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"
Picking up the story from where I left off, it's 1990 now so school can fuck off
I got no GCSEs, nothing higher than a D,
I couldn't tell me mum because she'd batter me
Me and Tate sat on the bowling green, life is a shitter
We had five quid between us and bought six cans of bitter
I took me ten Benson home and I smoked through the sorrow
If I could just avoid me mum maybe I'll tell her tomorrow
I stumbled through the door and said "Mum, it's like this."
She said "That man's been on the phone and you've made the list!
You're in that boy band, son, come and giz a kiss!"
Phoned up Martin and Rich and carried on getting pissed
"Boys I don't believe it, I'm gonna be famous!
Pick you up in a Porsche and buy you lots of trainers."
I met the other guys, one seemed like a cock
I think it's gonna be like New Kids on The Block
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
I adopted four brothers, some I liked more than others
One was like a brother from another mother
But the lead singer made it hard to like him
But I still loved him, to spite him
The first three months, you know, I nearly quit
I played snooker with me dad he said "Don't be a dick!
Unload the bullets, your mind is a gun,
You're gonna shoot yourself when they're number one!"
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
Now it's dinner with Versace, lunch with Princess Diana
And I'm gonna get battered if I go out in my manor
Because as much as we were loved we were also hated
The boys got jealous cause the girls got plated
Now we're famous and that, and we're dancing and that
And I'm thinking "I can sing, Why am I stood at the back?"
So fuck the band give me Sambuca and gak
We're all a bag of nerves and not a band of brothers
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
And now it's breaking my heart because the dream's turned to shit
It ain't broke but I'll break it in a little bit
And I'm always in trouble but I've stopped saying sorry
Everybody's worried "What the fuck's wrong with Robbie?
He's not answering his phone, he's not talking to me
I saw him on the telly at Glastonbury."
And now I'm running away from everything that I've been
And I'm pissed and I'm fucked and I'm only nineteen
I can't conform no more, I can't perform no more
But the boys know I'm fucked and so they show me the door
And if truth be told I wasn't fit enough to stay
So I put my head down and walked away.
That was the 90s; 90 to 95
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
I got no GCSEs, nothing higher than a D,
I couldn't tell me mum because she'd batter me
Me and Tate sat on the bowling green, life is a shitter
We had five quid between us and bought six cans of bitter
I took me ten Benson home and I smoked through the sorrow
If I could just avoid me mum maybe I'll tell her tomorrow
I stumbled through the door and said "Mum, it's like this."
She said "That man's been on the phone and you've made the list!
You're in that boy band, son, come and giz a kiss!"
Phoned up Martin and Rich and carried on getting pissed
"Boys I don't believe it, I'm gonna be famous!
Pick you up in a Porsche and buy you lots of trainers."
I met the other guys, one seemed like a cock
I think it's gonna be like New Kids on The Block
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
I adopted four brothers, some I liked more than others
One was like a brother from another mother
But the lead singer made it hard to like him
But I still loved him, to spite him
The first three months, you know, I nearly quit
I played snooker with me dad he said "Don't be a dick!
Unload the bullets, your mind is a gun,
You're gonna shoot yourself when they're number one!"
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
Now it's dinner with Versace, lunch with Princess Diana
And I'm gonna get battered if I go out in my manor
Because as much as we were loved we were also hated
The boys got jealous cause the girls got plated
Now we're famous and that, and we're dancing and that
And I'm thinking "I can sing, Why am I stood at the back?"
So fuck the band give me Sambuca and gak
We're all a bag of nerves and not a band of brothers
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
And now it's breaking my heart because the dream's turned to shit
It ain't broke but I'll break it in a little bit
And I'm always in trouble but I've stopped saying sorry
Everybody's worried "What the fuck's wrong with Robbie?
He's not answering his phone, he's not talking to me
I saw him on the telly at Glastonbury."
And now I'm running away from everything that I've been
And I'm pissed and I'm fucked and I'm only nineteen
I can't conform no more, I can't perform no more
But the boys know I'm fucked and so they show me the door
And if truth be told I wasn't fit enough to stay
So I put my head down and walked away.
That was the 90s; 90 to 95
I cant be bothered, cause I'm lazy
I hate those that hate me
I cant forgive and it's crazy, baby
Now I'm a video star
Do you know who you are, baby?
(I only wanted to get down
I'm making trouble in this town
For the five of us)
Lyrics submitted by lauren_6_6_6
The 90's Lyrics as written by Robert Peter Williams Jerry Christopher Meehan
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, FARRELL MUSIC LIMITED
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I love this one, it lets us know almost everything about joining "Take That", and what was in Rob's head around that time. It's interesting to hear, and you get to understand his behaviour and his ways at the time. Which is also full of hope, since he once was so "fucked" in his own words, and managed to rise above and be the megastar he is...
Robbie says: "The 90s on the other hand was, originally going to have a sample from one of my top 5 favourite songs: Wichita Lineman in it. I didn't like it at first, but I came around to it and did some poetry on it, some comfy rapping, with very English storytelling like a modern Roald Dahl but fatter! The 90s then on became the 90s after we took the sample out. I look back at it now with a fondness in my heart. I think they are just two nice bookends; ˜The 80s" up until I'd left school, lost my virginity, done all kinds. Then there was the whole Take That story to tell which was ˜The 90's". It's weird now, I've spunked all the best material so I'll have to do something drastic so that we have some source material for the next one."
Can't believe only one comment. Possibly Robbies best song to date bar Angels. A bit of an insight into his life and some of the people surrounding him. His voice actually works very well on this song. Rudebox on the other hand........
this is the true life of robbie when he starts in take that. he was a bad learner, he had bad qualifications, and he didn't know what to do with his life. so answer the phone and his life change. since he enter in take that, and his troubles with gary barlow. nobody understood him, even his family. i play with my dad he said don't be a dick... and he felt bad, because the fame was not as good as he thought. so he pissed and fucked, because he was only 19, he was a child and he wanted girls, money, cars, fame. but after that he runaway, he couldn't live with gary barlow and runaway. but the boys know i'm fucked so they show me the door. poor robbie, he was too young and the fame was so big....he couldn't resist.