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"
We got a call to write a song about the war in the Gulf
But we shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings
So we tried, then gave up, 'cause there was no such song
But the trying was very revealing
What makes a person so poisonous righteous
That they'd think less of anyone who just disagreed?
She's just a pacifist, he's just a patriot
If I said you were crazy, would you have to fight me?
Fighters for liberty, fighters for power
Fighters for longer turns in the shower
Don't tell me I can't fight, 'cause I'll punch out your lights
And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me
So we read and we watched all the specially selected news
And we learned so much more 'bout the good guys
Won't you stand by the flag? Was the question unasked
Won't you join in and fight with the allies?
What could we say we're only twenty five years old?
With twenty five sweet summers, and hot fires in the cold
This kind of life makes that violence unthinkable
We'd like to play hockey, have kids and grow old
Fighters for Texaco, fighters for power
Fighters for longer turns in the shower
Don't tell me I can't fight 'cause I'll punch out your lights
And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me
That us would fight them for we
He's just a peacenik and she's just a war hawk
That's where the beach was, that's where the sea
What could we say we're only twenty five years old?
And history seems to agree
that I would fight you for me
That us would fight them for we
Is that how it always will be?
But we shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings
So we tried, then gave up, 'cause there was no such song
But the trying was very revealing
What makes a person so poisonous righteous
That they'd think less of anyone who just disagreed?
She's just a pacifist, he's just a patriot
If I said you were crazy, would you have to fight me?
Fighters for liberty, fighters for power
Fighters for longer turns in the shower
Don't tell me I can't fight, 'cause I'll punch out your lights
And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me
So we read and we watched all the specially selected news
And we learned so much more 'bout the good guys
Won't you stand by the flag? Was the question unasked
Won't you join in and fight with the allies?
What could we say we're only twenty five years old?
With twenty five sweet summers, and hot fires in the cold
This kind of life makes that violence unthinkable
We'd like to play hockey, have kids and grow old
Fighters for Texaco, fighters for power
Fighters for longer turns in the shower
Don't tell me I can't fight 'cause I'll punch out your lights
And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me
That us would fight them for we
He's just a peacenik and she's just a war hawk
That's where the beach was, that's where the sea
What could we say we're only twenty five years old?
And history seems to agree
that I would fight you for me
That us would fight them for we
Is that how it always will be?
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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Silent Planet
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I'm surprised no one's commented on this yet, it's a beautiful song, and really meaningful now after 9/11. Go pacifists!
i haven't actually listened to this song, but the lyrics are just awesome. and yeah nightkite go pacifists, i hate war.
Fruvous carries a lot of political themes throughout this album (Bargainville, their first). This song is very straightforward and very, very powerful.
The Gulf War Song is MF's attempt to create a Vietnam-War-Protest-Song-style song. Musically, it comes out beautifully, with tremendous harmonies. Lyrically, well... I can't help but feeling the song's somewhat ironic.
They can't sing about Vietnam, because they're a Canadian group and anyway, they're 20 years too late. So the song is about the Gulf War, a war fraught with ethical concerns, to be sure, but a war with hardly any casualties, which ended quickly and without any problems. The comparison to Vietnam doesn't work very well, making it a little strange.
The most interesting lines of the song are the first four, a really interesting analysis of both politically correct posturing and patriotic posturing. There's no way to make a song that won't offend someone, in some way, especially when you trod on such contentious territory.
As a result, the Gulf War Song is a little devoid of emotion. It wraps its beautiful music with a message about a cliched universal peace, as if to demonstrate that the only way to keep from offending is to not really say anything.
In the end, though, they do make a fairly effective sentimental appeal for the end of violence. But it's not really particularly hopeful that the appeal will be listened to.
That may be the main thing that distinguishes this from one of the old Vietnam Protest Songs- the cynicism inherent in it. A Vietnam protest song believed that the song could change the listener and the listener could change the system. This song makes a statement, but doesn't expect the statement to affect the listener in any real way.
"Fighters for Texaco Fighters for power Fighters for longer turns in the shower"
I think these lines (and some others too) have to do with the idea that most wars are fought by the poor man, but really benefit the rich man.
In a way too, I believe MF is poking fun at any war and people's reaction to it. "Don't tell me I can't fight 'cause I'll punch out your lights"
"What makes a person so poisonous, righteous That they'd think less of anyone who just disagreed?" I think this line is about close-minded and prejudiced people who won't admit or allow others to have different ideas.
This song is definitely intended to be a statement about war, but to me it means more than that.
"Fighters for Texaco Fighters for power Fighters for longer turns in the shower"
So many people go through life constantly fighting for everything, from political power, to a turn in the shower, etc. Life is so much happier when we stop fighting for everything and just accept what we have. It's exhausting having to always fight for things.
"poisonous righteous" is such a great description too.