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"
All these inanimate places feel like there changing
And the kids are lined up on the wall like they're ready to die
His forms ascending me its like they just rearranged them
We're all caged up like animals, questioned and ready to cry
'Cause I was just thirteen when I got my first taste of danger
Standing by the church I had a bottle and a pen in my hand
I said "father, I'm sorry, I just don't know what to do with this anger"
And this behavior is correctable, I know this wasn't part of your plan
Oh but punks like us we were always receiving instruction
And you could burn our clothes you could wash out the ink and the dye
But you can't look me in the eye and say you don't feel like a little destruction
And the kids are lining up on the wall and they're ready to die
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they're ready to die
All these days just seem like they're getting longer
The view from my room, its a gloomy and overcast gray
The weakness we left it behind seems to be getting stronger
I swear there's something in the air and I don't know what anyone could say
'Cause I saw the news this morning there was another
A boy the side of the road he had a gun in his hand
I thought oh what could you say to make it ever make sense to his mother
Oh man he was excitable, we were just trying to make him a man
But the day will come when it falls like a cheap house of plastic
And the cards that were dealt, will be tossed like a stone in the sky
'Cause you can only lie for so long before you get something drastic
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they're ready to die
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they're ready to die
And the kids are lined up on the wall like they're ready to die
His forms ascending me its like they just rearranged them
We're all caged up like animals, questioned and ready to cry
'Cause I was just thirteen when I got my first taste of danger
Standing by the church I had a bottle and a pen in my hand
I said "father, I'm sorry, I just don't know what to do with this anger"
And this behavior is correctable, I know this wasn't part of your plan
Oh but punks like us we were always receiving instruction
And you could burn our clothes you could wash out the ink and the dye
But you can't look me in the eye and say you don't feel like a little destruction
And the kids are lining up on the wall and they're ready to die
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they're ready to die
All these days just seem like they're getting longer
The view from my room, its a gloomy and overcast gray
The weakness we left it behind seems to be getting stronger
I swear there's something in the air and I don't know what anyone could say
'Cause I saw the news this morning there was another
A boy the side of the road he had a gun in his hand
I thought oh what could you say to make it ever make sense to his mother
Oh man he was excitable, we were just trying to make him a man
But the day will come when it falls like a cheap house of plastic
And the cards that were dealt, will be tossed like a stone in the sky
'Cause you can only lie for so long before you get something drastic
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they're ready to die
And the kids are lined up on the wall and they're ready to die
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This is not my favorite song on the CD, but it definitely hits home more than any other one. It's about being a boy and getting into trouble. Girls wont appreciate this song as much as the guys will. I loved the first verse, but couldn't relate to the second one. I'll go over a few lines that hit close to home.
"cause i was just thirteen when i got my first taste of danger standing by the church i had a bottle and a pen in my hand" immediately brought me back to my child hood. I was probably around 14 when I was started drinking alcohol and doing minor graffiti with a black marker.
"i said "father, i'm sorry, i just don't know what to do with this anger"misbehavior is correctable, i know this wasn't part of you plan" is another powerful line. Luckily for me my behavior was corrected, but I grew up with a lot of people who ended up in jail. Not because they were born into bad families or had a hard child hood, but just simply because they didn't know what to do with their anger.
"but little fucks like us we were always receiving instruction,and you could burn our cloths you could wash out the ink and the dye" This is something that adds to kids acting out. I remember being younger and people always telling me what to do for whatever reason. What they failed to inform you (but most kids figure out) is the more rules you break the more respect you earn amongst your peers. Looking back I realize how stupid it was to do most of the things I did, but can relate to any kid who decides to make the same stupid decisions.
"but you can't look me in the eye and say you don't feel like a little destruction and the kids are lining up on the wall and they're ready to die" I must admit I still do feel like a little destruction. But now that I am a little older and a lot wiser I will pass. I have seen too many young men lined up on the wall as they were being arrested which inevitably killed their life.
P.S - Sorry if this was not a direct meaning, but it sparked up a few memories and thought I'd share with the rather small Airborne community.
That's kind of presumptuous of you to think that girls aren't going to appreciate the song as well as guys. The great thing about music is that it allows people the ability to emote without action generally associated with catharsis. And believe me, especially in adolescence, women are just as angry as men. The pains of growing up and being angry at the world are not unique to one gender or the other. If anything I think women would identify with this type of music more because its not socially acceptable for women to be angry or aggressive and music is a good outlet for these emotions. This song isn't about being a boy- its about being a kid. <br /> I think in particular its about being a kid in today's world which is looking to violence more and more as a way to deal with frustrations and the sense of non-control that is such a large part of being a teen. I think Musicx hit the nail on the head.
@todoublem
the first verse seems to talk about how all teens feel in general wanting to be free, rebellious, law breaking, and just wanting to have fun, but feeling like they're falling apart
i think the second verse is more about what teens are going through now-a-days teens feel lots of pressure on them, and there have been so many school shootings and suicides these days with teens that its flooded the media and the song isn't just about the kids doing those things but the kids having to deal with a friend doing it or a kid just seeing it on the news. im a teen and i admit its scary hearing about kids my age or younger doing these things, i don't know what i would do if a someone i knew did something drastic like this lines that make me think this: "kids are lining up on the wall..." "and the boy by the side of the road he had a gun in his hand" "i thought oh what could you say to make it ever make sense to his mother" "oh man he was excitable, we were just trying to make him a man" "you can only lie for so long before you get something drastic"
last thought, "the kids are lining up on the wall and they're ready to die" sounds like hes saying the kids have just given up and don't know what to do
i hate saying that there is one meaning to a song, because it can mean something different to everyone, this is just my interpretation based on hearing the song
Third line is "And these forms they send, it's like they'll just rearrange them."
the songs about young teens joining the military and not knowing what theyre getting themselves into. So TATE has said
@stephenstills
I also heard them say this at the show in NYC. The beautiful thing about music is we all kind of hear what we want to hear and find our own meaninng. The whole military thing makes perfect sense but isn't ours a little more meaningful? I almost wish they never explained any song so we could debate forever.
i think the song is about kids being recruited into the military straight out of high school, but more specifically, about the whole experience of PTSD many of them come back with. Like, this part sound like the kid killed himself. So in a sense, it's that they're ready to die overseas, but also at home when they return and the country they "fought for" (q'marks because wars are a geopolitical and economic phenomena, imo) turns their backs on them.
"'Cause I saw the news this morning there was another A boy the side of the road he had a gun in his hand I thought oh what could you say to make it ever make sense to his mother Oh man he was excitable, we were just trying to make him a man."