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"
wrenched into the world, deanaesthetized
blurry images fight their way through halfway opened eyes
awakened by alarm fifteen minutes of hygeine
twenty minutes of eating thirty seconds to the door
I looked outside I looked into the eyes
of the impersonal mob I've seen a thousand times before
feeling under covers like books on a shelf
if we're scared of one another
must be scared of ourself
more than just another crowd
we need a gathering instead
drink drink in the badland liquid bread for the poor
another member of the crowd goes down to drown at the liquor store
choose your escape in the heartland
of product and demand when you feel like a wasp in the swarm
you gotta get away anyway that you can
blurry images fight their way through halfway opened eyes
awakened by alarm fifteen minutes of hygeine
twenty minutes of eating thirty seconds to the door
I looked outside I looked into the eyes
of the impersonal mob I've seen a thousand times before
feeling under covers like books on a shelf
if we're scared of one another
must be scared of ourself
more than just another crowd
we need a gathering instead
drink drink in the badland liquid bread for the poor
another member of the crowd goes down to drown at the liquor store
choose your escape in the heartland
of product and demand when you feel like a wasp in the swarm
you gotta get away anyway that you can
Lyrics submitted by emoJustin
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
this is song is great. its about more than high school, it's about finally realizing how much the real world sucks, how its all corrupt and meaningless. Its how living a normal life wears you down until you becoma a subhuman conformist machine, and how so many people try to use alchohol as a way to escape, but it actually pulls them in.
UGHHHHHH..... I LOVE THIS SONG. IT WAS THE FIRST OP IVY SONG I'VE EVER HEARD, I'M ADDICTED TO IT, I'M FUCKING ADDICTED TO ALL OF THESE SONGS.
i feel this song is about someone who has social anxiety or something, the first verse is about waking up obviously and if you do have social anxiety the safest place to you is your house and you would count every second in it before you have to go outside
then the next part is about how you go outside and see the thing you are terrified of, people. "Feeling under covers like books on a shelf" this is saying you hide under your covers like a closed book on a shelf. then it goes on to say how if your scared of people you are then scared of yourself.
the it goes on to say no people are not a crowd and something to fear, and maybe people should gather instead
now the final bit talks about how you drink to relieve your anxiety, then the line "Of product and demand when you feel like a wasp in the swarm You gotta get away anyway that you can" is saying when you feel like surround you try to run and hide anyway you can
I love how these comments were posted 14 years ago.... When I was a year old. Now I'm 15 and can relate to every word in this song, learning it on guitar, and struggling through the bulshit of high school. I live in such a nice town and it's amazing how many people we lose to alcohol. Everyone is trying to fit in with the trends made popular by social media, just to be cool. To me, it's really sad.
@GarrettSJ13 finally someone my age that has a great taste of music, im 17 and i totally get you, fuck its nice to know punks got some young life left in it, I cant stand our generation of music, man
This is Operation Ivy's best song in my opinion.
This is obviously a song about high school. the whole part of hygeine, eating, and getting out the door is about before. then when you get into the mass you see everyone. i feel it's about a kids struggle to fit in. he is pressured into drinking and sees everyone doing it. very good song.
op ivy is a very good ska punk band best ay that
what ska?
ok the first 4 lines of the song are definitly about gettings up early in the day and getting ready and leaving your house, and the last 4 lines are about escaping from reality by drinking... but what makes you say it's about high school i dunno, he doesnt really say anything about going anywhere, he just says going outside he sees the crowd so maybe the crowds outside his house say hes in the city then it would be people going to work? i dunno just an idea
Operation Ivy are fucking amazing. This is my fav Op Ivy song. Hobart has a really good interpretation of the crowd. Op Ivy is suggesting tha tpeople need to come together and solve all these bullshit problems of the world.
Operation Ivy was always about Unity, and that's what this song is about; how we lack unity. OpIvy was my favourite band for such a long time and this song was the greatest for me during that era. Still love Jesse's voice and Common Rider rocks as well.