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"
No one wants to hear about your 97th tear
So dry your eyes or let it go uncried, my dear
I am all out of love to mouth and to your ear
And not above letting a love song disappear
Before it's written
And no one wants a tune about the 100th luftballoon
That was seen shooting from the window of your room
To be a spot against the sky's colossal gloom
And land deflated in some neighbor's state that's strewn
With ninety-nine others
Eight Chinese brothers
Well, there's a reason why the last is smiling wide
And sitting higher than the others
Swinging his arms
You would probably die before you shot up nine miles high
Your eyes dilated as light played upon the sight
Of TVC16 as it sings you goodnight
Relaxed as hell and locked up in cell forty-five
Well, I hope you're feeling better
51st way to leave your lover
Admittedly, it doesn't seem to be as gentle
Or as clean as all the others
Even a scars all in the after hours of some Greenpoint bar
I told you, I can't listen, baby, 'bout the 4th time you were a lady
And how your forthrightness betrayed a secret shyness
Stripped away by days of being hailed as your highness
And what's new pussycat as you were once a lioness
They cut your claws out
Kitten, not everyone's keen on lighting candle 17
The party's done, the cake's all gone, the plates are clean
The chauffeur's near and full of cheerless mezzanine
And in just one year, this straight world could pay to see
What they have been missing
You were caught kissing eight Chinese brothers
Well, there's a reason why the last is smiling wide
And sitting higher than the others
Staking with charm
And he says, lets get lost, let them send out alarms
He says, lets get crossed out and come to harm
Lets make the world's stupidest stand and truly mean it
Lets hit the limit of loss over lover's arms
No, lets exceed it
So dry your eyes or let it go uncried, my dear
I am all out of love to mouth and to your ear
And not above letting a love song disappear
Before it's written
And no one wants a tune about the 100th luftballoon
That was seen shooting from the window of your room
To be a spot against the sky's colossal gloom
And land deflated in some neighbor's state that's strewn
With ninety-nine others
Eight Chinese brothers
Well, there's a reason why the last is smiling wide
And sitting higher than the others
Swinging his arms
You would probably die before you shot up nine miles high
Your eyes dilated as light played upon the sight
Of TVC16 as it sings you goodnight
Relaxed as hell and locked up in cell forty-five
Well, I hope you're feeling better
51st way to leave your lover
Admittedly, it doesn't seem to be as gentle
Or as clean as all the others
Even a scars all in the after hours of some Greenpoint bar
I told you, I can't listen, baby, 'bout the 4th time you were a lady
And how your forthrightness betrayed a secret shyness
Stripped away by days of being hailed as your highness
And what's new pussycat as you were once a lioness
They cut your claws out
Kitten, not everyone's keen on lighting candle 17
The party's done, the cake's all gone, the plates are clean
The chauffeur's near and full of cheerless mezzanine
And in just one year, this straight world could pay to see
What they have been missing
You were caught kissing eight Chinese brothers
Well, there's a reason why the last is smiling wide
And sitting higher than the others
Staking with charm
And he says, lets get lost, let them send out alarms
He says, lets get crossed out and come to harm
Lets make the world's stupidest stand and truly mean it
Lets hit the limit of loss over lover's arms
No, lets exceed it
Lyrics submitted by smileforthecamera
Plus Ones Lyrics as written by Will Robinson Sheff
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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,
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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.
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Ah, yeah, the Byrds one was just something I forgot to type, but I overlooked the Jones reference. Though in my defense, it's not a "plus one" so to say.
I would say that "What's New Pussycat?" is a plus one, just not in the literal, 'numerical' sense. Pussycat to Lioness is a 'plus one' and fits the context of the work. I would also like to mention that this message has a lot of unnecessary quotation marks.