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 fell into the ocean
And you became my wife
I risked it all against the sea
To have a better life
Marie you are the wild blue sky
Men do foolish things
You turn kings into beggars
Beggars into kings
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
We can bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
The face forgives the mirror
The worm forgives the plow
The questions begs the answer
Can you forgive me somehow?
Maybe when our story's over
We'll go where it's always spring
The band is playing our song again
All the world is green
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
Can we bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
Moon is yellow silver
Oh, the things that summer brings
It's a love you'd kill for
And all the world is green
He's balancing a diamond
On a blade of grass
The dew will settle on our graves
When all the world is green
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
We can bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
He's balancing a diamond
On a blade of grass
The dew will settle on our graves
When all the world is green
And you became my wife
I risked it all against the sea
To have a better life
Marie you are the wild blue sky
Men do foolish things
You turn kings into beggars
Beggars into kings
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
We can bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
The face forgives the mirror
The worm forgives the plow
The questions begs the answer
Can you forgive me somehow?
Maybe when our story's over
We'll go where it's always spring
The band is playing our song again
All the world is green
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
Can we bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
Moon is yellow silver
Oh, the things that summer brings
It's a love you'd kill for
And all the world is green
He's balancing a diamond
On a blade of grass
The dew will settle on our graves
When all the world is green
Pretend that you owe me nothing
And all the world is green
We can bring back the old days again
When all the world is green
He's balancing a diamond
On a blade of grass
The dew will settle on our graves
When all the world is green
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"The face forgives the mirror The worm forgives the plow The questions begs the answer Can you forgive me somehow"
now that is a fucking lyric
The worm/plow line is a quote from William Blake's 'Marriage of Heaven & Hell,' and Waits and his wife wrote the song for the musical adaptation of the 1913 play "Woyzeck," in which it is performed as a duet.
Holy crap. Where were you that they were playing this? If there was a bar/club near me that played Tom Waits I bet I'd never be out of it... That said, this song is absolutely perfect. To meet a girl who likes this song... Well. It would be a damn miracle.
Beautiful song, one of my favourite.... "He is balancing a diamond On a blade of grass The dew will settle on our graves When all the world is green" I wonder, it could be "...balancing a diamond on a blade of grass.." sounds like he is trying to do something that seems impossible. Do you think it's like trying to keep balace in a relationship or maybe in life :? "The dew will settle on our graves When all the world is green"... and at the end we all die but the world will keep turning..
This is one of my absolute favourites! It came on while i was watching a movie with my boyfriend and my jaw just dropped.
I think it is about a man who was is deeply in love with a lover he has wronged and is trying to explain to her how much he is sorry and how much he loves her.
Sounds to me like an old married couple trying to make their relationship a happy one again.
This is the first song that my fiance and I ever danced to when we first started dating. Our friend Nathan Asher from the band Nathan Asher and the Infantry will be performing this song at our wedding for our first dance. I can't wait. Go check out my friends band if you love lyrical music. nathanasher.com
patobrien - precisely.
And yeah, if I knew of a bar that played this kind of stuff I'd never leave it either.
Such a beautiful song. One of Wait's best.
While I actually like your opinions on the song meaning, I am afraid this song is actually about something quite dark. Tom Waits wrote this song for a play called Woyzeck, and the album Blood Money contains all the music that he wrote for the play. In this play the main character, Franz Woyzeck, is a German soldier who lives with his love Marie. She leaves him for another man who forces himself upon her. In a fit of jealousy kills Marie and then kills himself. At least this is what I have read. My interpretation is that this song is something that Woyzeck is expressing as remorse right before he kills himself.
The drum major doesn't force himself upon Marie, it is a consensual relationship, she is ridden with guilt for what she has done, she quotes the bible trying to hunt for forgiveness or for a way to get Woyzeck to forgive him. <br /> <br /> In the original play, Woyzeck doesn't kill himself and in many of the play adaptations he doesn't kill himself. However, because the play was never finished properly (the playwright died before the play was published so it can never be confirmed that it was actually finished). Woyzeck doesn't feel guilty for killing Marie, he is depressed that he had to but he felt he was washing her of her sin. The song is about Marie's guilt for cheating on him. <br /> <br /> The "pretend that you owe me nothing and all the world is green" is reference to Woyzeck and Marie's social situation. They live in deep poverty and Woyzeck is gone all day trying to make enough money to survive, he only sees Marie to give her his wage so she can feed their child. The "pretend you owe me nothing" is reference to the fact that he'd not given her any love and attention for a very long time and the money he makes isn't enough to make up for it. "All the world is green" refers to pretending they're not stuck in poverty. A green world is a prosperous one, she's trying to pretend that they, too, are prosperous. <br /> <br /> The song is a duet between Woyzeck and Marie. Woyzeck is intended to sing the first verse.