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"
Oh my, oh my
What a wretched life
I was born on the day
That my poor mama died
I was cut from her belly
With a Stanley knife
My daddy did a jig
With the drunk midwife
Who's that yonder all in flames
Dragging behind him a sack of chains
Who's that yonder all in flames
Well, up jumped the Devil and he staked his claim on me
Oh, poor heart
I was doomed from the start
Doomed to play
The villain's part
I was the baddest Johnny
In the apple cart
My blood was blacker
Than the chambers of a dead nun's heart
Oh, who's that milling on the courthouse steps
Nailing my face to the hitching fence
Who's that milling 'round the courthouse steps
Up jumped the Devil and off he crept
Oh no, oh no
Where could I go
With my hump of trouble
And my sack of woe
To the digs and the deserts of Mexico
Where my neck was safer from the lynching rope
Who's that yonder laughing at me
Like I was the brunt of some hilarity
Who's that yonder laughing at me
Well up jumped the Devil, one, two, three
H-h-h-h-h-how lucky we were
We hit the cathouses
And we sampled their wares
We got as drunk
As a couple of Czars
That night I swallowed
My lucky stars
Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof
Stamping on the ramping with a cloven hoof
Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof
Up jumped the Devil and said "Here is your man and I got a proof"
Oh no, oh no, don't go
Oh, slow down Joe
The righteous path is straight as an arrow
Take a walk and you'll find it's too narrow
Too narrow for the likes of me
Who's that hanging from the gallows tree
His eyes are plucked but he looks like me
Now who's that swinging from the gallows tree
Up jumped the Devil and he took my soul from me
Down, down, down
Down we go
Down we go
Down we go
Down we go
The Devil and me
Down we go
Down we go
Down, down, down
The Devil and me
Down we go
Down we go
For eternity
Yeah, the Devil and me
Down we go
Down we go
Down we go
Down, down, down
Hell fire and flames
Down we go
Down we go the Devil and me to Eternity
Down we go
Down we go
What a wretched life
I was born on the day
That my poor mama died
I was cut from her belly
With a Stanley knife
My daddy did a jig
With the drunk midwife
Who's that yonder all in flames
Dragging behind him a sack of chains
Who's that yonder all in flames
Well, up jumped the Devil and he staked his claim on me
Oh, poor heart
I was doomed from the start
Doomed to play
The villain's part
I was the baddest Johnny
In the apple cart
My blood was blacker
Than the chambers of a dead nun's heart
Oh, who's that milling on the courthouse steps
Nailing my face to the hitching fence
Who's that milling 'round the courthouse steps
Up jumped the Devil and off he crept
Oh no, oh no
Where could I go
With my hump of trouble
And my sack of woe
To the digs and the deserts of Mexico
Where my neck was safer from the lynching rope
Who's that yonder laughing at me
Like I was the brunt of some hilarity
Who's that yonder laughing at me
Well up jumped the Devil, one, two, three
H-h-h-h-h-how lucky we were
We hit the cathouses
And we sampled their wares
We got as drunk
As a couple of Czars
That night I swallowed
My lucky stars
Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof
Stamping on the ramping with a cloven hoof
Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof
Up jumped the Devil and said "Here is your man and I got a proof"
Oh no, oh no, don't go
Oh, slow down Joe
The righteous path is straight as an arrow
Take a walk and you'll find it's too narrow
Too narrow for the likes of me
Who's that hanging from the gallows tree
His eyes are plucked but he looks like me
Now who's that swinging from the gallows tree
Up jumped the Devil and he took my soul from me
Down, down, down
Down we go
Down we go
Down we go
Down we go
The Devil and me
Down we go
Down we go
Down, down, down
The Devil and me
Down we go
Down we go
For eternity
Yeah, the Devil and me
Down we go
Down we go
Down we go
Down, down, down
Hell fire and flames
Down we go
Down we go the Devil and me to Eternity
Down we go
Down we go
Lyrics submitted by Dressed2Depress, edited by lucyintheSkyWithDiamonds, JQMurder, Mellow_Harsher, Skandiko
Up Jumped the Devil Lyrics as written by Kid Powers Blixa Bargeld
Lyrics © Freibank Musikverlags und vermarktungs GmbH, Mute Song Limited, Royalty Network
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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