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"
tonight there isn't any light under your door
I guess you must be somewhere breathing
where skin and everything still know what they are for
and blood remembers where to go
I fell in love with you no matter what you say
but you were right about the reasons
to turn a magdeline into the month of May
I shoulda known the magdeline was me
so I'm turning on the stereo
and I'm lining up the names
on the mixes I made before you
and I'm turning into fairytales
with glitter and some glue
everything we ever planned to ever do
tonight there isn't any light under your door
I guess you must be somewhere breathing
in patterns unfamiliar to the one you're underneath
I pinned those patterns in my coat
so I'm turning on the stereo
and I'm turning into fairytales
yes I'm turning on the stereo
and I'm turning into you
I guess you must be somewhere breathing
where skin and everything still know what they are for
and blood remembers where to go
I fell in love with you no matter what you say
but you were right about the reasons
to turn a magdeline into the month of May
I shoulda known the magdeline was me
so I'm turning on the stereo
and I'm lining up the names
on the mixes I made before you
and I'm turning into fairytales
with glitter and some glue
everything we ever planned to ever do
tonight there isn't any light under your door
I guess you must be somewhere breathing
in patterns unfamiliar to the one you're underneath
I pinned those patterns in my coat
so I'm turning on the stereo
and I'm turning into fairytales
yes I'm turning on the stereo
and I'm turning into you
Lyrics submitted by SomethingClever, edited by smallwonderrobot
Patterns of Fairytales Lyrics as written by Matthew Berninger Aaron Dessner
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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ah hmm i think its about a couple who couldnt make it work.. and all their plans turns to his fairytales. he sees her lights are out, and shes doing other things and moving on.. and hes listening to all the mixtapes he made for her and realizing in her mind he is just a fairytale that is disappearing. the magdeline reference is obviously religious but im not sure how it fits.. :-/ i like this song.. it seems theres always one of the two people in a breakup that have a more difficult time moving on.. and thats how i kinda see this song.
This song leads on beautifully to 'Lucky You' the next song on the album(as I mentioned in a post on Lucky You) "and I'm turning into fairytales with glitter and some glue everything we ever planned to ever do" My favourite part of this song. So heartbreaking.
this song is simply about whenever you've been in love with someone that doesn't feel the same way and how they're off living their own life while you stay at home thinking about how things could've been. i love it, its so crushing and heartbreaking...
i kind of want to marry this song.
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bittersweet. i can't explain how much i love this song.
It's just magical
I don't get the part about the magdeline and month of may
It's contrasting Mary Magdeline, a prostitute in the Bible, and the month of May, which is known as an innocent month, the birth of spring, etc.
It's actually a typo; the song's lyric, "turning Magdalen into the month of May," references the ancient tradition in Oxford of celebrating May Day on Magdalen Bridge, beneath Magdalen Tower—thus, "turning Magdalen into the month of May." <br /> <br /> Then, when he says "the magdalen was me," the word is a noun meaning "reformed prostitute" (after its origin, Mary Magdalen), he describes his realization that it was, in fact, HE who underwent the transformation into May, the month of innocence and the verdure and promise of spring.
I fell in love with you no matter what you say but you were right about the reasons
initially he was only looking for a one night stand just someone to hook up with to abate his loneliness but as he got to know her, he grew to respect her and realized that he actually was in love but she moved on because she didnt want to just be the one night stand and now they missed their chance and cant be together its all just a fairy tale to him now. someone hell never forget.
maybeeeee??
I don't really care what it means. I just like listening to it :D
"In patterns unfamiliar to the one you're underneath I pinned those patterns in my coat"
kills me