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"
Quiet desperation ain't my,
Ain't my goddamn scene.
I don't know if you can follow me,
But, uh, let's see.
My friends!
To the wine, to the stage!
You all squander your precious beautiful days,
That would make you a sucker.
You don't want to be a sucker, huh?
To the quitters and the complainers,
If we never meet again
Remember when –
All the world was a stage dive,
All the world loved a clown,
Knowing that the clown hated them,
And all the clowns in the house
Stared up at the stage!
(Ohhh!)
They used to get so mad,
The had such a good thing that day,
But at the last minute it sort of went bad –
(They lost their nerve)
They just went straight,
(Didn't have the balls)
To hold it down!
Oh and everybody else, everybody else, everybody,
Clowns must stand!
When a man goes straight,
(Good clowns gone bad!)
All clowns are hurt!
(All clowns insane!)
When a man abandons his passion,
Well that looks stupid to me,
Look, stupid clowns must stand.
Well alright, okay!
Welcome, welcome everybody to the scene!
You'll all have to come out and have a drink with me.
Well, I'll buy round one,
If you buy round two and three.
We'll make a toast,
To absent friends and better days,
To remembering and remembered as brave,
And not as a bunch of whining jerks!
People!
To the quitters and the complainers,
If we never meet again remember this –
All the world is a stage dive!
All the world loves a clown,
Even though that the clown hates them.
And how hard, to get a clown out of the house,
And up on the stage.
(Ohhh!)
But you've come, you're here, I'm so glad!
Don't forget how it feels kids,
Don't crap out!
Don't lose your nerve
(Do not got bad!)
Do not go straight
(Or clowns be sad!)
Why you must testify,
Or I'm coming to you house,
To punch you in the mouth!
Clowns must stand!
When a man goes straight,
(Good clown gone bad!)
All clowns are hurt,
(All clowns get sad!)
When a clown abandons his passion,
His friends end up with egg on the face,
And clowns must stand!
Clowns must stand!
Well, bring it back
What'd I say now?
Well, I say,
Clowns must stand!
Ain't my goddamn scene.
I don't know if you can follow me,
But, uh, let's see.
My friends!
To the wine, to the stage!
You all squander your precious beautiful days,
That would make you a sucker.
You don't want to be a sucker, huh?
To the quitters and the complainers,
If we never meet again
Remember when –
All the world was a stage dive,
All the world loved a clown,
Knowing that the clown hated them,
And all the clowns in the house
Stared up at the stage!
(Ohhh!)
They used to get so mad,
The had such a good thing that day,
But at the last minute it sort of went bad –
(They lost their nerve)
They just went straight,
(Didn't have the balls)
To hold it down!
Oh and everybody else, everybody else, everybody,
Clowns must stand!
When a man goes straight,
(Good clowns gone bad!)
All clowns are hurt!
(All clowns insane!)
When a man abandons his passion,
Well that looks stupid to me,
Look, stupid clowns must stand.
Well alright, okay!
Welcome, welcome everybody to the scene!
You'll all have to come out and have a drink with me.
Well, I'll buy round one,
If you buy round two and three.
We'll make a toast,
To absent friends and better days,
To remembering and remembered as brave,
And not as a bunch of whining jerks!
People!
To the quitters and the complainers,
If we never meet again remember this –
All the world is a stage dive!
All the world loves a clown,
Even though that the clown hates them.
And how hard, to get a clown out of the house,
And up on the stage.
(Ohhh!)
But you've come, you're here, I'm so glad!
Don't forget how it feels kids,
Don't crap out!
Don't lose your nerve
(Do not got bad!)
Do not go straight
(Or clowns be sad!)
Why you must testify,
Or I'm coming to you house,
To punch you in the mouth!
Clowns must stand!
When a man goes straight,
(Good clown gone bad!)
All clowns are hurt,
(All clowns get sad!)
When a clown abandons his passion,
His friends end up with egg on the face,
And clowns must stand!
Clowns must stand!
Well, bring it back
What'd I say now?
Well, I say,
Clowns must stand!
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I LOVE THIS SONG
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." -Thoreau