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"
On the day that Daniel Cowman stopped existing
the world should've ended right then and there
at precisely four-fifteen when he stopped existing
the world should've ended--how could it go on?
How could it go on when I don't exist? I don't exist...
and now that we got that straight, doesn't mean that I can fly
doesn't mean that I can go do whatever I want
now that we got that clear, and you know that I'm not here
doesn't mean that I can go do whatever I please
the premature ejaculation of his death sentence
hit Daniel in the face like a big round spitball
and everything got hazy in the courtroom
and then he stood up and then he sat back down
another two times in a row
and everything got real slow like a gunshot in the movies
and he remembered heroin boy walking through the door
bouncing off the walls and the floor
taking off his belt, taking off his pants
filling up the bathtub, getting ready to go in for a swim
singing, I don't exist...
and he start remembering...
the heroin boy'd walk through the door
and he was screaming and everybody was, like,
what're you screaming as if it's the end of the world?
and he was, like, well it is
and I was sitting in the corner with my pants down
and I was sure someone next door was blowing up balloons
and they was red and orange
and there was this one lady at the bar and she was trying to buy gin
and this other lady at the bar and she was trying to sell gin
and it worked out good for the boths of them
and heroin boy started taking off his belt
started taking off his pants, started taking off his shoes
filling up the bathtub, getting ready to go in for a swim
I says, no--you're gonna drown
and he says, no--I can't drown
simply because...shhhh...
a man destined to hang can never drown
a man destined to drown can never burn
a man destined to fry can never, ever, ever
die in any other way
frying--lucky that I'm dying by hanging and not drowning
so now that we got that straight, can't I just be left alone?
I want to take a fucking bath
the world should've ended right then and there
at precisely four-fifteen when he stopped existing
the world should've ended--how could it go on?
How could it go on when I don't exist? I don't exist...
and now that we got that straight, doesn't mean that I can fly
doesn't mean that I can go do whatever I want
now that we got that clear, and you know that I'm not here
doesn't mean that I can go do whatever I please
the premature ejaculation of his death sentence
hit Daniel in the face like a big round spitball
and everything got hazy in the courtroom
and then he stood up and then he sat back down
another two times in a row
and everything got real slow like a gunshot in the movies
and he remembered heroin boy walking through the door
bouncing off the walls and the floor
taking off his belt, taking off his pants
filling up the bathtub, getting ready to go in for a swim
singing, I don't exist...
and he start remembering...
the heroin boy'd walk through the door
and he was screaming and everybody was, like,
what're you screaming as if it's the end of the world?
and he was, like, well it is
and I was sitting in the corner with my pants down
and I was sure someone next door was blowing up balloons
and they was red and orange
and there was this one lady at the bar and she was trying to buy gin
and this other lady at the bar and she was trying to sell gin
and it worked out good for the boths of them
and heroin boy started taking off his belt
started taking off his pants, started taking off his shoes
filling up the bathtub, getting ready to go in for a swim
I says, no--you're gonna drown
and he says, no--I can't drown
simply because...shhhh...
a man destined to hang can never drown
a man destined to drown can never burn
a man destined to fry can never, ever, ever
die in any other way
frying--lucky that I'm dying by hanging and not drowning
so now that we got that straight, can't I just be left alone?
I want to take a fucking bath
Lyrics submitted by SoakedinMercury
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
i think this song is from daniel cowman's point of view. i agree that the beginning is about when he was in the courtroom and was sentenced to death. he started thinking about when he died, what would happen. how he couldn't imagine a world, because he wouldn't be in it.
the next verse i think is about how even though he is still alive but dead to the press, he can't do whatever he wants & therefore can't take a bath.
i think the part about heroin boy taking a bath is that he is taking a bath to cleanse himself of the sins he committed on earth, because he too is destined to die, and is maybe fearful of hell, i think this because in the part that says
"and I was sure someone next door was blowing up balloons and they was red and orange" red and orange like fire, and hell.
then also
"a man destined to hang can never drown a man destined to drown can never burn a man destined to fry can never, ever, ever die in any other way frying--lucky that I'm dying by hanging and not drowning" he says frying because he is talking about frying in hell & if he drowned he wouldn't have time to, idk purify himself before death, and would still end up in hell, even though he knows he is destined to. and now daniel wants to take a bath to rid his sins, but he can't because he is still a prisoner even though he is already dead to the world.
i don't know if that made any sense, but thats what i think of when i listen to the song.