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"
We floated downstream like swans in the sun
Surrounded by friends and lovers
We watched on with smiles beaming so bright
The river behind them, the fading daylight
I knew her back from when she was young
Those days poured out faster than rounds from a gun
Scattered like shells and lost to the sea
Like the river the days move rapidly
I have all these memories, I don't know what for
I have them and I can't help it
Some overflow and spill like waves
some I will harbor
For all of my days
I burned liked oil, you grew like a flower
Rising toward your magical hour
I was not yours and you were not mine
Our true love finds us when it is time
We drove back downtown
Wasted and spent
Down highways that I remember
Happy for her and happy for me
The old times and the new to uncover
I laid down my head, in love with the night
With my new love beside me, her radiant light
I faded away, along with my thoughts
Like a dream and I trail off mystically
Surrounded by friends and lovers
We watched on with smiles beaming so bright
The river behind them, the fading daylight
I knew her back from when she was young
Those days poured out faster than rounds from a gun
Scattered like shells and lost to the sea
Like the river the days move rapidly
I have all these memories, I don't know what for
I have them and I can't help it
Some overflow and spill like waves
some I will harbor
For all of my days
I burned liked oil, you grew like a flower
Rising toward your magical hour
I was not yours and you were not mine
Our true love finds us when it is time
We drove back downtown
Wasted and spent
Down highways that I remember
Happy for her and happy for me
The old times and the new to uncover
I laid down my head, in love with the night
With my new love beside me, her radiant light
I faded away, along with my thoughts
Like a dream and I trail off mystically
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
This song is sort of scattered... he's remembering an old love I think, and how it ended and were happy for each other, and he eventually found a new love, but never lost the memories.
This verse makes the song - "I have all these memories, I don't know what for I have them and I can't help it Some overflow and spill like waves some I will harbour For all of my days"
That's all it is.
My favorite song on this album (so far!) I agree with trisweb about this song hinting to an old love but as a father of little ones the lines "Those days poured out faster than rounds from a gun Scattered like shells and lost to the sea" reminds me that every moment is absolutely precious and fleeting at best.
As well as the lines "I burned like oil, and she grew like a flower" hits home for me as, even though I think I am a good and loving father, I am holding on to my pre-kid life while she has "grown like a flower" into a wonderful mother as I "burn like oil" trying to do two things at once (fatherhood and, at the same time, holding on a little to strongly to my days before kids). The two verses together are haunting me to distraction.
Anyway, I find it funny that my subconcious has taken a song clearly about a love, lost or not, and turned it into a song about the dichotomy in my life as a father.
I'm pretty sure this is about his attending the wedding of a friend, possible ex girlfriend. It's one of my favorite songs. Also I think its "They floated downstream like swans in the sun Surrounded by friends and loved ones" On a differnt version it is "happy for her and happy for him"