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"
Once inside the door I check my face in the mirror,
As I look past this lonely minute
Was this the ride worth waiting for
I'm scared to death that now I've missed it
But she was not the only stone, skipped across this gravel road
Leading down the path of loneliness
So I'll fly from this hate, pray my soul the lord will take me
To a place through time and indifference
I want to know how do you feel
I want to know if this was real
Then tell me what would you say
If you can make this pain go away
She plans her future looking bright ahead
Leaves me in the past.
I can't stand to hang out with my codependent friends
My patience fading fast
But every sign and every song is telling me I don't belong,
But it's O.K. to feel scared
Cause one day soon I'll find myself and realize that no one else
Will make me feel stupid!
There's this old man down in Fell's Point,
Always hanging around
Telling me, "Son, the pendulum swings both ways
But for you, It'll always swing down!"
As I look past this lonely minute
Was this the ride worth waiting for
I'm scared to death that now I've missed it
But she was not the only stone, skipped across this gravel road
Leading down the path of loneliness
So I'll fly from this hate, pray my soul the lord will take me
To a place through time and indifference
I want to know how do you feel
I want to know if this was real
Then tell me what would you say
If you can make this pain go away
She plans her future looking bright ahead
Leaves me in the past.
I can't stand to hang out with my codependent friends
My patience fading fast
But every sign and every song is telling me I don't belong,
But it's O.K. to feel scared
Cause one day soon I'll find myself and realize that no one else
Will make me feel stupid!
There's this old man down in Fell's Point,
Always hanging around
Telling me, "Son, the pendulum swings both ways
But for you, It'll always swing down!"
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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,
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I find it hard to believe this song has so few comments. SR-71 has grown on me a lot lately, especially this song.
I think the break up is right, but he projecting what he wants-- a way to make the pain go away. It sounds like he's gotten to a point where he thinks he's just going to be alone and has accepted it ("But for you, It'll always swing down"), and is trying to make himself feel good by thinking about some "magic" thing that could make the pain go away...maybe it will be the same thing that realizes that he shouldn't be afraid or feel stupid.