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"
In this holiest of seasons, twelve nights betwixt the years
The silence of winter is all-consuming
Our homesteads lie sleeping the old folks are watchful
Gruesome tales of corn-demons to forewarn the young
Over the mountain, to the hidden temple
Where the pillar of flames shall be summoned by the priest
On through the biting frost and the wind-driven snow
A belling of stags echoes in the woods
In this ice-cold Solstice night death and resurrection await
To invoke the rebirth of the sun
From darkness grows light, from ashes a fire to conquer the cold
The rites of Yuletide defying the times - The virgin-born child
Sol, Sol Invictus - Shining Guardian of the west
In saecula saeculorum - Conquer with fire and with faith
A solemn pilgrimage through nightclad wintry woods
Ghosts of winter screaming to lure us all astray
Neolithic magick, wisdom without words
Bloodbound memories pierce the gossamer veils of time
In this ice-cold Solstice night death and resurrection await
And summer shall free our soil
From darkness grows light, from ashes a fire to conquer the cold
The rites of Yuletide defying the times - The virgin-born child
Sol, Sol Invictus – Shining Guardian of the west
In saecula saeculorum – Conquer with fire and with faith
Blood-sacrifice for the three-fold goddess
Summon the Goat with a Thousand Young
Mithras Invictus Jesus Christus
Fire brings cleansing, fertility through death
Mummers rage through snow covered villages
Reaping the souls of the careless and young
Domina Perahta grant us good harvest
In barter for the blood of one third of our youth
The sunwheels are rolling, the hillside‘s on fire
From Albion to Attica old Europe‘s ablaze
Unbroken tradition, neolithic bloodline
The Horned God approaches, the chanting now fades
Il dyi ei ischturien. Ei ven ad esser sarain. Ei ven freid. Dieus mora!
At the standing stones the scythe will set him free
Bound to the oak, the Kingpriest‘s life for our creed
A crown of mistletoe, reborn for all to see
For a new year, in a red dawn, as the new sun
Sol, Sol Invictus - Invincible sun of the west
In saecula saeculorum -Conquer with fire and with faith
From Attica‘s green pastures to Albion‘s white shores
From Thule‘s boiling geysers to the walls of Hagar Q‘im
Beneath the fragile crust of this modern age of reason
A darker world lies waiting, primordial and pure
Hidden in the shades from ratio‘s cold pondering
to rise when the stars are right
The silence of winter is all-consuming
Our homesteads lie sleeping the old folks are watchful
Gruesome tales of corn-demons to forewarn the young
Over the mountain, to the hidden temple
Where the pillar of flames shall be summoned by the priest
On through the biting frost and the wind-driven snow
A belling of stags echoes in the woods
In this ice-cold Solstice night death and resurrection await
To invoke the rebirth of the sun
From darkness grows light, from ashes a fire to conquer the cold
The rites of Yuletide defying the times - The virgin-born child
Sol, Sol Invictus - Shining Guardian of the west
In saecula saeculorum - Conquer with fire and with faith
A solemn pilgrimage through nightclad wintry woods
Ghosts of winter screaming to lure us all astray
Neolithic magick, wisdom without words
Bloodbound memories pierce the gossamer veils of time
In this ice-cold Solstice night death and resurrection await
And summer shall free our soil
From darkness grows light, from ashes a fire to conquer the cold
The rites of Yuletide defying the times - The virgin-born child
Sol, Sol Invictus – Shining Guardian of the west
In saecula saeculorum – Conquer with fire and with faith
Blood-sacrifice for the three-fold goddess
Summon the Goat with a Thousand Young
Mithras Invictus Jesus Christus
Fire brings cleansing, fertility through death
Mummers rage through snow covered villages
Reaping the souls of the careless and young
Domina Perahta grant us good harvest
In barter for the blood of one third of our youth
The sunwheels are rolling, the hillside‘s on fire
From Albion to Attica old Europe‘s ablaze
Unbroken tradition, neolithic bloodline
The Horned God approaches, the chanting now fades
Il dyi ei ischturien. Ei ven ad esser sarain. Ei ven freid. Dieus mora!
At the standing stones the scythe will set him free
Bound to the oak, the Kingpriest‘s life for our creed
A crown of mistletoe, reborn for all to see
For a new year, in a red dawn, as the new sun
Sol, Sol Invictus - Invincible sun of the west
In saecula saeculorum -Conquer with fire and with faith
From Attica‘s green pastures to Albion‘s white shores
From Thule‘s boiling geysers to the walls of Hagar Q‘im
Beneath the fragile crust of this modern age of reason
A darker world lies waiting, primordial and pure
Hidden in the shades from ratio‘s cold pondering
to rise when the stars are right
Lyrics submitted by static111
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.