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"
Wake up young man
It's time to wake up
Your love affair has got to go
For ten long years
For ten long years
The leaves to rake up
Slow suicide's no way to go
Oh
Blue clouded gray
You're not a crack up
Dizzy and weakened by the haze
Movin' onward
So an infection not a phase
Yeah oh
The cracks and lines
From where you gave up
They make an easy man to read
Oh oh, oh oh
For all the times
You let them bleed you
For a little peace from God you plead
And beg
For a little peace from God you plead
Oh oh oh oh
Yeah oh
Oh oh oh oh
Yeah oh
Oh oh oh oh
Yeah oh
Wake up young man
Wake up, wake up, wake up
Wake up, wake up, wake up
Oh yeah
Wake up young man
It's time to wake up
Your love affair has got to go, yeah
For ten long years
For ten long years
The leaves the rake up
Slow suicide's no way to go oh, oh oh
Slow suicide's no way to go
Wake up, wake up, wake up
Wake up, wake up, wake up
It's time to wake up
Your love affair has got to go
For ten long years
For ten long years
The leaves to rake up
Slow suicide's no way to go
Oh
Blue clouded gray
You're not a crack up
Dizzy and weakened by the haze
Movin' onward
So an infection not a phase
Yeah oh
The cracks and lines
From where you gave up
They make an easy man to read
Oh oh, oh oh
For all the times
You let them bleed you
For a little peace from God you plead
And beg
For a little peace from God you plead
Oh oh oh oh
Yeah oh
Oh oh oh oh
Yeah oh
Oh oh oh oh
Yeah oh
Wake up young man
Wake up, wake up, wake up
Wake up, wake up, wake up
Oh yeah
Wake up young man
It's time to wake up
Your love affair has got to go, yeah
For ten long years
For ten long years
The leaves the rake up
Slow suicide's no way to go oh, oh oh
Slow suicide's no way to go
Wake up, wake up, wake up
Wake up, wake up, wake up
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death
Wake Up Lyrics as written by Layne Staley Mike Mccready
Lyrics © Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Anyone who listens to Alice in Chains knows what I mean when I say you can just feel how much Layne is in to his music by how he sounds and he shows that in this song especially. To bad he died, the music he has been associated with has always been some of my favorite and he will be missed.
This song help kick my drug habit. Thanks Layne.
In this song, Layne admits that he has a heroin problem and he desparately wants to get sober "wake up young man, it's tme to wake up. Your love affair has got to go" He says that he needs to get his life in order after all the years of wasted time. This addiction has completely consumed him and he's crying for help. He knows his life could be much better without heroin and all of the pain it had caused him.
This song is so beautiful and yet so hard to listen to. Layne is speaking to himself admitting he has a problem and he needs to do something about it. To think about the lyrics of this song is so damn sad.
"The cracks and lines from where you gave up, they make an easy man to read" probably refers to the scars left on his body by heroin use. Every time he tried to stop using people would judge him by those. I guess this made it even harder for him because everyone only saw him as a hapless junkie and it's hard to change on your own when people see you as only that.
These guys are so real! They kick ass!
This song most definitely describes Layne's battle with heroin, but is shown in a different light. Although it has a darkness to it, there is a bit of hope in his words. "it's time to wake up, your
he's begging for release from all that holds him down
This song is so powerful... just think, they even had it played on his funeral. Layne just wanted everyone to learn from his experiences, and "wake up" from the illusion that you can escape an addiction. Everybody who is stupid enough to do drugs should listen to this song, and be ashamed of themselves if they still call themselves good Alice in Chains or Mad Season fans. WAKE UP!
If you really think about how powerful this song is, because it explains his life and laynes demise, IT made me cry one time its just so awesome. This song is very powerful