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"
Jack and Edie lying across my bed
Flying high like the spirits of the dead
The living and the dead, the living and the dead
Our Lady of Sorrows and the long dark night
How many candles could I light
For the living and the dead, the living and the dead?
What's that black smoke rising Jack, is the world on fire?
What's that distant singing, is it a heavenly choir?
Of the living and the dead, the living and the dead
I think about you Jack watching the TV
And drinking booze, shame on you, shame on me
But how can we help it there was no where else to go
I sent Julie and Billy out on that long hard road
On that long hard road, on that long hard road
I'm just back from Mexico city
I came back north to Texas to rest my weary head
My true love is fresh from the battle field
Sewing up the dying and carting off the dead
My baby don't stand no fighting amongst the living or the dead
What's that black smoke rising Jack, is the world on fire?
What's that distant singing, is it a heavenly choir?
Of the living and the dead, the living and the dead
The living and the dead, the living and the dead
The living and the dead, the living and the dead
Flying high like the spirits of the dead
The living and the dead, the living and the dead
Our Lady of Sorrows and the long dark night
How many candles could I light
For the living and the dead, the living and the dead?
What's that black smoke rising Jack, is the world on fire?
What's that distant singing, is it a heavenly choir?
Of the living and the dead, the living and the dead
I think about you Jack watching the TV
And drinking booze, shame on you, shame on me
But how can we help it there was no where else to go
I sent Julie and Billy out on that long hard road
On that long hard road, on that long hard road
I'm just back from Mexico city
I came back north to Texas to rest my weary head
My true love is fresh from the battle field
Sewing up the dying and carting off the dead
My baby don't stand no fighting amongst the living or the dead
What's that black smoke rising Jack, is the world on fire?
What's that distant singing, is it a heavenly choir?
Of the living and the dead, the living and the dead
The living and the dead, the living and the dead
The living and the dead, the living and the dead
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Son Şansın - Şarkı Sözleri
Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
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”
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
"Jack" is the American Beat Poet Jack Kerouac (On The Rode, Dharma Bums, etc). "Edie" is his first wife, Edie Kerouac-Parker who married him to gain access to an inheritance that would allow him to post bail having been incarcerated as an accessory after the fact in the murder of Lucien Carr's murder of David Kammerer. "Billy" is William Burroughs (Naked Lunch, etc) who was also part of the "Beat" circle. "Billy" Burroughs, noted junky, is also mentioned in Holland's song "Old Fashioned Morphine". "Julie" is the daughter of Burroughs' wife Joan Vollmer, who Burroughs shot and killed in a drunken game of "William Tell" in 1951. Mexico City is tied to Kerouac in several ways, most notably in his poem "Mexico City Blues" wherein he said later he wanted to write "as a musician plays jazz". Additionally, Kerouac traveled to Mexico regularly in his frequent road trips. Death and alcoholism ("Drinking booze/shame on you/shame on me") figure heavily in the lives of the people mentioned in the song (Kerouac himself died from complications due to alcoholism).