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 saw somebody who
Reminded me of you
Before you got afraid
I wish that you could've stayed that way
I saw a little girl
I stopped and smiled at her
She screamed and ran away
It happens to me more and more these days
And these songs that you sing
Do they mean anything
To the people you're singing them to
People like you
I saw a photograph
A woman in a bath
Of hundred dollar bills
If the cold doesn't kill her, money will
I read a magazine
That said by seventeen
Your life was at an end
I'm dead and I'm perfectly content
And these songs that I sing
Do they mean anything
To the people I am singing them to
People like you
And these songs that we sing
Do they mean anything
To the people we 're singing them to
Tonight they do
Tonight they do
Tonight they do
Reminded me of you
Before you got afraid
I wish that you could've stayed that way
I saw a little girl
I stopped and smiled at her
She screamed and ran away
It happens to me more and more these days
And these songs that you sing
Do they mean anything
To the people you're singing them to
People like you
I saw a photograph
A woman in a bath
Of hundred dollar bills
If the cold doesn't kill her, money will
I read a magazine
That said by seventeen
Your life was at an end
I'm dead and I'm perfectly content
And these songs that I sing
Do they mean anything
To the people I am singing them to
People like you
And these songs that we sing
Do they mean anything
To the people we 're singing them to
Tonight they do
Tonight they do
Tonight they do
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Blue
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“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.
i love this song and charlotte gainsbourg so much.
as for a meaning, well, i'm not too sure. a few little anecdotes put together to question whether anything is really worth what it takes to actually do it. whether it's worth smiling. whether it's worth having all the money in the world. whether it's worth singing, if nobody's listening. and i think by the end and other lines like "..i'm dead and i'm perfectly content" show that really, she's just fine with it.
regardless, i'm not good with song meanings. i do know that, to answer charlotte's question, this song does mean a lot to me. i just wish it was a lot longer.
I think the person percieve the world through a filter. Some sad things happens to her, but she maybe doesn't even notice the facts. I think she just had traumatic events in her life. She maybe tries to save herself talking to herself "that is life" repeatedly.
I love this song which was at least co-written by Jarvis Cocker.
The first verse makes me think that the song was written for a friend who lost the fearlessness she had when she had when she was young. Maybe that's the woman in the bath who is wealthy but has little real warmth in her life.
It's hard to tell if the line about being dead and being perfectly content actually refers to the singer or to the person in the magazine whose life was supposedly over at 17.
I'm not completely sure on the meaning, but I agree with Pozzi. I think she's had some bad some bad experiences and she's just saying, "Oh, well. Life goes on." She has an optimistic view of the world.
"I saw somebody who reminded me of you before you got afraid; I wish that you could've stayed that way." She maybe saw a person who reminded her of a friend - they had some fearless, daredevil quality that her friend seemed to have lost (after possibly a tragic occurrence).
"I saw a little girl, I stopped and smiled at her; she screamed and ran away; it happens to me more and more these days." I'm not too sure what that's about. Maybe when she stops to be polite and smile at a child, they are scared of her? I'm not sure, but that's the image I get.
"I saw a photograph: a woman in a bath of hundred dollar bills; if the cold doesn't kill her, money will." I think the "cold" she's referring to is the stereotypical snobbish cold attitude wealthy people are depict of having. If her stuck-up personality doesn't kill her, the money eventually will (because money is the root of all evil).
My favorite line, "I read a magazine that said by seventeen your life was at an end; I'm dead and I'm perfectly content." I think she's referring to her own age. She's over the age of seventeen, so she's "dead" (according to the magazine) but she's content with her life being "at an end".
And the chorus, she's wondering if the music she (as well as others) makes means anything to their audience. The last line, "Tonight they do" can be her being optimistic. At the same time, I see it as a foreshadowing. Like, usually the songs won't mean much to anyone, but "tonight" someone will have something terrible happen and they will take comfort in her music.
That's just my take on it. Beautiful song that stays stuck in your head.
I recognize so much in this song that I find it difficult to see other possible interpretations. Going through my mid life crisis I notice that people change, so does their attitude to me, and I change too. A person that once loved me doesn't love me anymore. She is now scared of me. And when I smile to a young person she will be wondering what I want from her. What is important in life? Bathing in money certainly isn't. What is important is that what we do, means something to others. In this case a song, but it could be anything. And if we have worked that out, it doesn't matter if we are getting beyond a certain age.
All beautifully valid interpretations. One more layer I thought I would add is that the style of the strings riff is reminiscent of her late father's song "Bonnie & Clyde", so perhaps her chorus is also a kind of tribute to her father's fantastic musical legacy, albeit not well known in the Anglo-speaking world. However, the song itself is indirectly famous as it has been used in electronic music. She is very clever and very talented. She is a superstar actress in France with many awards in her name. Her life story is fascinating and it shows in her creativity. I love her!