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"
(Black flash)
Black flash over my own love
Tell me of my eyes
Black flash come though my own life
Telling these things
And I believe them
And I believe in you
White flash sees the sky
And it turns its side from you
She won't turn my back
And I know you turn so blue
You know
And your sky is feeling blue
And your heart
So cold when I'm with you
You feel
Like no one told you to
And your time is your side
And your time with me
Ah, don't talk to me
Ah, don't talk to me
Don't talk to me
You know
Like no one told you how but you know
Though the king that howls has howled
We're like sentimental, but you don't care
If I just share it in your heart, heart
(Heart, heart)
Hopelessly, so hopelessly
I'm breaking through for you and me
You don't
Though no one told you to
And you found out
Where you were going, where to
You're through with me
But I know that you will be back for more
And you know
And though no one told you so
And you know, blue sky
Like a harder shade of blue
And you walk
When you want
To let go
Me, I'm on the outside, tell me not to fade away
Drop me down but don't break me
In your sleep
In your sleep, inside, it's in your heart and mine
Whole sea is dark, it's in your heart and mine
Sweetly, those will come
Loving is on your side walking through
So let me in your heart
Your beat is like something new
They
Run
See, say you're sad and reach by
So, say you're sad above beside
Oh, stay sad above beside
So, stay sad above we said
You know I don't
And no one told you how
And you don't
And you wipe sweat off your white brow, and you care
And no one told you tried
And your heart
Is left out from the side
And the rain beats down
And the shame goes down
And this rain keeps on coming down
And this sky
Tonight
Give a S-O-N-G-why
Your joy to God
Give a S-O-N-G-why
Give away some in your life
Give away some while you're able
You know
And though no one told you sky
And you feel
Like you pretend you can, you say go, you live
Go live outside of me
Don't you leave
Don't leave out part of me, then I can feel
Like I feel before
Like it hurt now, and I see the floor
If you pick me up
Bits and pieces on this floor
Black flash over my own love
Tell me of my eyes
Black flash come though my own life
Telling these things
And I believe them
And I believe in you
White flash sees the sky
And it turns its side from you
She won't turn my back
And I know you turn so blue
You know
And your sky is feeling blue
And your heart
So cold when I'm with you
You feel
Like no one told you to
And your time is your side
And your time with me
Ah, don't talk to me
Ah, don't talk to me
Don't talk to me
You know
Like no one told you how but you know
Though the king that howls has howled
We're like sentimental, but you don't care
If I just share it in your heart, heart
(Heart, heart)
Hopelessly, so hopelessly
I'm breaking through for you and me
You don't
Though no one told you to
And you found out
Where you were going, where to
You're through with me
But I know that you will be back for more
And you know
And though no one told you so
And you know, blue sky
Like a harder shade of blue
And you walk
When you want
To let go
Me, I'm on the outside, tell me not to fade away
Drop me down but don't break me
In your sleep
In your sleep, inside, it's in your heart and mine
Whole sea is dark, it's in your heart and mine
Sweetly, those will come
Loving is on your side walking through
So let me in your heart
Your beat is like something new
They
Run
See, say you're sad and reach by
So, say you're sad above beside
Oh, stay sad above beside
So, stay sad above we said
You know I don't
And no one told you how
And you don't
And you wipe sweat off your white brow, and you care
And no one told you tried
And your heart
Is left out from the side
And the rain beats down
And the shame goes down
And this rain keeps on coming down
And this sky
Tonight
Give a S-O-N-G-why
Your joy to God
Give a S-O-N-G-why
Give away some in your life
Give away some while you're able
You know
And though no one told you sky
And you feel
Like you pretend you can, you say go, you live
Go live outside of me
Don't you leave
Don't leave out part of me, then I can feel
Like I feel before
Like it hurt now, and I see the floor
If you pick me up
Bits and pieces on this floor
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira
Elvis Presley & America Lyrics as written by Dave Evans Adam Clayton
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Most incomprehensible lyrics ever. So why is it so great? I don't know. It's been my favorite U2 song since I heard it, but I still can't figure out any semblance of meaning for it. The best I can figure is by the song title and various scraps - it's the love-hate relationship between teacher and student, or child and fallen hero; a tie of respect and admiration that is strained over and over, but is only strengthened by the pain.
The song's best quality is its smoothness. No other song I know of uses the flow of music and song like a twisting summer breeze in quite this way (Think Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" or Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" for this category). The song just melts into your brain like an epic poem, and the words are just soothing chants that you're not meant to understand, with the occasionally perceptible utterance of a spine-tingling phrase like "Ah, don't talk to me" or "You're through with me, but I know that you'll be back for more" or "Your heart is left out from the side." And they're all whispered in Bono's most introspective of voices, and you know it's personal for him, and that makes it so touching. It's as if each sentence is a self-spoken prayer overheard in a deserted church.