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 wanted to go
Where the antelope play now
I looked around
They've all gone away now
I wish I could drink where
The water is so clear
It might clear my mind
My mind
Comes and goes here
Once I cut my hand
But the wound was not part of me
Now I'm a man
There's a wound at the heart of me
I wish I could leave
And I guess I would stay there
Wherever that is
That is
Far from anywhere
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
In the water
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
And everybody's swimming
(Swimming)
In the water
Baby I want to go where
Nobody will change me
Or change my mind
My mind
That contains me
And is contained by
The starlight surrounding us
Like falling rain
Pouring down on us
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
In the water
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
(Swimming)
In the water
(Repeat 1x)
I wanted to go
Where the antelope play now
Well I looked around
They've all gone away now
I wish I could leave
And I guess I would stay there
Wherever that is
That is
Far from everywhere
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
In the water
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
(Swimming)
In the water
Where the antelope play now
I looked around
They've all gone away now
I wish I could drink where
The water is so clear
It might clear my mind
My mind
Comes and goes here
Once I cut my hand
But the wound was not part of me
Now I'm a man
There's a wound at the heart of me
I wish I could leave
And I guess I would stay there
Wherever that is
That is
Far from anywhere
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
In the water
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
And everybody's swimming
(Swimming)
In the water
Baby I want to go where
Nobody will change me
Or change my mind
My mind
That contains me
And is contained by
The starlight surrounding us
Like falling rain
Pouring down on us
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
In the water
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
(Swimming)
In the water
(Repeat 1x)
I wanted to go
Where the antelope play now
Well I looked around
They've all gone away now
I wish I could leave
And I guess I would stay there
Wherever that is
That is
Far from everywhere
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
In the water
There's a stream running over
On distant shores
Everybody's swimming
(Swimming)
In the water
Lyrics submitted by fratboy_rick
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"I wanted to go Where the antelope play now I looked around They've all gone away now I wish I could drink where The water is so clear It might clear my mind My mind Comes and goes here"
The first stanza expresses that he wants to go somewhere beautiful in this world but its not possible. The antelope and clear water have gone away suggesting environmental destruction. Without "clean water" (natural purity) he cannot even think straight.
"Once I cut my hand But the wound was not part of me Now I'm a man There's a wound at the heart of me I wish I could leave And I guess I would stay there Wherever that is That is Far from anywhere"
Second stanza contrasts the cut of a hand with a "wound" in a "heart". A wound in a heart is a psychological scar- a pain to the true self, whereas a cut on a hand is superficial. Cutting a hand is a mistake more frequently made by children, and it's placement before the line "Now I'm a man" suggests growing up, when people tend to manifest more psychological problems. Then he goes into an escape fantasy.
"There's a stream running over On distant shores Everybody's swimming In the water (and so on)
This is the escape fantasy, which ties into the unfulfilled desire for happiness in nature expounded in the first stanza.
"Baby I want to go where Nobody will change me Or change my mind My mind That contains me And is contained by The starlight surrounding us Like falling rain Pouring down on us"
In this fantasy realm the narrator will also be free of his psychological problems and insecurities. Interesting that in a previous stanza the body and self were dichotomized (the cut on the hand vs the wounded heart), and in this one the mind and the self are dichotomized. Not sure what the starlight/rain references mean, but they "contain" and "surround" the narrator, and are seen as positive.
Thats pretty much all the lyrics. The way I've written this it sounds kind of negative, but I actually think its a very positive and uplifting song about escapist fantasies with environmental undertones.