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"
Just before our love got lost, you said
"I am as constant as a northern star," and I said
"Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me, I'll be in the bar"
On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh, Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh, you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet, oh
I could drink a case of you, darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh, I would still be on my feet
Oh, I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time you told me
You said, "Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine, 'cause
Part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet, oh
I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said, "Go to him
Stay with him if you can but be prepared to bleed"
Oh, but you are in my blood, you're my holy wine
You're so bitter
Bitter and so sweet, oh
I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
Hmm
"I am as constant as a northern star," and I said
"Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me, I'll be in the bar"
On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh, Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh, you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet, oh
I could drink a case of you, darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh, I would still be on my feet
Oh, I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time you told me
You said, "Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine, 'cause
Part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet, oh
I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said, "Go to him
Stay with him if you can but be prepared to bleed"
Oh, but you are in my blood, you're my holy wine
You're so bitter
Bitter and so sweet, oh
I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
Hmm
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I love this song so much
Joni is aparently singing about Leonard Cohen, who she had a relationship with