks inside your arms spell me, spell only me" : that's tough again. "Marks" could stand for many things.
The thing I used to think about the more was a tattoo. Some people would relate it to "the mark of the beast" (Book of Revelations in the Bible). For some, it's also a bad memory from the 2nd World War… But I'm not sure this makes sense.

"I'm the nothing face that plants a bomb and strolls away" : terrorists have no identity of their own, no face, their anger leads them to identify themselves to a cause and do everything for it.
Driven by this anger, they don't think by themselves anymore, and they don't face their actions, they run away from their responsibilities. They just think they can change things by blindly destroying what is.

"I'm the one who doesn't look quite right as children play": the guy doesn't watch for his kids? He doesn't care for them, caring only for himself? Or is this about someone who looks at kids a very wrong way?
Huh ! This is getting long… The end is near…

"Look up to me, what to be and what to fear" : a key line. What we judge as the evil inside has to be recognized and experienced, it's a living part of the individual, scary when denied or fought, it can become no longer evil when faced and understood.

"Look up to me, look it's me, what you hear" : he's calling out for a lot of attention…
Repeating "look it's me" on and on, he has been neglected, his individuality denied and not understood… Relate things by yourself.

"See right through me", repeated twice : see through the nasty kid, see beyond the appearances… As if he didn't existed… It's not his real Self but the anger and the pain that you see.
Now, I wanted to keep that for the end, to let you who made round eyes at the beginning have to wait before the explanation.

"I'm the filthy one on Bourbon street you walk on by" : you have to have read "Interview with the Vampire" , by Anne Rice, to write or get that one, he he !… Just as for the song "Bourbon street" by Sting. The filthy one in New Orleans is a vampire, could be either Lestat or Louis, but Lestat seems more appropriate as he's a tall, blond and blue eyed guy. And then the title makes finally sense : those vampires, for all of us symbols of the Devil inside, are so damn gorgeous! Real charming princes!
To go a little further, of course, it's easy then to relate "prince" to "Devil".

The Devil seems to have dominion over the Earth, to reign here (for the French people here , I'm thinking of the last MC Solar song : "Solar pleure"), trying to seduce us by using all kinds of ways you can imagine and more. He's trying to catch you… to send you in Hell. Hell being this place you live in when you act and breathe through your anger, your desire for revenge, your greed,…
For me, whether Lucifer exists or not is not the biggest issue. The symbol of the Devil is a reality, that's what the song is dealing with, in my opinion, talking about how this inner Devil can put a dark cloud over our heads until…
As the song doesn't show any "exit" sign, I feel like giving one myself : always remember you have Free Will and that the trials you encounter in your life show you your weaknesses, those dark side of yours you have to face and understand so they won't load you anymore.

May, 6th, 2001.