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"
Kept my coat on
While you put your empty arms around me
Kept my shirt on
And wrestled my memory down
When I put my arm around you
I had to hold my mand in place
I didn't move to keep you from feeling chased
dropping off
You smile easy
What was I supposed to say?
Hits the ground
And it dies easy
Why did I decide to stay?
looks like I should forget you now
Underneath the covers I'm not naked
Maybe you were never next to me
Does all recorded history start tomorrow morning?
Did you forget or were your kisses my final warning?
a spent bullet brought me down
Add me to the list you stopped with blanks
Or how about a rundown of the top 100
Where do I rank
Did I even make the list
Or did I make a big mistake?
dropping off
You smile easy
What was I supposed to say
While you put your empty arms around me
Kept my shirt on
And wrestled my memory down
When I put my arm around you
I had to hold my mand in place
I didn't move to keep you from feeling chased
dropping off
You smile easy
What was I supposed to say?
Hits the ground
And it dies easy
Why did I decide to stay?
looks like I should forget you now
Underneath the covers I'm not naked
Maybe you were never next to me
Does all recorded history start tomorrow morning?
Did you forget or were your kisses my final warning?
a spent bullet brought me down
Add me to the list you stopped with blanks
Or how about a rundown of the top 100
Where do I rank
Did I even make the list
Or did I make a big mistake?
dropping off
You smile easy
What was I supposed to say
Lyrics submitted by LuckCharm, edited by PaulGuinan, Carrandas
Why Did I Decide to Stay? Lyrics as written by Neil Jacob Gust Brandt Gustav Peterson
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I believe this song is about the narrator being seduced into a one night stand. He then regrets it, even goes through a stage of denial ("maybe you were never next to me"), and realizes the person he slept with sleeps sleeps with everybody.
yeah, on hindsight I agree.x
I think it is about looking back on an unloving relationship and missing it but knowing that he's better off going.
Before Gust sings "A spent bullet, it brought me down", I believe he sings "Was I just generous, because I'm lonely".
Yeah, I get the sense that it\'s about the realization that you\'re just another notch on the bed.post