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"
Can we talk some more?
I don't know.
I don't either.
Monday. January.
Independent!
I'd like to go home and go to sleep,
I'd like to go home and go to sleep.
And you're running down.
And you're running down.
And your head is made of clouds, but your feet are made of ground.
And you're running down.
You are cursed with a curse.
If you work very hard, my boy, some day you may become, uhm... women.
(eh he he, bless you, eh hee hee hee ha)
Ceçi n'est pas une pipe.
Yeah!
How are you doing today, I'm not doing ok.
I've got a cramp in my left arm.
Change me, change me (oh oh oh)
And I feel like hell. Uh huh, well why don't you go home to bed, heh eh em.
Sssssssssssseven.
And you're running down. Ssssssssss.
And you're running down. (the books)
And your head is made of clouds, but your feet are made of ground.
Aaaarghhhhhh.
And you're running down. (oioioioi)
And crash! The angel of death!
I am the angel of death.
I am the angel of death.
January, our nation is drifting,
strange situation, Monday.
I wonder if I could? Of course you can.
I don't know. True.
I have tried.
Will you try still harder now?
(the situation there is too confused,
what is this, what's he talking about)
I will try to.
(What? Me? No. We need you, for a long long long moment all was silent, you make it sound as though I would be a..., it must have been a terrible time, Do not go, is it really you, I have only one passion, yes father, what was his name again, I don't understand, it is he, thank you, of course, no father, well thank you, very well, the situation there is too confused, what is this, what's he talking about What? Me? No. We need you, you make it sound as though I would be uhh..., it must have been a terrible time, Do not go, the tears streamed out of my eyes, we have done everything, in every sense of the word, heh, so you've said and so you've done, there are three... no four books, why not, please, heh heh heh heh, yes I see, you've, uh, phrased that very well.)
Ahhhhh Books. yes yes that's true.
The books. I can't find the books, they must be in La Jolla.
And your head is made of clouds, but your feet are made of ground.
and you're running down.
I had stayed up for 46 hours in a row.
Yeah!
(ewl zsssh)
I don't know.
I don't either.
Monday. January.
Independent!
I'd like to go home and go to sleep,
I'd like to go home and go to sleep.
And you're running down.
And you're running down.
And your head is made of clouds, but your feet are made of ground.
And you're running down.
You are cursed with a curse.
If you work very hard, my boy, some day you may become, uhm... women.
(eh he he, bless you, eh hee hee hee ha)
Ceçi n'est pas une pipe.
Yeah!
How are you doing today, I'm not doing ok.
I've got a cramp in my left arm.
Change me, change me (oh oh oh)
And I feel like hell. Uh huh, well why don't you go home to bed, heh eh em.
Sssssssssssseven.
And you're running down. Ssssssssss.
And you're running down. (the books)
And your head is made of clouds, but your feet are made of ground.
Aaaarghhhhhh.
And you're running down. (oioioioi)
And crash! The angel of death!
I am the angel of death.
I am the angel of death.
January, our nation is drifting,
strange situation, Monday.
I wonder if I could? Of course you can.
I don't know. True.
I have tried.
Will you try still harder now?
(the situation there is too confused,
what is this, what's he talking about)
I will try to.
(What? Me? No. We need you, for a long long long moment all was silent, you make it sound as though I would be a..., it must have been a terrible time, Do not go, is it really you, I have only one passion, yes father, what was his name again, I don't understand, it is he, thank you, of course, no father, well thank you, very well, the situation there is too confused, what is this, what's he talking about What? Me? No. We need you, you make it sound as though I would be uhh..., it must have been a terrible time, Do not go, the tears streamed out of my eyes, we have done everything, in every sense of the word, heh, so you've said and so you've done, there are three... no four books, why not, please, heh heh heh heh, yes I see, you've, uh, phrased that very well.)
Ahhhhh Books. yes yes that's true.
The books. I can't find the books, they must be in La Jolla.
And your head is made of clouds, but your feet are made of ground.
and you're running down.
I had stayed up for 46 hours in a row.
Yeah!
(ewl zsssh)
Lyrics submitted by toadtws
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A few comments and explanations.
The sample for "Indepdent" is the same sample used at the beginning of another Books song, "That Right Ain't Shit," from their second release, The Lemon of Pink.
The French line, "Ceçi n'est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe) is from a famous painting by René Magritte titled "La trahison des images" (The trechery of images). In the painting, the phrase is written in cursive below a picture of a pipe. The Wikipedia article about Magritte has more on the artist and his work, as well as a picture of the painting.
The line "I can't find the books, they must be in La Jolla" is from a "This American Life" act called "The Greatest Phone Message of All Time." This act tells the story of an unintentionally funny phone message left for a student of Columbia University by his mother in the early 90s. It is hilarious. You can visit thislife.org/pages/descriptions/02/203.html to hear the whole act (hell, the whole show). To hear just this act, scrub forward to 39:05.
this song is amazingly well done. im quite suprised more people haven't commented on it yet, but it is amazing. i can just sit and listen to this and my mind drifts all over the place, listening to the sound bites and contemplating them, not to mentiion the instrumental aspect. this band is amazing.
it doesn't sound like the french quote is from magritte... even though it'd be an apt sample there's definitely no p sound. i always thought it was something like 'that girls not an only child'. it sounds to me like the last word is 'unique' and the second word is 'fille'. i've never been sure though, perhaps there is a french speaker who can say for certain?
I once was in between living areas for a few days and went for roughly 60 hours without sleeping. I was sitting at the student union at the college I went to resting my eyes between classes with this song on. I was so sleep deprived, everything suddenly made perfect sense in this song. It is the essence of sleep deprivation. All the muddled thoughts and confusion. The phrase "and your head is made of clouds but your feet are made of ground and your running down" captures that state of mind perfectly. The sample "i had stayed up for 46 hours in a row" plays right on top of that phrase. It makes sense. I can't get enough of this song ever since.