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"
Take the road on your wheelchair
Roll it out tonight! cause there's only one option for us right now
One of us got to get down
If you don't hear my call for help, you're in another world boy!
I've lost my faith in the pure, blue skied summertime
I've been lying awake at night thinking,
That son of a fuck dragged me down and now I'm lost
Can you help me find my long way back home?
The traffic lights are even dimmer then my past
Give me a sign, some kind of religion, Allah, Buddha
I don't care, I don't dare to choose one sign, one heart one feeling one god
Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
Every day that goes I need more and more people around me,
People I can rely to
Not those fucking sellouts I read about in the papers
Who's only hope are equally dumb consumers
I'm up on that stage, I'm up here, you're down there
Does that make me more important? more intelligent?
More likely to live that happy standard life your parents sets you out to?
I don't know
Your in a position most kids dream of
I don't know
You can be as weak as the man sleeping on newspapers
I don't know
You're still set out to tell the dirty mans story
I don't know
Other people are talking and thinking about you as we speak
But I've seen them out there as well
Yeah, but you don't know them do you!?
No but they don't know me either
Well, they think they do!,
They think they do!!!
So what do I need to get through the day?
One blood!
What do I need to break on through the night?
One heart!
What do I do to get along with these, these fools?
One soul!
Why don't I just go back to the steal factory? or the warehouse?
Or the railroad? get the fuck out of here, get the fuck out of music,
Back to the days when we had one heart, one brain one soul, one god
'Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
'Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
'Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
Roll it out tonight! cause there's only one option for us right now
One of us got to get down
If you don't hear my call for help, you're in another world boy!
I've lost my faith in the pure, blue skied summertime
I've been lying awake at night thinking,
That son of a fuck dragged me down and now I'm lost
Can you help me find my long way back home?
The traffic lights are even dimmer then my past
Give me a sign, some kind of religion, Allah, Buddha
I don't care, I don't dare to choose one sign, one heart one feeling one god
Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
Every day that goes I need more and more people around me,
People I can rely to
Not those fucking sellouts I read about in the papers
Who's only hope are equally dumb consumers
I'm up on that stage, I'm up here, you're down there
Does that make me more important? more intelligent?
More likely to live that happy standard life your parents sets you out to?
I don't know
Your in a position most kids dream of
I don't know
You can be as weak as the man sleeping on newspapers
I don't know
You're still set out to tell the dirty mans story
I don't know
Other people are talking and thinking about you as we speak
But I've seen them out there as well
Yeah, but you don't know them do you!?
No but they don't know me either
Well, they think they do!,
They think they do!!!
So what do I need to get through the day?
One blood!
What do I need to break on through the night?
One heart!
What do I do to get along with these, these fools?
One soul!
Why don't I just go back to the steal factory? or the warehouse?
Or the railroad? get the fuck out of here, get the fuck out of music,
Back to the days when we had one heart, one brain one soul, one god
'Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
'Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
'Cause it's one blood floating in the stream
It's one blood floating in the stream
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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Dreamwalker
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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.
Punchline
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
American Town
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
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.
I heard them saying that this song is about the band, Their fellowship and brotherhood.