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"
There's plenty of girls in the sea
And plenty of seeds in a lemon
The trick is in trying to stay free
When it's never that great to begin with
The surgeon performs precise little cuts
But he's never perfect, he's thinking too much
And it's really no comfort to me
There's plenty of girls in the sea
There's plenty of girls in the sea
And plenty of those are not women
As soon as you get yourself free
Then somebody stops you from swimming
The lifeguard admits, his whistle in hand
That it isn't the muscle, and it isn't the tan
No it's whatever you want it to be
There's plenty of girls in the sea
Ah the passionate painter will say with a brush:
"It's best to accept it and not make a fuss so
Just cause the grass wasn't green"
Yeah, there's plenty of girls in the sea
There's plenty of girls in the sea
And plenty of clowns in the village
The trick is to try to be free
And tend to the void, don't just fill it
The bartender concedes, from inside his vest
That none of the best ones were ever the best
So keep it short, simple and sweet
Cause there's plenty of girls in the sea
In the sea
Yeah, there's plenty of girls in the sea
In the sea
Oh there's plenty of girls in the sea
In the sea
Yeah, there's plenty of girls in the sea
Whenever you want there to be
And plenty of seeds in a lemon
The trick is in trying to stay free
When it's never that great to begin with
The surgeon performs precise little cuts
But he's never perfect, he's thinking too much
And it's really no comfort to me
There's plenty of girls in the sea
There's plenty of girls in the sea
And plenty of those are not women
As soon as you get yourself free
Then somebody stops you from swimming
The lifeguard admits, his whistle in hand
That it isn't the muscle, and it isn't the tan
No it's whatever you want it to be
There's plenty of girls in the sea
Ah the passionate painter will say with a brush:
"It's best to accept it and not make a fuss so
Just cause the grass wasn't green"
Yeah, there's plenty of girls in the sea
There's plenty of girls in the sea
And plenty of clowns in the village
The trick is to try to be free
And tend to the void, don't just fill it
The bartender concedes, from inside his vest
That none of the best ones were ever the best
So keep it short, simple and sweet
Cause there's plenty of girls in the sea
In the sea
Yeah, there's plenty of girls in the sea
In the sea
Oh there's plenty of girls in the sea
In the sea
Yeah, there's plenty of girls in the sea
Whenever you want there to be
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by orl31
Plenty of Girls in the Sea Lyrics as written by Benjamin Nicholas Huner Goldwasser Andrew Wells Vanwyngarden
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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Great version of a great song,
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Definitely my favorite song on the album. I like where this band is going, I honestly do, but I just wish more songs were like this (with a somewhat distinctive melody) than the pure synth-psychadelic noise and Andrew's muffled vocals hidden in the background. I'd like to hear more of him, the straining high voice and the rusty low notes. It's sexy.
To me, this song is simple: He doesn't care girlfriends right now. He thinks of them as always being there. He wants to be free, but it seems that someone stops him once he is. And when he's free, he wants to tend to what's missing and try not to fill it with a girlfriend.
This song is actually very deep and rings very true. The bartender admits to Andrew that even the best girlfriends weren't really his best. So what's the point to have one right now, when there are so many always around!
Great lyrics, I think it can be interpreted on multiple levels. In my opinion the key line is "The trick is to try to be free/And tend to the void, don't just fill it." People have voids in their lives where they long for happiness, companionship, etc. and instead of digging down to the root of why they feel this way and fixing it, they try to fill these voids with (drugs, material things, girls/guys, etc.) so I think he's using the colloquialism of there's "Plenty of Girls in the Sea" to illustrate that point. He uses the lines about the surgeons not being perfect or the lifeguard not being about the muscle or tan to illustrate that typically the thing we use to temporarily fill those voids, still leave us feeling empty inside in the end, because we need to TEND to the void, not just FILL IT. When people experience heartbreak, people try to make them feel better (fill the void) by saying "well there's plenty of girls/guys in the sea" and so while this song could be about a relationship on the surface, I think it goes a bit beyond that.