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 couldn't stand another second in your room staring
At the easy gestures of your wrist spreading perfume sparingly
Behind the ears and across the neck I once studied so carefully
It had been too long
It had been too long
It had been too long since I had watched you move
I had to cut out for some fresh air on the landing
But I got nothing but the smell of rotten fruit rising up from the alley
Suddenly I realized I wasn't young anymore and I was still hiding out from your daddy
I had spent so long
I had spent so long
I had spent so long loving you
My mother built her name on getting out of sorry situations
My father bought a piece of land he didn't care to ever stray from
And I was the very worst kind of cool combination
I wanted to stay
I wanted to stay
I wanted to stay but I always go
I don't know if I can go and drink with you on Saturday
I've been dizzy inside this dirty window since that last time you walked away
Well the cars and trucks bolt and fizzle like fireworks on the freeway
But I wonder where they go
I wonder where they go
I wonder where they go to explode
You and me I guess we were just born to be free Sally
Well that's the kind of think you say when you lose your grip on something
I pushed my way this far but now I don't know how to stop running
And I can't stand still
I can't stand still
I can't stand still and follow you
I don't mind losing everything that I lived for once
The earth spins for seventy-five cents down at the local laundromat
Well Chris says you've got to lose your head something to save your neck
So Sally go on
Sally go on
Sally go on and that's just what I'll do
At the easy gestures of your wrist spreading perfume sparingly
Behind the ears and across the neck I once studied so carefully
It had been too long
It had been too long
It had been too long since I had watched you move
I had to cut out for some fresh air on the landing
But I got nothing but the smell of rotten fruit rising up from the alley
Suddenly I realized I wasn't young anymore and I was still hiding out from your daddy
I had spent so long
I had spent so long
I had spent so long loving you
My mother built her name on getting out of sorry situations
My father bought a piece of land he didn't care to ever stray from
And I was the very worst kind of cool combination
I wanted to stay
I wanted to stay
I wanted to stay but I always go
I don't know if I can go and drink with you on Saturday
I've been dizzy inside this dirty window since that last time you walked away
Well the cars and trucks bolt and fizzle like fireworks on the freeway
But I wonder where they go
I wonder where they go
I wonder where they go to explode
You and me I guess we were just born to be free Sally
Well that's the kind of think you say when you lose your grip on something
I pushed my way this far but now I don't know how to stop running
And I can't stand still
I can't stand still
I can't stand still and follow you
I don't mind losing everything that I lived for once
The earth spins for seventy-five cents down at the local laundromat
Well Chris says you've got to lose your head something to save your neck
So Sally go on
Sally go on
Sally go on and that's just what I'll do
Lyrics submitted by workinprogress
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The Night We Met
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
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.
Gentle Hour
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
American Town
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.