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"
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Wrap me up in Chanel inside my coffin
Might go to Hell and there ain't no stopping
Might be a sinner and I might be a saint
I'd like to be proud, but somehow I'm ashamed
Sweet little baby in a world full of pain
I gotta be honest, I don't know if I could take it
Everybody's talking, but what's anybody saying?
Mama said if I really want it, then I can change it, yeah
R.I.P. to my youth
If you really listen, then this is to you
Mama, there is only so much I can do
Tough for you to witness but it was for me too
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me (front of me)
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth, yeah
You can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me dream with the stars
Throw me in a box with the oxygen off
You gave me the key then you locked every lock
When I can't breathe, I won't ask you to stop
When I can't breathe, don't call for a cop
I was naive and hopeful and lost
Now I'm aware and driving my thoughts, oh
What do I do? What do I do?
I don't believe it if I don't keep proof
I don't believe it if I don't know you
I don't believe it if it's on the news or on the internet
I need a cigarette
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me
I'm using white lighters to see
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me be with the stars
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Wrap me up in Chanel inside my coffin
Might go to Hell and there ain't no stopping
Might be a sinner and I might be a saint
I'd like to be proud, but somehow I'm ashamed
Sweet little baby in a world full of pain
I gotta be honest, I don't know if I could take it
Everybody's talking, but what's anybody saying?
Mama said if I really want it, then I can change it, yeah
R.I.P. to my youth
If you really listen, then this is to you
Mama, there is only so much I can do
Tough for you to witness but it was for me too
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me (front of me)
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth, yeah
You can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me dream with the stars
Throw me in a box with the oxygen off
You gave me the key then you locked every lock
When I can't breathe, I won't ask you to stop
When I can't breathe, don't call for a cop
I was naive and hopeful and lost
Now I'm aware and driving my thoughts, oh
What do I do? What do I do?
I don't believe it if I don't keep proof
I don't believe it if I don't know you
I don't believe it if it's on the news or on the internet
I need a cigarette
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me
I'm using white lighters to see
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me be with the stars
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
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.
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
I have trouble deciding if this song is really about the death of youth as the song title would dictate or if it's about the loss of innocence causing actual suicidal tendencies. I think it might be a combination. He has lost his youth, and this song is the funeral for the loss. With the loss of youth/innocence he has decided that he wants to die.
It starts here: "When I can't breathe, I won't ask you to stop When I can't breathe, don't call for a cop" where you see that he really does want to die.
and then you see: "I was naive and hopeful and lost Now I'm aware and driving my thoughts" where it becomes pretty clear that he has lost his naivete and that has caused him to want to die.
The reason I really don't think it's just a metaphor for the loss of youth/innocence is in the lines: "And you can play this at my funeral Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad I'm in Paradise with Dad Close my eyes and then cross my arms Put me in the dirt, let me dream with the stars" which clearly dictates a funeral, joining his (presumably) dead father and then being buried.
The other part of this song that I find extremely interesting is the Kurt Cobain references in the video - He goes to pretty great lengths to look like Kurt growing out and dying his hair to his exact shade, the facial hair, even the sunglasses. Some people maintain a myth of many of the major members of the 27 club having white bic lighters with them at their deaths. While this can't be true, the myth is still alive enough that the using white lighters to see could either be just a general wish for bad luck/death to great him or it could be a reference to the idea of wanting to join the club combined with the Cobain references.
There are some parts of the song - like his mother needing to worship him and him not believing if he doesn't keep proof that don't have an obvious correlation with this interpretation but I think that the rest of the song really explains it all.