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"
It was Texas it was Tennessee
It was what I had comin' to me
You were unlike anything before
Black magic devil killer, I was yours
It was the early days of rock 'n roll
It was Otis, it was Memphis soul
It was a plane crash, it was overnight
It was burnin' fast and burnin' bright
Baby don't you talk no more
That look is loud enough
You don't have to tell me how
It feels not to be in love
You see that was my oldest game
Darlin' it was my claim to fame
And I knew it when I met you, all that you would need is more than what I got
Oh so baby please just stop
It was Texas it was Tennessee
It was exes and some wannabes
It was reckless, it was understood
It didn't matter cause it felt so good
And I'll still be here if you change your mind
But I can feel the leaving in your eyes
Don't want to hear it cause I know it well
I've said it all before to someone else
Baby don't you talk no more
That look is loud enough
You don't have to tell me how
It feels not to be in love
You see that was my oldest game
Darlin' it was my claim to fame
And I knew it when I met you, all that you would need is more than what I got
Oh so baby please just stop
It was Texas it was Tennessee
A kind of love a closer kin to grief
It was everything that I could want
But California came and took it all
Baby don't you talk no more
That look is loud enough
You don't have to tell me how
It feels not to be in love
You see that was my oldest game
Darlin' it was my claim to fame
And I knew it when I met you, all that you would need is more than what I got
Oh so baby please just stop
It was what I had comin' to me
You were unlike anything before
Black magic devil killer, I was yours
It was the early days of rock 'n roll
It was Otis, it was Memphis soul
It was a plane crash, it was overnight
It was burnin' fast and burnin' bright
Baby don't you talk no more
That look is loud enough
You don't have to tell me how
It feels not to be in love
You see that was my oldest game
Darlin' it was my claim to fame
And I knew it when I met you, all that you would need is more than what I got
Oh so baby please just stop
It was Texas it was Tennessee
It was exes and some wannabes
It was reckless, it was understood
It didn't matter cause it felt so good
And I'll still be here if you change your mind
But I can feel the leaving in your eyes
Don't want to hear it cause I know it well
I've said it all before to someone else
Baby don't you talk no more
That look is loud enough
You don't have to tell me how
It feels not to be in love
You see that was my oldest game
Darlin' it was my claim to fame
And I knew it when I met you, all that you would need is more than what I got
Oh so baby please just stop
It was Texas it was Tennessee
A kind of love a closer kin to grief
It was everything that I could want
But California came and took it all
Baby don't you talk no more
That look is loud enough
You don't have to tell me how
It feels not to be in love
You see that was my oldest game
Darlin' it was my claim to fame
And I knew it when I met you, all that you would need is more than what I got
Oh so baby please just stop
Lyrics submitted by T_D_Phoenix
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It's about the tables getting turned. Ben Nichols isn't a young dude, and in his life I'm guessing he's sweet talked a lot of girls that he really couldn't even make himself care about. There are a lot of people in the world who are always the ones that hold relationships back, and as someone who creates stagnation, Ben recognizes it coming from the other side. He want's something for the first time, but he knows he has to walk away because it can't go where he finally wants it to. It's the anti "Maybe I'm Amazed."
Ben Nichols actually did an interview and he explained the song. He is in love with a girl that he cannot be with due to the fact that he lives in Tennesee and travels a lot and she moved out to California. It is a very heart felt song.
@dbru esquire.com/entertainment/music/news/a29379/lucero-texas-tennessee-live/
esquire.com/entertainment/music/news/a29379/lucero-texas-tennessee-live/