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"
(Steve: I don't know Woody.
Are you sure you've got this think hooked up right?
Woody: Listen man, music is my life.
Steve: Alright. Two, three, four
Hey! What are you doing? What's goin' on?
Woody: Sorry.)
Synthesizer rock ruled Jessica's feet
As a slave to that ubiquitous beat
Visions of the big screen danced in her head
'In a matter of time' she said
Jessie never got her Hollywood role
And the pogo nights have taken there toll
She can do the monkey off o' the cuff
But her mind had a missing link
Am I in sync?
Paint a picture on a subway train
Carve my name in a video game
Am I in sync?
Out looking for the camera crews
Sell my soul for a second on the evening news
Am I in sync?
Live 'til the bubble pops
Hold my breath when the big one drops
Am I in sync?
Immortality is what I'm buying
But I'd rather be immortal by not dying
Laboratory rats made Roger a fink
And the laws of science drove him to drink
Working for the taste of public acclaim
And a cure that bore his name
Nobel prizes would have been nice
But he lost his mind to renegade mice
Roger traded dreams of 'Man of the Year'
For an understanding shrink
Am I in sync?
Paint a picture on a subway train
Carve my name in a video game
Am I in sync?
Out looking for the camera crews
Sell my soul for a second on the evening news
Am I in sync?
Live 'til the bubble pops
Hold my breath when the big one drops
Am I in sync?
Immortality is what I'm buying
But I'd rather be immortal by not dying
(Steve: Alright. Let's try it again.
Woody, what are you doin'?
You told me you knew how to use this thing.
Woody: Sorry.)
(Steve: Alright. Get it right this time. Three, four.
Yeah now that wasn't so hard was it?
Woody, what's goin' on?
Woody: Sorry.
It's this machine.
You can fix it in the mix.
Listen, I kinda like it.
Have you ever heard of, uh, poly-rhythms?
I hear Bowie's gonna do this on his next album.
Steve: What a relief.)
Are you sure you've got this think hooked up right?
Woody: Listen man, music is my life.
Steve: Alright. Two, three, four
Hey! What are you doing? What's goin' on?
Woody: Sorry.)
Synthesizer rock ruled Jessica's feet
As a slave to that ubiquitous beat
Visions of the big screen danced in her head
'In a matter of time' she said
Jessie never got her Hollywood role
And the pogo nights have taken there toll
She can do the monkey off o' the cuff
But her mind had a missing link
Am I in sync?
Paint a picture on a subway train
Carve my name in a video game
Am I in sync?
Out looking for the camera crews
Sell my soul for a second on the evening news
Am I in sync?
Live 'til the bubble pops
Hold my breath when the big one drops
Am I in sync?
Immortality is what I'm buying
But I'd rather be immortal by not dying
Laboratory rats made Roger a fink
And the laws of science drove him to drink
Working for the taste of public acclaim
And a cure that bore his name
Nobel prizes would have been nice
But he lost his mind to renegade mice
Roger traded dreams of 'Man of the Year'
For an understanding shrink
Am I in sync?
Paint a picture on a subway train
Carve my name in a video game
Am I in sync?
Out looking for the camera crews
Sell my soul for a second on the evening news
Am I in sync?
Live 'til the bubble pops
Hold my breath when the big one drops
Am I in sync?
Immortality is what I'm buying
But I'd rather be immortal by not dying
(Steve: Alright. Let's try it again.
Woody, what are you doin'?
You told me you knew how to use this thing.
Woody: Sorry.)
(Steve: Alright. Get it right this time. Three, four.
Yeah now that wasn't so hard was it?
Woody, what's goin' on?
Woody: Sorry.
It's this machine.
You can fix it in the mix.
Listen, I kinda like it.
Have you ever heard of, uh, poly-rhythms?
I hear Bowie's gonna do this on his next album.
Steve: What a relief.)
Lyrics submitted by Cherub Rock
Am I in Sync? Lyrics as written by Steve Taylor
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol CMG Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I guess you could put it that way.
In a nutshell, the song is about screwed up priorities. More specifically, it's about how people are at their most pathetic when they're working to make themselves immortal.
The key to this one is the Woody Allen paraphrase at the end of the chorus: "I'd rather be immortal by not dying." The preceding parts of the chorus are about foolishly trying to achieve that mortality through things that won't last. "Paint a picture on a subway train" evokes the image of artwork that will speed by so quickly that nobody will see it, and that will be cleaned off in short order. "Carve my name in a video game" is more interesting; this was the Atari era, when most game creators weren't even credited and the games themselves were simple little pong clones. "Live 'til the bubble pops" isn't just eerily predictive - the late 80s suffered an economic downturn much like the current one (although quite a bit shorter.) "Hold my breath when the big one drops" is a dated reference; it refers to the Cold War fear that, at any moment, the world could be annihilated in surprise nuclear attacks.
The verses are the more interesting part, in my opinion. The first tells of a dancer who dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. She never gets her big break, and since she devoted her whole life to dancing and never worked to better herself in other ways she finds herself worse off. The second verse is about a scientist working to cure a disease, not to help the sick but to make himself famous. Unfortunately, he isn't good or lucky enough to achieve his dream, and the failure literally drives him mad.
Please, Steve Taylor. I'm begging you. There's so much more for you to say, and nobody else to say it. Please record another album.