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"
I'm never gonna understand this.
I'm never gonna let it be.
I just can't understand this aged plan,
It's obsolete.
How can you recognize and cherish
hysteric fairy tales?
They've come to life. Now sit by and listen...
The whole world wails.
I feel as though I've been abducted
Or maybe I am just misplaced
As I watch these rash hysterics
lay to waste the human race.
Just ask them if the sky will open
and save us from the truth.
They say that they'd leave today
Just without, without you.
Is this one big joke?
I can only hope
Say your prayers, they're the final punchline.
I don't see the love, below or above
Say you're scared, well, I feel fine
Oh, please believe (oh, please believe)
I'm doing just fine
For what's deceased I shall never grieve
Just let your faith die. Die!
I feel I have been abandoned
I alone seem to see disgrace
As I watch these mad dogmatics
govern our entire race.
Don't tell them you can walk on water
Or they may drink your blood
Why live for pain in the name
the name of, the name of love?
I can only hope
This is one big joke
With your prayers as the final punchline
How is it divine
When it's flawed design?
Fill the cracks with faith I can't find.
Screaming for pure love
You venerate
Delusion based in hate
Bleeding from pure love
For this I pray:
We've got to shake the faith.
I'm never gonna let it be.
I just can't understand this aged plan,
It's obsolete.
How can you recognize and cherish
hysteric fairy tales?
They've come to life. Now sit by and listen...
The whole world wails.
I feel as though I've been abducted
Or maybe I am just misplaced
As I watch these rash hysterics
lay to waste the human race.
Just ask them if the sky will open
and save us from the truth.
They say that they'd leave today
Just without, without you.
Is this one big joke?
I can only hope
Say your prayers, they're the final punchline.
I don't see the love, below or above
Say you're scared, well, I feel fine
Oh, please believe (oh, please believe)
I'm doing just fine
For what's deceased I shall never grieve
Just let your faith die. Die!
I feel I have been abandoned
I alone seem to see disgrace
As I watch these mad dogmatics
govern our entire race.
Don't tell them you can walk on water
Or they may drink your blood
Why live for pain in the name
the name of, the name of love?
I can only hope
This is one big joke
With your prayers as the final punchline
How is it divine
When it's flawed design?
Fill the cracks with faith I can't find.
Screaming for pure love
You venerate
Delusion based in hate
Bleeding from pure love
For this I pray:
We've got to shake the faith.
Lyrics submitted by KTheLibra
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The Night We Met
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I lost alot of respect for Davey when I heard this song. I can't support someone who feels that way about my religious beliefs, it's very wrong for him to encourage people to let their faith die, he has no right to do that, i've been an AFI fan for 10 years and i'm really upset about this. I hope they break up. Fuck AFI.
You've been a fan for 10 years and only now have noticed that Davey has this opinion of religion?
10 years being a fan? Ok, go pay attention to the lyrics for some of the songs on Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes, Black Sails, Art of Drowning, Sing the Sorrow, and Decemberunderground. How could you possibly get upset just now? Probably cuz AFI's lyrics back then weren't that direct about things. Anyway, Davey's not encouraging anything. He's only expressing his views. You seem sure of your religious beliefs, you won't change them just because of a song, so do yourself a favor and relax.
Further adding to the two above replies, more specifically go listen to "The Great Disappointment" off STS. To me, that's one of the most obvious lyrics Davey had ever written up to that point. He talks much about figures of white (angels?), talks about how growing up he was taught to believe, but now that he understands the whole thought of religion, he feels he's been "let down" and thus, it being a Great Disappointment to him finding out that there may just be no God, or figures of white.<br /> <br /> And honestly, do you really think he wrote this song JUST for the simple fact of pissing you off? I do believe he writes what he feels and is just expressing HIS OWN OPINION. Period.
You're a moron. Since when does he or anyone else need a right to say such a thing? Grow up kid. Seriously.
look at what your faith based upon, and watch it crumble before your eyes.
If you don't like it, don't listen to it, there's no reason that someone besides you can't express their own opinion on religion, granted its a very touchy subject for some. I don't think he was attacking YOU personally, actually I don't think he was attacking anyone. This is his opinion and its his song, and according to the constitution, his right to express it. Get over yourself man.
@roflhotpockets —pretty sure the Paul of Tarsus and his peers wrote extensively on many of the same themes AFI expresses here, warning us against organized religion: “those who claim to be Jews but are not,” (Rev. 3:9) and “so-called Christians—false ones really—who snuck in secretly to take away the freedom we have in Christ and lead us into bondage,” (Gal. 2:4). Hear me out—<br /> <br /> It is a constant theme in Scriptural literature because of how prominent the danger and temptation, for those who claim to have to access God to use their tactics to control a mass following, to move by hate and fear rather than love and compassion. Check out Galatians, 2 Corinthians, Titus, 1 Timothy, 1 Thessalonians... (Streetlights Bible on Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube... is a great free resource for an accessible auditory experience with early Christian writers) —many of the themes of this AFI song are actually prophecied about in the Christian Bible—that’s what’s so amazing to me!! <br /> <br /> Davey is expressing highest truth—remember there’s only one truth, whatever name you give it and whatever way you come to it, and we all have access to it! As Davey here articulates, inspired by “pure love,” Paul was imprisoned, beaten, whipped, rejected by religious zealots of his time who challenged his message of peace. He felt as though he’d been abandoned. And who was his inspiration, his comforter, his exemplar? And Paul knew he wouldn’t be the last!! That’s why he wrote so passionately to his communities, warning them (and us) in writing about those who would preach to gain worldly power and wealth. They appear powerful. Paul knew, and Davey sees, how tempting it is to use fear as a motivator to gain followers and respect, but its power is selfish and it’s delusional! It cannot stand against true love in the end!!<br /> <br /> Only by standing together—whether you identify with an institutional Christianity or something else—only by extending what love you have to your brothers and sisters can we deconstruct the system of hate and fear that is undeniably powerful in our lives!<br /> <br /> “Shake the faith,!” Questionnaire n your faith, and then, your answers become more defined!! Why do you believe what you believe? Study that question!!!<br /> <br /> “Let your faith die!” And what do we believe follows after death...? <br /> <br /> So, let your weak, mortal bodies; your weak mortal faith; die, so it can be replaced by something far higher and greater than we might ever ask or imagine!!<br /> <br /> Now all glory and honor and power to the One who alone is God!