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"
in the summer that you came
there was something eating everyone
and the sunshine fund was low
we couldn't greet you
with a simple hello
and the watchers of the flood
were busy in their chambers
making sure there was new blood
to sustain their dying veins
but i believed you
no need for further questioning
i'm gonna leave with you
you can teach me all you know
which way will we go now
on our trip to taller windows
i really don't know now
i really don't know
in the winter that you left
there was business as usual
with the same old fears and frustrations
but the word got out
it was really such a pity
but the judges and the saints
and the textbook committee
decided you should be left out
not even mentioned
but i believed you
no need for further questioning
i'm gonna leave with you
you can teach me all you know
which way will we go now
on our trip to taller windows
i really don't know now
i really don't know
there was something eating everyone
and the sunshine fund was low
we couldn't greet you
with a simple hello
and the watchers of the flood
were busy in their chambers
making sure there was new blood
to sustain their dying veins
but i believed you
no need for further questioning
i'm gonna leave with you
you can teach me all you know
which way will we go now
on our trip to taller windows
i really don't know now
i really don't know
in the winter that you left
there was business as usual
with the same old fears and frustrations
but the word got out
it was really such a pity
but the judges and the saints
and the textbook committee
decided you should be left out
not even mentioned
but i believed you
no need for further questioning
i'm gonna leave with you
you can teach me all you know
which way will we go now
on our trip to taller windows
i really don't know now
i really don't know
Lyrics submitted by one hit wonder
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As a veteran educator in a school, I think @InBobWeTrust is on the right track. To me, it speaks to a toxic staff environment and low morale in a school (a sunshine fund is a school staff's social/celebration fund):
"in the summer that you came there was something eating everyone and the sunshine fund was low we couldn't greet you with a simple hello"
This person had a rough time. Staff at schools can be very cliquey:
"but the judges and the saints and the textbook committee decided you should be left out not even mentioned"
Which forced this person out mid-year; and life went on in that school:
"in the winter that you left there was business as usual with the same old fears and frustrations but the word got out it was really such a pity"
And yes, teacher/staff follow each other to different buildings, especially if it's a toxic environment:
"but i believed you no need for further questioning i'm gonna leave with you you can teach me all you know which way will we go now on our trip to taller windows i really don't know now i really don't know"
It all sounds bleak, and unfortunately it can occasionally happen. I've seen it. But mostly I've seen the opposite.
Thanks, Bob, for making an incredible Rock and Roll song about an Elementary building's staff. Cheers!