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"
Cigarette smoke dances back in the window,
And I can see the haze on its own light
I'm conjuring ghosts on a forty hour ride home,
And they keep asking me what I'm doing with my life.
While my cousins go to bed with their wives.
I'm feeling like I've fallen behind.
Well, the highway won
I'm listening to traffic reports one on one
Coming quietly undone.
I was born to run
Away from anything good.
An escape artist's son
Sun-drenched pavement in my blood
The first thing that I do when I walk in is find a way out for when shit gets bad and
I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).
Well I'm still afraid
Like a kid in the sixties
Staring at the sky
Waiting for the bomb to fall.
And it's all a lie
What they say about stability.
It scares me sometimes
The emptiness I see in my eyes.
And all the kids names I've ever liked recited tragedy.
Well, I don't want my children growing up to be anything like me.
I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).
And I was kinda hoping you'd say.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
I keep a flashlight
And a small knife
In the corner of my bed stand.
I keep a flashlight
And the train times
But you wouldn't understand.
How could you understand?
Jesus Christ. I'm 26.
All the people I've graduated with,
All have kids,
All have wives,
All have people who care if they come home at night.
Well, Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?
I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).
And I was kinda hoping you'd say.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
And I can see the haze on its own light
I'm conjuring ghosts on a forty hour ride home,
And they keep asking me what I'm doing with my life.
While my cousins go to bed with their wives.
I'm feeling like I've fallen behind.
Well, the highway won
I'm listening to traffic reports one on one
Coming quietly undone.
I was born to run
Away from anything good.
An escape artist's son
Sun-drenched pavement in my blood
The first thing that I do when I walk in is find a way out for when shit gets bad and
I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).
Well I'm still afraid
Like a kid in the sixties
Staring at the sky
Waiting for the bomb to fall.
And it's all a lie
What they say about stability.
It scares me sometimes
The emptiness I see in my eyes.
And all the kids names I've ever liked recited tragedy.
Well, I don't want my children growing up to be anything like me.
I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).
And I was kinda hoping you'd say.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
I keep a flashlight
And a small knife
In the corner of my bed stand.
I keep a flashlight
And the train times
But you wouldn't understand.
How could you understand?
Jesus Christ. I'm 26.
All the people I've graduated with,
All have kids,
All have wives,
All have people who care if they come home at night.
Well, Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?
I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).
And I was kinda hoping you'd say.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
Lyrics submitted by teganomous, edited by xxmodernlove
Passing Through a Screen Door Lyrics as written by Joshua Martin Daniel Campbell
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think, with the exception of "find a way out for when shit gets bad", the fact that "well Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?" Is the first time that Soupy swears on the album really enhances the desperation in the song.
It's also just so terrifying really; Soupy just bares his whole fears open in one line, and I'm certain I've screamed along with it more than once...
WELL JESUS CHRIST, DID I FUCK UP?!