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 did everything
I asked you not to
Look where it got you
I'm sure
You heard it before
But, how could you?
Baby, why would you?
[Bridge:]
Goodbye, sweetheart
Countdown started
Words are heavy
But I'm far from broken hearted
Goodbye stranger
I'll take the fall
Lies were tempting
You know you never really threw me off at all
[Chorus:]
Go ahead
Waste your time
Count me out
Take your place at the end of the line
Raise a glass
No surprise
Here's to us at the end of the line (Oh, yeah)
Here's to us at the end of the line (Oh, yeah)
I'll miss the version of you
Who loved me
And all that they don't see
You said you could be good
Somehow you're guilty
And you're not even sorry
[Bridge]
[Chorus x2]
I asked you not to
Look where it got you
I'm sure
You heard it before
But, how could you?
Baby, why would you?
[Bridge:]
Goodbye, sweetheart
Countdown started
Words are heavy
But I'm far from broken hearted
Goodbye stranger
I'll take the fall
Lies were tempting
You know you never really threw me off at all
[Chorus:]
Go ahead
Waste your time
Count me out
Take your place at the end of the line
Raise a glass
No surprise
Here's to us at the end of the line (Oh, yeah)
Here's to us at the end of the line (Oh, yeah)
I'll miss the version of you
Who loved me
And all that they don't see
You said you could be good
Somehow you're guilty
And you're not even sorry
[Bridge]
[Chorus x2]
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This reminds me of a guy at work who I really liked but who wasn't doing well and was on the verge of being sacked. I told him what he needed to do in order to keep his job and he basically did the opposite (not to spite me but because he was messed up and incapable of doing what I'd told him). Still makes me sad now he's gone :(
Anyways! Mandy's version is very sad, but in a resigned way: she knew it was coming I think, and so was almost expecting it, even though she warned him of the consequences of his actions. She realises she never really knew him ("goodbye stranger") and is putting on a brave face to him ("you never really threw me off", "I'm far from broken-hearted").
I also love the line: "I miss the version of you...", suggesting that in the beginning it was very different and he truly seemed to love her, including the very private side of her that she had never usually lets people see. This suggests that the fact that she has resigned herself to their fate has only come later, when the bad side of him has shown through. I think she raises her glass to it knowing that the time has come to break up and it is the best thing for her.