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"
He is drinking water from the faucet from the river
From the tributary it comes through the rusted pipes
Outside the window he sees the water
That's supposed to be clean by the chemicals
Polluted by the candy factory lines
Someplace on the edge of town
Someplace on the edge of town
Is where they live
Political scientists
So now she is crawling on her hands and her knees
She is dirtying her jeans choking on her own perfume
With a pen she writes below the sink
In someones restaurant
This place is inconvenient for my name
She forgets to write it anyway
She forgets to write it anyway
The government supplies the cocaine
Political scientists
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
Banging hard upon a crooked drum
She feels them tearing down
Salvation Army houses back in Michigan
Her husband's divorced
But he treats her that way of course
Because he needs her just like he needs medicine
She forgets to write him anyway
She forgets to write him anyway
What's red and white and nearly over?
Political scientist
Political scientist
Political scientist
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
From the tributary it comes through the rusted pipes
Outside the window he sees the water
That's supposed to be clean by the chemicals
Polluted by the candy factory lines
Someplace on the edge of town
Someplace on the edge of town
Is where they live
Political scientists
So now she is crawling on her hands and her knees
She is dirtying her jeans choking on her own perfume
With a pen she writes below the sink
In someones restaurant
This place is inconvenient for my name
She forgets to write it anyway
She forgets to write it anyway
The government supplies the cocaine
Political scientists
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
Banging hard upon a crooked drum
She feels them tearing down
Salvation Army houses back in Michigan
Her husband's divorced
But he treats her that way of course
Because he needs her just like he needs medicine
She forgets to write him anyway
She forgets to write him anyway
What's red and white and nearly over?
Political scientist
Political scientist
Political scientist
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
There's no guarantees
Lyrics submitted by BlueAndStarry
Political Scientist Lyrics as written by Ryan Adams
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think the idea of a corrupt society is at the heart of this. But that's the least that could be said for it.
The first verse is important in a metaphorical sense. The water is like a symbol of power, the pipes are like the channels it travels through, that is , politics. It gets distilled through corrupt lines (as in, the rusty pipes, the supposed candy factory lines) The power of governing becomes damaged and badly used or something. The other verses feel like examples of of individual people suffering from this society. The first chorus/bridge is like a description of politicians. They live on the edge of town, away from the center, and all the troubles and injustices that might occur there.
You're probably a wanker.
Star wars is awesome.
I think the candy symbology is something like people like and gives them quick gratification but is ultimately bad for them. Think of as many parallels as you like.