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 gonna be released from behind these lines
And don't care whether I live or die
And I'm losing blood, I'm gonna leave my bones
And I don't want your heart, it leaves me cold
I don't want your future
I don't need your past
One grand moment
Is all I ask
I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
Said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
I don't need a husband, don't need no wife
And I don't need the day, I don't need the night
And I don't need the birds, let them fly away
And I don't want the clouds, they never seem to stay
I don't want no future (want your future)
I don't need no past (need no past)
One grand moment (one grand moment)
Is all I ask (is all I ask)
I don't want no future (want your future)
I don't need no past (need no past)
One grand moment (one grand moment)
Is all I ask, and I
I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
Said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my, lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
(Pulling me down)
Pulling me down (and it's pulling me down)
Pulling me down (and it's pulling me down)
Pulling me down (and it's pulling, pulling me down)
Pulling me, pulling me down
I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
Said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my, lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
Yeah, said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
Gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
(Moving up to higher ground, your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
And don't care whether I live or die
And I'm losing blood, I'm gonna leave my bones
And I don't want your heart, it leaves me cold
I don't want your future
I don't need your past
One grand moment
Is all I ask
I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
Said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
I don't need a husband, don't need no wife
And I don't need the day, I don't need the night
And I don't need the birds, let them fly away
And I don't want the clouds, they never seem to stay
I don't want no future (want your future)
I don't need no past (need no past)
One grand moment (one grand moment)
Is all I ask (is all I ask)
I don't want no future (want your future)
I don't need no past (need no past)
One grand moment (one grand moment)
Is all I ask, and I
I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
Said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my, lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
(Pulling me down)
Pulling me down (and it's pulling me down)
Pulling me down (and it's pulling me down)
Pulling me down (and it's pulling, pulling me down)
Pulling me, pulling me down
I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
Said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
I'm gonna lose my, lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
Yeah, said I'm gonna leave my body (moving up to higher ground)
Gonna lose my mind (your history keeps pulling me down)
(Moving up to higher ground, your history keeps pulling me, pulling me down)
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
Ok, just my thoughts on this one:
She doesn't really care about the basics of life or death, she is tired of being held down by rules and laws of life itself. She doesn't want his heart, it leaves her cold, relationship of course. Then I think Cobehn is right on the rest of it.
I think its a song about wanting to break away from relationships, she doesn't need it anymore. But it keeps pulling her back, despite her will.
"One bright moment, is all I ask" could be talking about a final hurrah before its all said and done. She wants to live her life focused on the spiritual aspect and wants one true moment where everything makes sense and to know that her life wasn't meaningless. "History keeps pulling me down" is back to the fact that she wants to be focused on her spiritual life and wants that to make sense in the end but her past of getting tangled up in relationships always tries to get in the way.
Just what I think, but combine what Cobehn and I said and I think you'll get the jist of what we're saying anyway.