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"
You say you wanna be free, no chains to bind you
Just come along with me, don't look behind you
You tried following, didn't get you anywhere
Tried to conform to a society that doesn't care
What the other people think doesn't matter at all
No need to feel like your back's against the wall
They don't wanna know, they don't wanna see
Faking everything, chasing fantasy
If you wanna be wild, if you wanna stand tall
Let's stand together, we can take it all
We can go against the flow 'cause I'll be there beside you
Do just what we wanna do
We can go against the flow, the feeling deep inside you
No one can stop us from what were gonna do
Sad state of affairs, you've got your future spent
That's why you laugh at those who dare to be different
To close your open mind or try to understand
The answer waits for you but not so close at hand
So many have tried, so many have failed
Fallen soldiers lie beside the darkened trail
I can see the sound, I can hear red
I can feel the thoughts deep inside your head
If you wanna be wild, if you wanna stand tall
Let's stand together, we can take it all
We can go against the flow 'cause I'll be there beside you
Do just what we wanna do
Go against the flow, the feeling deep inside you
No one can stop us from what were gonna do
No one can stop us from what were gonna do
Visions of blindness, conformity, rage in your head
But life without choice isn't living when freedom is dead
You wanna be wild
You wanna stand tall
Let's stand together, we can take it all!
Be there beside you
I'll be there to guide you, to take you anywhere
You know how much I care
You know how much I care
Go against the flow
Go against the flow
Go against the flow
Go against the flow
Tall, wild
Stand tall
Be wild
Stand tall
Be wild
From our feelings
From inside
Just come along with me, don't look behind you
You tried following, didn't get you anywhere
Tried to conform to a society that doesn't care
What the other people think doesn't matter at all
No need to feel like your back's against the wall
They don't wanna know, they don't wanna see
Faking everything, chasing fantasy
If you wanna be wild, if you wanna stand tall
Let's stand together, we can take it all
We can go against the flow 'cause I'll be there beside you
Do just what we wanna do
We can go against the flow, the feeling deep inside you
No one can stop us from what were gonna do
Sad state of affairs, you've got your future spent
That's why you laugh at those who dare to be different
To close your open mind or try to understand
The answer waits for you but not so close at hand
So many have tried, so many have failed
Fallen soldiers lie beside the darkened trail
I can see the sound, I can hear red
I can feel the thoughts deep inside your head
If you wanna be wild, if you wanna stand tall
Let's stand together, we can take it all
We can go against the flow 'cause I'll be there beside you
Do just what we wanna do
Go against the flow, the feeling deep inside you
No one can stop us from what were gonna do
No one can stop us from what were gonna do
Visions of blindness, conformity, rage in your head
But life without choice isn't living when freedom is dead
You wanna be wild
You wanna stand tall
Let's stand together, we can take it all!
Be there beside you
I'll be there to guide you, to take you anywhere
You know how much I care
You know how much I care
Go against the flow
Go against the flow
Go against the flow
Go against the flow
Tall, wild
Stand tall
Be wild
Stand tall
Be wild
From our feelings
From inside
Lyrics submitted by Major Valor
Go Against the Flow Lyrics as written by Dale F. Bozzio Terry John Bozzio
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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Yo La Tengo
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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,
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Let's do it. Let's be wild and free, and do what we want, and not what others have said we should do. Let's let no one dictate our lives and determine how we do what we do, or where we go.