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"
It was an upset
In two minutes flat
We're back on the freeway
Foot to the mat
I can't understand it
We had it down pat
It's very upsetting
Could we leave it at that
We all had positions
We each had a role
We'd overrehearsed it
We had full control
They can't teach you acting
It's there in your soul
It's the same with a bank job
And each thing we stole
So I don't need attitude
'Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
And wait by the phone
I was the driver
You ran the show
You had the last word
The go or no go
I knew every laneway
In Ontario
But it's not what you're sure of
It's what you don't know
It should have been filled with
The usual ones
Throwing their cash in
To mutual funds
We all had our ski masks
And sawed off shotguns
But how do you plan for
A bank full of nuns
But I guess we panicked
We all have taboos
And they were like zebras
They had us confused
We should be in condos
With oceanfront views
Instead we're most wanted
On the 6 o'clock news
So, I don't need attitude
'Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
And wait by the phone
Inside the police car
You tried to explain
Your crisis of conscience
The voice in your brain
And now that the whole thing
Has gone down the drain
I think we all know who
Should shoulder the blame
'Cause you made a choice there
Almost sublime
I'm all for compassion
Just not on my dime
You look like an amateur
And that's the real crime
So I'll take a walk now
And you do the time
And I don't need attitude
'Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
There's no need to phone
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
In two minutes flat
We're back on the freeway
Foot to the mat
I can't understand it
We had it down pat
It's very upsetting
Could we leave it at that
We all had positions
We each had a role
We'd overrehearsed it
We had full control
They can't teach you acting
It's there in your soul
It's the same with a bank job
And each thing we stole
So I don't need attitude
'Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
And wait by the phone
I was the driver
You ran the show
You had the last word
The go or no go
I knew every laneway
In Ontario
But it's not what you're sure of
It's what you don't know
It should have been filled with
The usual ones
Throwing their cash in
To mutual funds
We all had our ski masks
And sawed off shotguns
But how do you plan for
A bank full of nuns
But I guess we panicked
We all have taboos
And they were like zebras
They had us confused
We should be in condos
With oceanfront views
Instead we're most wanted
On the 6 o'clock news
So, I don't need attitude
'Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
And wait by the phone
Inside the police car
You tried to explain
Your crisis of conscience
The voice in your brain
And now that the whole thing
Has gone down the drain
I think we all know who
Should shoulder the blame
'Cause you made a choice there
Almost sublime
I'm all for compassion
Just not on my dime
You look like an amateur
And that's the real crime
So I'll take a walk now
And you do the time
And I don't need attitude
'Cause you knew just what to do
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
There's no need to phone
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
We all did our best now
We all need to rest now
Leave me alone
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The funniest song on "Are Me", no doubt. I just love the lines, "We all had our ski masks and sawed-off shotguns, but how do you plan for a bank full of nuns?"
I agree with eleventy, it's a song about placing the blame on an individual in a team because they didn't do what they were designated to do.
I just don't get the phone part. Was it just used for the rhyme or is there a point? Is the guy who fouled-up waiting by the phone in jail, or what? Sometimes I think it's about someone who called in what they were doing, but that doesn't make sense since they tell us that person is going to jail...