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"
Why are you trying to second guess me
I am tired of second guessing
What will be your look this season
Who will be your book this season
Oh, why are you trying to second guess me
I am tired of second guessing
Who will be your look this season
Who will be your book this season
Oh, here we are
Why are you trying to second guess me
I am tired of second guessing
What will be your look this season
Be in my club, write a book this season
Oh, here we are, here we are
Here we are, here we are
Here we are, here we are
Here we are, here we are
I am tired of second guessing
What will be your look this season
Who will be your book this season
Oh, why are you trying to second guess me
I am tired of second guessing
Who will be your look this season
Who will be your book this season
Oh, here we are
Why are you trying to second guess me
I am tired of second guessing
What will be your look this season
Be in my club, write a book this season
Oh, here we are, here we are
Here we are, here we are
Here we are, here we are
Here we are, here we are
Lyrics submitted by xpankfrisst
Second Guessing Lyrics as written by Peter Buck Bill Berry
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Probably the worst song on the album, it's so boring and repetitive.... Love literally every other track on Reckoning though.
This song is simplistic in a bad way, that's all I have to say.
@ArsMorideni <br /> Totally agree with you. This song is duller than dishwater. A few songs on RECKONING are finesse, but the majority all get a major 'F' (sad, too, considering CHRONIC TOWN + MURMUR were outstanding)
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The lyrics are not correct. Very close though. The Mike Mills counter lines aren't listed "I'm not trying to Second Guess You". Also it's not 'Be in my club, write a book this season'. It's 'Peter, Mike and Bill write a book this season.'. Stipe has said during shows that he wrote them into the song. Why, I am not sure. There could be meaning to that like maybe they have tried to predict him and pissed him off, or he just wanted to write them into the song.
However, clearly the song though is about someone Stipe knows who he doesn't like very much. (So since he has been with his band mates over 27 years I tend to think it's not about them and he just wanted to write them into the song like he says.) The person likes to guess or predict what he's going to say before he finishes saying it. I think the other two questions are rhetorical to Stipe. Stipe wonders what their look will be this season and what book will book they will read this season. Clearly the person isn't a voracious reader if it takes them a whole season to read a book. Book could also symbolize a lover. Therefore, I think both rhetorical questions are filled with sarcasm. The "Here we are" comment either means 'this is the way things are' or this is 'where we are at.' Or, it could be simply he's driving this person somewhere and when they get there he says 'Here we are'.
@REMFIELD <br /> Just a late comment to suggest that the narrator doesn't even need to be Stipe at all (regardless of the mentioning of the band)
This lyric is the epitome of paranoia