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"
Baby
What do I do
Playing my tune for you
Just to get you in the mood
Everybody's going to hollywood
You're driving me mad
But I'm smiling to the crowd instead
A lot of money is at stake,
This is a hit and that's a fake
This is what you mean to me
This is what they all should see
Make a make up in a foolish style
Telling the truth by making a big lie
When I come, I come but nothing's at ease
Breaking up the whole is a modern disease
Maybe you think tomorrow's just a joke
It's a joke after joke after joke after joke
My love
Everything's an interview
And nothing's really new
And everybody's looking for clues
And you know what to do with a clue
My love
Get ready for the show
They're waiting and they will never go
This night is just a go
And it's only for show
Dig that deal and be a millionaire
Drinking cocktails in the stratosphere
Getting jetlagged with my business friends in these supersonic wonderlands
There's a flicker on the graphic display,
First he's smiling then he's fading away
Maybe he thinks tomorrow's just a joke
It's a joke after joke after joke after joke
What do I do
Playing my tune for you
Just to get you in the mood
Everybody's going to hollywood
You're driving me mad
But I'm smiling to the crowd instead
A lot of money is at stake,
This is a hit and that's a fake
This is what you mean to me
This is what they all should see
Make a make up in a foolish style
Telling the truth by making a big lie
When I come, I come but nothing's at ease
Breaking up the whole is a modern disease
Maybe you think tomorrow's just a joke
It's a joke after joke after joke after joke
My love
Everything's an interview
And nothing's really new
And everybody's looking for clues
And you know what to do with a clue
My love
Get ready for the show
They're waiting and they will never go
This night is just a go
And it's only for show
Dig that deal and be a millionaire
Drinking cocktails in the stratosphere
Getting jetlagged with my business friends in these supersonic wonderlands
There's a flicker on the graphic display,
First he's smiling then he's fading away
Maybe he thinks tomorrow's just a joke
It's a joke after joke after joke after joke
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The Night We Met
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
When We Were Young
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Amazing
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I think this song describes what life is like of a person who is in the public eye, and how it's fake to them. The musician vents his frustration in writing a genuine song but is forced to embellish it in order to make a hit - "telling the truth by making a big lie." People scrutinize everything he does, trying to read into it, even if it doesn't mean anything - "everybody's looking for clues." The show that he refers to is his persona in the public eye of rubbing elbows with the big-wigs, jet-setting, etc.