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"
Every time I see you in the world
You always step to my girl
Back, back, way back, I used to front like Angkor Wat
Mechanicsburg, Anchorage and Dar es Salaam
While home in New York was champagne and disco
Tapes from L.A. slash San Francisco
But actually Oakland and not Alameda
Your girl was in Berkeley with her Communist reader
Mine was entombed within boombox and Walkman
I was a hoarder, but girl, that was back then
The gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Every time I see you in the world
You always step to my girl
Ancestors told me that their girl was better
She's richer than Croesus, she's tougher than leather
I just ignored all the tales of her past life
Stale conversation deserves but a bread knife
And punks who would laugh when they saw us together
Well, they didn't know how to dress for the weather
I can still see them there, huddled on Astor
Snow falling slow to the sound of the master
The gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Wisdom's a gift, but you'd trade it for youth
Age is an honor, it's still not the truth
We saw the stars when they hid from the world
You cursed the sun when it stepped to your girl
Maybe she's gone and I can't resurrect her
The truth is she doesn't need me to protect her
We know the true death, the true way of all flesh
Everyone's dyin', but girl, you're not old yet
Gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Every time I see you in the world
You always step to my girl
You always step to my girl
Back, back, way back, I used to front like Angkor Wat
Mechanicsburg, Anchorage and Dar es Salaam
While home in New York was champagne and disco
Tapes from L.A. slash San Francisco
But actually Oakland and not Alameda
Your girl was in Berkeley with her Communist reader
Mine was entombed within boombox and Walkman
I was a hoarder, but girl, that was back then
The gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Every time I see you in the world
You always step to my girl
Ancestors told me that their girl was better
She's richer than Croesus, she's tougher than leather
I just ignored all the tales of her past life
Stale conversation deserves but a bread knife
And punks who would laugh when they saw us together
Well, they didn't know how to dress for the weather
I can still see them there, huddled on Astor
Snow falling slow to the sound of the master
The gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Wisdom's a gift, but you'd trade it for youth
Age is an honor, it's still not the truth
We saw the stars when they hid from the world
You cursed the sun when it stepped to your girl
Maybe she's gone and I can't resurrect her
The truth is she doesn't need me to protect her
We know the true death, the true way of all flesh
Everyone's dyin', but girl, you're not old yet
Gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Gloves are off
The wisdom teeth are out
What you on about?
I feel it in my bones
I feel it in my bones
I'm stronger now
I'm ready for the house
Such a modest mouse
I can't do it alone
I can't do it alone
Every time I see you in the world
You always step to my girl
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by hoopdadoop, menano, dqgirl
Step Lyrics as written by Ezra Koenig David A. Gates
Lyrics © DAVID GATES D/B/A KIPAHULU MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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“Every time I see you in the world you always step to my girl.” “Your girl was Berkley with her communist reader Mine was entombed within boombox and Walkman. I was a hoarder but girl that was back then.”
So at this point of the song he is saying, when everyone else was beginning their lives. (as in getting jobs, getting serious relationships) Him and his girl were reckless they were having fun with youth. And the people he knew always act/ed like they are better. When he says step to my girl he is saying you act like your better. Or of higher importance (hence a step higher).
“Ancestors told me that their girl was better” “stale conversation deserves but a bread knife” Elders talked about how she wasn’t ladylike and polite. And how in their day girls were better than her. But he didn’t want a plain girl who brought nothing new to the table, he liked his girl.
“Wisdoms a gift, but you trade it for youth. Age is an honor but it’s still not the truth. We saw the stars when they hid from the world.” “We know the true death the true way of all flesh. Everyone’s dying, but girl you’re not old yet.” Instead of being like everyone else and losing imagination when we got older, they stayed “young”. They knew that to truly die was to lose youth and you lose youth when you lose become serious. Again he is talking about how she is special and she understands him.
"The gloves are off, the wisdom teeth are out. What you on about? I feel it in my bones… I’m ready for the house… I can’t do it alone.” So the time they have dreaded has come were they have to settle down “I’m ready for the house”. But he is saying he doesn’t want to be serious with anyone but her “ I can’t do it alone”, because he loves her.