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"
Faith, you're driving me away
You do it everyday
You don't mean it but it hurts like hell
My brain says I'm receiving pain
A lack of oxygen from my life support
My iron lung
We're too young to fall asleep
Too cynical to speak
We are loosing it, can't you tell?
We scratch our eternal itch
Our twentieth century bitch and we are grateful for our
Iron lung
Suck, suck your teenage thumb
Toilet trained and dumb
When the power runs out we'll just hum
This this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time
My iron lung
If you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's okay
If you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's okay
You do it everyday
You don't mean it but it hurts like hell
My brain says I'm receiving pain
A lack of oxygen from my life support
My iron lung
We're too young to fall asleep
Too cynical to speak
We are loosing it, can't you tell?
We scratch our eternal itch
Our twentieth century bitch and we are grateful for our
Iron lung
Suck, suck your teenage thumb
Toilet trained and dumb
When the power runs out we'll just hum
This this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time
My iron lung
If you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's okay
If you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's okay
Lyrics submitted by piesupreme, edited by rahvii, mattbirt, AnytimeAnyhow, Zainy
My Iron Lung Lyrics as written by Edward John O'brien Colin Charles Greenwood
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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The song's about Creep as everybody said.I think everybody has got his own iron lung...the one thing they hate but can't live without.For me,it was the pretension of coping.Having that smile on my face and communicate with people i have nothing in common with.