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"
Find yourself a girl and settle down
Live a simple life in a quiet town
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes
Your friends have shown a kink in the single life
You've had too much to think, now you need a wife
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Well here we go again
You've found yourself a friend that knows you well
But no matter what you do
You'll always feel as though you tripped and fell
So steady as she goes
When you have completed what you thought you had to do
And your blood's depleted to the point of stable glue
Then you'll get along
Then you'll get along
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Well here we go again
You've found yourself a friend that knows you well
But no matter what you do
You'll always feel as though you tripped and fell
So steady as she goes
Steady as she goes
Settle for a world (settle for the world), neither up or down (neither up or down)
Sell it to the crowd (sell it to the crowd) that is gathered round (that is gathered round)
Settle for a girl (settle for the girl), neither up or down (neither up or down)
Sell it to the crowd (sell it to the crowd) that is gathered round (that is gathered round)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes
Live a simple life in a quiet town
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes
Your friends have shown a kink in the single life
You've had too much to think, now you need a wife
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Well here we go again
You've found yourself a friend that knows you well
But no matter what you do
You'll always feel as though you tripped and fell
So steady as she goes
When you have completed what you thought you had to do
And your blood's depleted to the point of stable glue
Then you'll get along
Then you'll get along
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Well here we go again
You've found yourself a friend that knows you well
But no matter what you do
You'll always feel as though you tripped and fell
So steady as she goes
Steady as she goes
Settle for a world (settle for the world), neither up or down (neither up or down)
Sell it to the crowd (sell it to the crowd) that is gathered round (that is gathered round)
Settle for a girl (settle for the girl), neither up or down (neither up or down)
Sell it to the crowd (sell it to the crowd) that is gathered round (that is gathered round)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
So steady as she goes (steady as she goes)
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes, are you steady now?
Steady as she goes
Lyrics submitted by shadowboxing
Steady, As She Goes Lyrics as written by Brendan Benson John Anthony White
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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just a thought here but...jack white used to date renee zellweger, and they broke up and got back together a few times. then he married a model only a couple of months after he met her (she was in the WS video for Blue Orchid). Now they live in a small town in Tennessee and have a baby (and are having another one). Maybe he's writing literally about his own single/married life, and about what led him to settle down so suddenly.