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"
Ta-da-da-da-da-da-da
Ta-da-da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da
They say I'm too young to love you
I don't know what I need
They think I don't understand
The freedom land of the seventies
I think I'm too cool to know ya
You say I'm like the ice I freeze
I'm churning out novels like
Beat poetry on amphetamines
I say
I say
Well, my boyfriend's in a band
He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed
I've got feathers in my hair
I get down to Beat poetry
And my jazz collection's rare
I can play most anything
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
Pa-ta-da-da-da-da-da
Pa-ta-da-da-da-da-da
Pa-ta-da-da-da-da
They say I'm too young to love you
You say I'm too dumb to see
They judge me like a picture book
By the colors, like they forgot to read
I think we're like fire and water
I think we're like the wind and sea
You're burning up, I'm cooling down
You're up, I'm down
You're blind, I see
But I'm free
Ooh, I'm free
Well, my boyfriend's in a band
He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed
I've got feathers in my hair
I get down to Beat poetry
And my jazz collection's rare
I can play most anything
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm talking 'bout my generation
Talking 'bout that newer nation
And if you don't like it
You can beat it
Beat it, baby
You never liked the way I said it
If you don't get it, then forget it
So I don't have to fucking explain it
And my boyfriend's in a band
He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed
I've got feathers in my hair
I get high on hydroponic weed
And my jazz collection's rare
I get down to Beat poetry
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
Pa-da-ba-ba, pa-de-da
Te-de-de, da-da-da
Ooh-ooh, woah
Yeah my boyfriend's pretty cool
But he's not as cool as me
'Cause I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
Pa-da-da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da, baby
Ah-ta-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da, baby
Pa-da-da-da-da-da
Pa-pa-da-pa-da, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Ta-da-da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da
They say I'm too young to love you
I don't know what I need
They think I don't understand
The freedom land of the seventies
I think I'm too cool to know ya
You say I'm like the ice I freeze
I'm churning out novels like
Beat poetry on amphetamines
I say
I say
Well, my boyfriend's in a band
He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed
I've got feathers in my hair
I get down to Beat poetry
And my jazz collection's rare
I can play most anything
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
Pa-ta-da-da-da-da-da
Pa-ta-da-da-da-da-da
Pa-ta-da-da-da-da
They say I'm too young to love you
You say I'm too dumb to see
They judge me like a picture book
By the colors, like they forgot to read
I think we're like fire and water
I think we're like the wind and sea
You're burning up, I'm cooling down
You're up, I'm down
You're blind, I see
But I'm free
Ooh, I'm free
Well, my boyfriend's in a band
He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed
I've got feathers in my hair
I get down to Beat poetry
And my jazz collection's rare
I can play most anything
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm talking 'bout my generation
Talking 'bout that newer nation
And if you don't like it
You can beat it
Beat it, baby
You never liked the way I said it
If you don't get it, then forget it
So I don't have to fucking explain it
And my boyfriend's in a band
He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed
I've got feathers in my hair
I get high on hydroponic weed
And my jazz collection's rare
I get down to Beat poetry
I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
Pa-da-ba-ba, pa-de-da
Te-de-de, da-da-da
Ooh-ooh, woah
Yeah my boyfriend's pretty cool
But he's not as cool as me
'Cause I'm a Brooklyn baby
I'm a Brooklyn baby
Pa-da-da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da, baby
Ah-ta-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da, baby
Pa-da-da-da-da-da
Pa-pa-da-pa-da, yeah
Yeah, yeah
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This song overall, in my opinion, is poking fun of/satirizing stereotypical Brooklyn hipsters. This isn't a problem for me, considering that I am not a Brooklyn hipster, or a hipster in general, and it's really not offensive or malicious in it's tone. Some might take offense, but the way I see it, they don't really see that this song is firmly tongue in cheek.
"They say I'm too young to love you they say I don't know what I need They think I don't understand the freedom land of the seventies"
This set of lyrics could be seen is two ways.
Also, lyrics like: "I sing Lou Reed" "My jazz collections rad" "I get down to beat poetry" "I get high on hydroponic weed" "I'm a Brooklyn Baby" Really drive the point home, to me, that she's singing about being a Brooklyn hipster.
100% agree. I was thinking this exact same thing- it sounds super mock-y to me. Pretty much every single lyric in the song points to it. And I would even go as far as saying it's making fun of hipsters in general- it's just that Brooklyn is so much of "the place to be" as a hipster so it seems.