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"
You never asked me what I wanted
You only asked me why
I never thought that so much trouble
Was restin' on my reply
I could tell by the nights when I was lonely
And you were the only one who'd come
I could tell you that I like your sensitivity
When you know it's the way that you walk
Why do you have to say there there's always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don't you think that I know that walking on the water
Won't make me a miracle man?
Baby's gotta have the things she wants
You know she's gotta have the things she loves
She's got a ten-inch bamboo cigarette holder
And her black patent leather gloves
And I'm doing everything just tryin' to please her
Even crawling around on all fours
Oh, I thought by now that it was gonna be easy
But she still seems to want for more
Why do you have to say there there's always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don't you think that I know that walking on the water
Won't make me a miracle man?
Oh yeah
Never given you a bad reputation
Just because you've never been denied
You try to say you've done it all before
Baby, you know that you just get tired
Yet everybody loves you so much, girl
I just don't know how you stand the strain
Oh I-I'm the one who's here tonight
And I don't want to do it all in vain
Why do you have to say there there's always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don't you think that I know that walking on the water
Won't make me a miracle man?
Oh yeah
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
You only asked me why
I never thought that so much trouble
Was restin' on my reply
I could tell by the nights when I was lonely
And you were the only one who'd come
I could tell you that I like your sensitivity
When you know it's the way that you walk
Why do you have to say there there's always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don't you think that I know that walking on the water
Won't make me a miracle man?
Baby's gotta have the things she wants
You know she's gotta have the things she loves
She's got a ten-inch bamboo cigarette holder
And her black patent leather gloves
And I'm doing everything just tryin' to please her
Even crawling around on all fours
Oh, I thought by now that it was gonna be easy
But she still seems to want for more
Why do you have to say there there's always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don't you think that I know that walking on the water
Won't make me a miracle man?
Oh yeah
Never given you a bad reputation
Just because you've never been denied
You try to say you've done it all before
Baby, you know that you just get tired
Yet everybody loves you so much, girl
I just don't know how you stand the strain
Oh I-I'm the one who's here tonight
And I don't want to do it all in vain
Why do you have to say there there's always someone
Who can do it better than I can?
But don't you think that I know that walking on the water
Won't make me a miracle man?
Oh yeah
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
A miracle man
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Miracle Man Lyrics as written by Elvis Costello
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Capitol CMG Publishing, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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