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"
Early one mornin' while makin' the rounds
I took a shot of cocaine and shot my woman down
I went right home and I went to bed
I stuck that lovin' forty-four beneath my head.
Got up next mornin' and I grabbed that gun
Took a shot of cocaine and away I run
Made a good run but I run too slow
They overtook me down in Juarez, Mexico.
Laid in the hot joint takin' the pill
In walked a sheriff from Jericho Hill
He said Willy Lee your name is not Jack Brown
You're the dirty hack that shot your woman down.
Say yes oh yes my name is Willie Lee
If you've got a warrant just read it to me
Shot her down because she made me slow
I thought I was her daddy but she had five more.
When I was arrested I was dressed in black
They put me on a train and they took me back
Had no friends for to go my bail
They slapped my dried up carcass in the county jail.
Early next morning about a half past nine
I spied a sheriff comin' down the line
Coughed and coughed as he cleared his throat
He said come on you dirty hack into that district court
Into the court room my trial began
Where I was handled by twelve honest men
Just before the jury started out
I saw that little judge commence to look about.
In about five minutes in walked a man
Holding the verdict in his right hand
The verdict read in the first degree
I hollered Lordy Lordy have mercy on me
The judge he smiled as he picked up his pen
Ninety nine years in the Folsom pen
Ninety nine years underneath that ground
I can't forget today I shot that bad bitch down
Come on you gotta listen unto me
Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be
These man have receptions. Matlock, eight five oh six three two
And Batshelter, eight three nine eight seven nine
They have receptions
I doubt that.
I took a shot of cocaine and shot my woman down
I went right home and I went to bed
I stuck that lovin' forty-four beneath my head.
Got up next mornin' and I grabbed that gun
Took a shot of cocaine and away I run
Made a good run but I run too slow
They overtook me down in Juarez, Mexico.
Laid in the hot joint takin' the pill
In walked a sheriff from Jericho Hill
He said Willy Lee your name is not Jack Brown
You're the dirty hack that shot your woman down.
Say yes oh yes my name is Willie Lee
If you've got a warrant just read it to me
Shot her down because she made me slow
I thought I was her daddy but she had five more.
When I was arrested I was dressed in black
They put me on a train and they took me back
Had no friends for to go my bail
They slapped my dried up carcass in the county jail.
Early next morning about a half past nine
I spied a sheriff comin' down the line
Coughed and coughed as he cleared his throat
He said come on you dirty hack into that district court
Into the court room my trial began
Where I was handled by twelve honest men
Just before the jury started out
I saw that little judge commence to look about.
In about five minutes in walked a man
Holding the verdict in his right hand
The verdict read in the first degree
I hollered Lordy Lordy have mercy on me
The judge he smiled as he picked up his pen
Ninety nine years in the Folsom pen
Ninety nine years underneath that ground
I can't forget today I shot that bad bitch down
Come on you gotta listen unto me
Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be
These man have receptions. Matlock, eight five oh six three two
And Batshelter, eight three nine eight seven nine
They have receptions
I doubt that.
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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the last line says it all. No good ever comes of cocaine
@jim19617 This is wisdom: cocaine, as drugs go, isn’t “worth” a damn. Stay away, kids.