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"
Tried to keep you close to me
But life got in between
Tried to square not being there
By saying that I should have been
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and see where you hide
Hold back the river, hold back
Once upon a different life
We rode our bikes into the sky
But now we crawl against the tide
Those distant days are flashing by
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and be by your side
Hold back the river, hold back
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and see where you hide
Hold back the river, hold back
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and be by your side
Hold back the river, hold back
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and be by your side
Hold back the river, hold
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
But life got in between
Tried to square not being there
By saying that I should have been
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and see where you hide
Hold back the river, hold back
Once upon a different life
We rode our bikes into the sky
But now we crawl against the tide
Those distant days are flashing by
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and be by your side
Hold back the river, hold back
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and see where you hide
Hold back the river, hold back
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and be by your side
Hold back the river, hold back
Hold back the river, let me look in your eyes
Hold back the river, so I
Can stop for a minute and be by your side
Hold back the river, hold
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
Lonely water, lonely water, won't you let us wander?
Let us hold each other
Lyrics submitted by Abbie96, edited by lbguitarist, therealasian
Hold Back The River Lyrics as written by James Michael Bay Iain Denis Archer
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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wooo- i thought this board would be fill of comments-- anyway it appears he is singing to somebody that was once very close to him [could be a lover or a childhood friend ''dear friend....we rode our bikes into the sky'].
Anyway he has tried to keep their relationship strong but because of life's general circumstances which can distance even the closest relationships their relationship is no longer close and they have grown apart. Now he is asking this person to reconcile with him and to destroy this barrier that has formed between them 'hold back the river'. I read the river as a metaphor for the barrier that keeps them seperate and they way he says 'hold back the river, let me look in your eyes' connects the river to tears so he is sad that this relationship has deteriorated.