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"
I won't let you go
I won't let you go
Not to Detroit City
Not to Chicago
And I won't let you go
I won't let you go
Not to Mississippi
Not to Tupelo
But if you're going to leave,
I'm asking you, please
Go all the way to Mexico
I won't let you leave
I won't let you leave
Not with all my django
Emmy Lou and Steve
I won't let you leave
I won't let you leave
Not with my revival
Tucked down in its sleeve
But if you're gonna go
Take the ones you gave to me
All the way to Mexico
All the way to the shore of California Bay
And I'll be fine
'Cause I have taken you back for the last time
And I won't set you free
I won't set you free
Not to say it's over
And come right back to me
But if you're gonna go
I'm giving you the key
But only if you'll go to Mexico
All the way to the shore of California Bay
And I'll be fine
'Cause I have taken you back for the last time
So if you're gonna go
I'm giving you the key
But only if you go to Mexico
I won't let you go
Not to Detroit City
Not to Chicago
And I won't let you go
I won't let you go
Not to Mississippi
Not to Tupelo
But if you're going to leave,
I'm asking you, please
Go all the way to Mexico
I won't let you leave
I won't let you leave
Not with all my django
Emmy Lou and Steve
I won't let you leave
I won't let you leave
Not with my revival
Tucked down in its sleeve
But if you're gonna go
Take the ones you gave to me
All the way to Mexico
All the way to the shore of California Bay
And I'll be fine
'Cause I have taken you back for the last time
And I won't set you free
I won't set you free
Not to say it's over
And come right back to me
But if you're gonna go
I'm giving you the key
But only if you'll go to Mexico
All the way to the shore of California Bay
And I'll be fine
'Cause I have taken you back for the last time
So if you're gonna go
I'm giving you the key
But only if you go to Mexico
Lyrics submitted by BlueAndStarry
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This is song about a relationship that is doomed from the start, but neither person wants to really let go. "I won't set you free/Not to say it's over/And come right back to me." Totally understand that feeling. And them being from Charleston, SC....Mexico is clear across the country. I guess it's kind of like "out of sight out of mind."
One might actually notice Jump's many songs related in some way to Mexico. I thought cathedrals might also have something to do with mexico because of it's "numbered gates" and "Between Continents" Knowing what that is all about will probably tell this song's meaning.
well this song means the world to two people in tennessee.....this songs says that i dont want to go and dont want my girlfriend to go! the song brings longings to be back with her whenever she is away! love makes you selffish of the person you are in love with
i actually would have to disagree with you, dugman... i think this song is about someone breaking up. i'm from charleston and i'm in love with jump... they're amazing... but i think this song is definitely a breakup song. i think his girl has left him before and now she's breaking up with him again and he doesn't want her to leave unless she's going far enough away that she won't come into his life again. maybe i think this because i just went through an awful breakup with a boyfriend, but i think it sounds pretty legitimate...
I think this song isn't so much about a break up but instead an on again off again relationship. He's saying that he doesn't want to lose her, but the next time she leaves is really the last one and she better go far, far away because if she's close he'll still love her.
awesome song - if you like jump, little children then try nizlopi, they're kinda similar...
to me, it's about finally letting someone go but telling them to leave your life for good and not keep coming back as it just makes it harder to get over them...
i love this song. some of this song i don't understand, but i agree with people for the most part...about trying to get over someone, and breaking up. i just love the sound of this song. great.
Just a question to throw out, but does anyone get the part.. "Not with all my django, Emmy Lou and Steve"
? It's the only part that seems out of place for me.
Django Reinhardt, Emmy Lou Harris, and Steve Earle are all musicians, so maybe he's saying "I won't let you leave with my records."
@kalierose Oh, it's Steve Earle. That makes sense. That was the one I didn't know.
@kalierose Oh, it's Steve Earle. That makes sense. That was the one I didn't know. And is "revival" Credence Clearwater Revival? That would seem to fit.
@kalierose I would guess revival refers to Gillian Welch's 'Revival' record.