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 couldn't find quiet
I went out in the rain
I was just soaking my head to unrattle my brain
Somebody said you disappeared in a crowd
I didn't understand then
I don't understand now
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
And everybody was gone
You were staring down the street 'cause you were trying not to crack up
It wasn't like a rain it was more like a sea
I didn't ask for this pain, it just came over me
Well, I love a storm, but I don't love lightning
All the waters coming up so fast, it's frightening
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
And everybody was gone
I was staring down the street 'cause I was trying not to crack
I was solid gold
I was in the fight
I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin
I couldn't see you coming so far
I just turn around and there you are
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
I was just getting used to living life without you around
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
You always said I held you way too high off the ground
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in a park
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart
And everybody was gone
You were staring down the street 'cause you were trying not to crack up
And Bona Drag was still on
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sound kicks out
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sound kicks out
You said it would be painless
A needle in a doll
You said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all
You said it would be painless
A needle in a doll
You said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all (when the sound kicks out)
Said it would be painless
A needle in a doll (when the sound kicks out)
Said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all
I went out in the rain
I was just soaking my head to unrattle my brain
Somebody said you disappeared in a crowd
I didn't understand then
I don't understand now
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
And everybody was gone
You were staring down the street 'cause you were trying not to crack up
It wasn't like a rain it was more like a sea
I didn't ask for this pain, it just came over me
Well, I love a storm, but I don't love lightning
All the waters coming up so fast, it's frightening
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
And everybody was gone
I was staring down the street 'cause I was trying not to crack
I was solid gold
I was in the fight
I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin
I couldn't see you coming so far
I just turn around and there you are
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
I was just getting used to living life without you around
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
You always said I held you way too high off the ground
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in a park
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart
And everybody was gone
You were staring down the street 'cause you were trying not to crack up
And Bona Drag was still on
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sound kicks out
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sound kicks out
You said it would be painless
A needle in a doll
You said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all
You said it would be painless
A needle in a doll
You said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all (when the sound kicks out)
Said it would be painless
A needle in a doll (when the sound kicks out)
Said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by Nitro1515, Naninger, jahjahjeh, leonelliot, flamebroiledchicken, robalan, SheWakes, meho, Rasser, Ajensis, sandrineelise, letsgetitright, Supersheep, zarsejm, miiihaaas, scit789, Janice89, Trickcyclist, ancym, bolachamaria, omgkittens, abesalot, Koen87, ruindpzzle, alex_cilley, tudor96stani, murilofsb, tryptych, theadvocate
Pink Rabbits Lyrics as written by Matthew Berninger Aaron Dessner
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
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I think the action of the song might not actually take place in LA. The fact that he "only thinks about LA" when the sound kicks out seems to indicate that he isn't there anymore, but used to be.
Also, the song that immediately precedes this one on the album, "Humiliation," indicates that he lost a job "fishing LA women out of pools" and contemplates the "little life" he'll be leaving, suggesting that he's leaving California. The song immediately after "Pink Rabbits," "Hard to Find," then starts by saying that the "glowing lights" are "really not that far away, I could be there in a day," indicating that the narrator might be in New York for at least the last two songs on the album. (I believe Matt Berninger does keep homes in both LA and New York.)
This would also make more sense for "Pink Rabbits" as, though it does rain in LA, it's far more likely for rain to be "coming down so fast its frightening" in New York.
With that said, I think this song is part of a larger story being told on the album about a narrator who drives his partner away while in Los Angeles looking for "trouble." (See: "Jenny I am in trouble" on "This is the Last Time" and then "I'm in the city you hated" while his partner is "back in the South" on "Slipped".) "Pink Rabbits" is the reunion song. He's thinking about her when he turns around and "there she is." He's pretty self-deprecating about how he felt in her absence and then makes reference to a voodoo doll to explain how he was still able to "feel pain over a distance." She said their separation would be relatively painless.
It wasn't that at all.
I love this interpretation of the album as a whole.
setup an account just to respond to this - great interpretation, my thoughts on this album if has a narrative thread at all, is along these lines. Great job.
@scott locke man, i signed up just to reply to this, you are awesome and I thank you and all the other awesome people on here that go into such depth, thank you!!!
My interpretation: In short I think it's about a breakup, one that was ended by the girl, leaving him with feelings of confusion and huge amounts of pain. After some time, when he is fighting to get his life back together, she'd suddenly let him know that she wanted to be a part of his life again.
"I couldn't find quiet I went out in the rain I was just soaking my head to unrattle my brain Somebody said you disappeared in a crowd I didn't understand then I don't understand now"
There's a lot of confusion in his head about why the girl broke up with him and he needed to clear his head. In the end he still doesn't know why things happened the way they did. Speaking to someone else about it is not helping, all there is, is "why?".
"Am I the one you think about When you're sitting in your fainting chair drinking pink rabbits?"
He is wondering if she is thinking about him at moments where she doesn't have anything else on her mind. Are you even thinking a little bit about me while I’m thinking so much about you?
"It wasn't like a rain it was more like a sea I didn't ask for this pain it just came over me I love a storm, but I don't love lightning All the waters coming up so fast, it's frightening"
His pain and sadness cannot be described as painful raindrops falling upon him, no, it’s much worse than that and he's drowning in it. Even though he is not afraid of some trouble in his life and assumes some struggle to be perfectly normal (the storm), the sudden and enormous amount of pain he now is suffering from, is way too much.
“I was solid gold I was in the fight I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin I couldn't see you coming so far I just turn around and there you are”
After a while he is fighting to get his life back together. He was building something up again that was once shattered. Just when he reached the point that he was accepting that things where the way they were and not thinking that she might come back anymore, she suddenly was there.
“I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now I was just getting used to living life without you around I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now You always said I held you way too high off the ground”
He was getting over her and now she wanted to be back in his life. Even though there were troubles in the past that made it difficult to have a relationship with him. (“way too high of the ground” can be a metaphor for putting someone on a pedestal. So he was always idolizing her and being too nice. It can also be read together with the metaphor of dancing, which is a (possible) relationship. You cannot dance correctly if you lift someone up too high. So in that case there were troubles in their past relationship that she held him accountable for.)
“You didn't see me I was falling apart I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park”
After the relationship ended she did not see how much pain he had to endure. He felt that he meant nothing to her at that time, he was just another person in a crowd of persons; indistinguishable from the rest.
“I was a television version of a person with a broken heart”
In my opinion the most beautiful sentence in the song. Television portrayals of someone with a certain emotion are mostly simple but also very pure. When someone in a movie or television drama feels heartbroken (or any other form of ‘heavy’ emotion) that’s everything he or she feels. That is, someone who loses all hope and purpose in life and becomes irreparably depressed. Unlike most cases in real life where these feelings can still predominate, but where there’s also a time and place for a little smile, a normal conversation, mindlessly doing the dishes every now and then. So… he is simply trying to say how profound the pain was that he felt after she broke his heart.
“You said it will be painless The needle in the doll You said it will be painless It wasn't that at all”
Someone said some reassuring things to him after the breakup. (This can be his ex-girlfriend but I think it’s someone else close to him.) “You can still be friends” “You’ll get over it” and things like that. Still it feels like he is at the other end of a voodoo doll and all the memories and thoughts about her are the needles that are hurting him. Even though she’s away, she is what’s causing him so much pain.
This is exactly how I interpreted it, only that in my view there is an ending to this story.<br /> <br /> 'And everybody was gone<br /> You were standing in the street cause you were trying not to crack up'<br /> <br /> Now they are changing roles, she is in the same place where he was when she left him a time ago. She wants him back, but as she really hurt him and broke his heart he can't go back and be with her again. He can't forgive her for breaking his heart, she said it will be painless, she didn't care for his feelings. Maybe because of his pride, maybe he's just scared she'll change her mind again about her feelings and he won't to be hurt again. <br /> <br /> 'And Bona Drag is still on<br /> Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sun kicks out<br /> Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sun kicks out'<br /> <br /> He's moving on, still listening to sad music, he's still sad, but she crosses his mind less and less, now he only thinks about her when the sun kicks out.
*doesn't want to be hurt again
@Supersheep <br /> Amazing interpretation.
I love the ambiguities in this.
"You were standing in the street 'cause you were tryin' not to crack up" can be read two ways - you were trying not to break down and fall apart, or you were trying not to laugh - and they're both so valid. In this situation - meeting an old lover by chance when you never got the closure you needed with them, as I read it - you'd be in pain and laughing.
And "so surprised you'd want to dance with me now..." Do you think she asked him to dance? I can never decide if that's what he's expecting, or if she asked for a last dance in the rain.
But yes, simple meaning - he walked out of the party to clear his head in the rain, and there she was, doing the same thing. He was just getting over a rough patch in his life/ a depression/"coming back from what seemed like a ruin," when it happened, and he's surprised that she'd be there and want some closure. He looks back at how they ended and says the mistakes they made were a lot more painful than they ever expected, but he's moving on now/only things about it when the sun kicks out....
love the way you read the song... the way i interpreted the "so surprised you'd want to dance with me now, you always said I held you way too high off the ground" was really a metaphor, not literal dancing. the dance is/was a metaphor for their relationship. she never wanted to dance with him because he held her way too high off the ground or, as i see it, she never wanted to really be in a serious relationship with him because he idolized her and worshiped her and she couldn't give him that commitment back. i'm not sure if that's how i feel about the entire song, but that particular part really gives me that image.
At the moment my main comment about this is that it might be the best song they've ever written.
Sounds like it's about two people having some sort of denouement in a street in LA in the rain.
That sounds about right. Simple but really powerful. Amazing song. I love the "so surprised you want to dance with me" set of lyrics.
Anyone think this song could be related to "This is The Last Time"?
The lines that made me think about it are "You always said I held you way too high off the ground" and "Oh, when I lift you up/You feel like a hundred times yourself".
"Boner drag was still on"
Should be "Bona Drag was still on" (Bona Drag is a Morrissey album)
"I was solid gold I was in the fight I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin I couldn't see you coming so far I just turn around and there you are
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now I was just getting used to living life without you around"
goddamn
The "I was solid gold.." part of this song is really something special.
"I was solid gold, I was in the fight, I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin".
What a line. I'm in love with the comparison between his uphill struggle to fend off the dark cloud of this relationship he sings about and that of an almost defeated boxer (to me at least). The brilliant moment when he almost makes the miraculous comeback in the ring, but as the song goes on, you find he never achieved it and ends defeated.
Oh my - what a song. When I listen to it, I feel like it a song about a girl leaving a boy. The girl left him because he held her on too much of a pedestal, "You always said I held you way too high off the ground". The boy is heartbroken, "I was a television version of a person with a broken heart". She'd told him when she left that it was for the best, and the pain would be short and sharp and "painless". And then she came back, and he is conflicted. He was moving on.
My early contender for best song on the album.