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"
It's been around for a thousand years
And it'll be here for plenty more
It is the face hidden in disgrace
That has become now an open sore
It is a false messiah
It is the face of pain
The bringer of the bittersweet
The heretic insane
Take my scars
Through hands of God
I found a better way
To break the walls
Fed all the lies and desensitized
Taught to believe that it is the way
Taught to divide and exactly why
You'll never understand my rage
You've never had to borrow
You've never had to steal
You eat it with your silver spoon
For me it's real
Take my scars
Through hands of God
I found a better way
To break the walls
Blood and concrete
Piss and wine
Whores that fuck
To feel divine
They'll clean their needles
In their shrine
In ignorance
It's bliss you find
Why can't you
Fuckin' open
Open up your eyes
And it'll be here for plenty more
It is the face hidden in disgrace
That has become now an open sore
It is a false messiah
It is the face of pain
The bringer of the bittersweet
The heretic insane
Take my scars
Through hands of God
I found a better way
To break the walls
Fed all the lies and desensitized
Taught to believe that it is the way
Taught to divide and exactly why
You'll never understand my rage
You've never had to borrow
You've never had to steal
You eat it with your silver spoon
For me it's real
Take my scars
Through hands of God
I found a better way
To break the walls
Blood and concrete
Piss and wine
Whores that fuck
To feel divine
They'll clean their needles
In their shrine
In ignorance
It's bliss you find
Why can't you
Fuckin' open
Open up your eyes
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I am surprised no one has mentioned the clearly obvious allusion that this song is about religion.
I'd go as far as saying this is anti-religion as he is opposed to those thinking they are holier than thou judging him, when they've been raised by a "silver spoon" compared to his hard life. Also the end seems to suggest that "blind faith" is ignorant and "wrong", and therefore people should be opening their eyes to reality rather than hoping for a messiah to heal all their wounds.
To summarise, I feel he is telling people not to rely on the church/religion to necessarily get you through the hard times and that you need to take it upon yourself to heal your scars. In essence the title is ironic in that it is saying don't expect God to "take your scars", you need to wear them and overcome them yourself!