This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Honey don't walk out, I'm too drunk to follow
You know you won't feel this way tomorrow
Well, maybe a little rough around the edges
Or inside, a little hollow
Yeah, I get faced with some things, sometimes
That are so hard to swallow, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
I was born a rebel
Yeah, she picked me up in the mornin', and she paid all my tickets
Then she screamed in the car
Left me out in the thicket
Well I never woulda' dreamed
That her heart was so wicked
Yeah, but I keep comin' back
'Cause it's so hard to kick it, hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah, with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
I was born a rebel
Even before my father's father
They called us all rebels
As they burned our cornfields
And left our cities leveled
I can still feel the eyes of those blue-bellied devils
Yeah, when I'm walking 'round at night
Through the concrete and metal, hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah, with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
I was born a rebel
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah, with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
Born a rebel
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
You know you won't feel this way tomorrow
Well, maybe a little rough around the edges
Or inside, a little hollow
Yeah, I get faced with some things, sometimes
That are so hard to swallow, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
I was born a rebel
Yeah, she picked me up in the mornin', and she paid all my tickets
Then she screamed in the car
Left me out in the thicket
Well I never woulda' dreamed
That her heart was so wicked
Yeah, but I keep comin' back
'Cause it's so hard to kick it, hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah, with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
I was born a rebel
Even before my father's father
They called us all rebels
As they burned our cornfields
And left our cities leveled
I can still feel the eyes of those blue-bellied devils
Yeah, when I'm walking 'round at night
Through the concrete and metal, hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah, with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
I was born a rebel
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
I was born a rebel, down in Dixie (hey, hey, hey)
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah, with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel
Born a rebel
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Hey, hey, hey (hey, hey, hey)
Lyrics submitted by oofus, edited by Crystalline888
Rebels [Alternate Version, 1985] Lyrics as written by Tom Petty
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Gone Gator Music
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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