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"
Now it seems I can't keep my mind off of you
My brain drifts back to better days we've been through
Like sitting on blacktop of the school grounds
The love I bitched about I finally found
But now it's gone and I take the blame
So there's nothing I can do but take the pain
Why?
Now I dwell on what you remind me of
A sweet young girl who sacrificed her love
As for me I am blind without a cause
And now I realized what I have lost
It was something real that I could have had
Now I play the fool whose stable soul's gone bad
Why?
Tell me the words I might have said
That's pumping pressure deep inside my head
Was it bad enough to be too late?
Just tell me the words I might have ate.
My brain drifts back to better days we've been through
Like sitting on blacktop of the school grounds
The love I bitched about I finally found
But now it's gone and I take the blame
So there's nothing I can do but take the pain
Why?
Now I dwell on what you remind me of
A sweet young girl who sacrificed her love
As for me I am blind without a cause
And now I realized what I have lost
It was something real that I could have had
Now I play the fool whose stable soul's gone bad
Why?
Tell me the words I might have said
That's pumping pressure deep inside my head
Was it bad enough to be too late?
Just tell me the words I might have ate.
Lyrics submitted by onearmedscissor
Words I Might Have Ate Lyrics as written by Frank E. Billie Joe Armstrong
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
This is probably about a relationship that went wrong, and Billie-Joe is saying that sometimes you don't realize what the other person meant to you until it's over, and he's willing to take the blame and the pain for it, and he's kind of asking why it went wrong, thus, "The Words I Might Have Ate." This is my personal favorite song, aside from the obvious favorites like Basketcase, Longview, Welcome to Paradise, Minority, etc...
This song has such a fun melody..
i love this song, i can relate to this song many times over. you dont realise what u had untill its gone.great song all round.
i love this song. i can relate to it quite a bit. im normally am quite nieve and just dont get things.....well....not too often. but when i do i've fucked it up real bad.........i love the lines, Now it seems i cant keep my mind off of you My brain drifts back to better days we've been through and....... But now it's gone and i take the blame So there's nothing i can do but take the pain Why? my life.
X peace X
this song reminds me a lot of the Beatles for some reason, especially the intro
Okay this is one of the best songs ever! It makes me tremble every single time I hear it. Is just about a girl who loves this boy, but his guy never look at what that girl meant to him. So he kept her waiting- So when this girl stop caring for him he realizes what he had lost. I think is about a relashonship that doesn't even started. Because he never really care about her... but as time pass he discover what he had lost and he regrets it a lot.
actually the begenning of this song reminds me of the song "magic bus" by The Who. A band who probably inspired Green Day.
"Tell me the words i might have said That's pumping pressure deep inside my head Was it bad enough to be too late? Just tell me the words i might have ate"
Aah, guys. Don't we all shove our feet in our mouths when we're around chicks? I like this song, because it's not really Green Day's stereotype 3-chord rock song. The title describes it pretty well :)
Good call greendayfan02. I agree it's about not knowing what you have until it's gone. Like, you don't really appreciate what you have until you've lost it.
NOT 3-chord-rock-song? So i guess you're not a musician.
The song is about a classical teenager or children's love, probably the first experiences with relation ship. So billie asks himself what he could have done differently when looking back at the case. And he certainly wants to know how he should behave, how he could have done better in this relationship FROM the former partner. He maybe hopes for a second chance(was it bad enough to be too late?). His mind keeps dwelling on this love-matter. But until the last lines of the lyrics, you see that he is seemingly accepting, that it's his fault, but by asking why, he expresses that he actually shouldn't give it all up yet.