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 took a long time for me to get over
Your incredible ways
And now I'm minded to wipe out the memory
Of the way you behaved
You're a receptacle
For the respectable
I took some time out to study your actions
Of how you painted towns red
And if my worse fears came to fruition
I'm sure you'd leave us all dead
I was so gullible
But now I'm cynical
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba (X2)
We're all susceptible
To the incredible
Tell me, tell me, tell me again
Coz it's very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Tell me, tell me, explain your game
Coz its very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Tell me, tell me, tell me again
Coz it's very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Tell me, tell me, explain your game
Coz its very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Welcome as a storm cloud in the late December gloom
Subtle as a nail bomb in the head
You came to me in peace
And left me in pieces
Ooooh...
Receptacle for the respectable (X6)
Receptacle
Your incredible ways
And now I'm minded to wipe out the memory
Of the way you behaved
You're a receptacle
For the respectable
I took some time out to study your actions
Of how you painted towns red
And if my worse fears came to fruition
I'm sure you'd leave us all dead
I was so gullible
But now I'm cynical
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba (X2)
We're all susceptible
To the incredible
Tell me, tell me, tell me again
Coz it's very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Tell me, tell me, explain your game
Coz its very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Tell me, tell me, tell me again
Coz it's very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Tell me, tell me, explain your game
Coz its very inane
Are you pleased to see me suffer ever?
Welcome as a storm cloud in the late December gloom
Subtle as a nail bomb in the head
You came to me in peace
And left me in pieces
Ooooh...
Receptacle for the respectable (X6)
Receptacle
Lyrics submitted by Hanners
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Receptacle. For the respectable. WHOA!!!!
"It started as a song in two parts, and then we added a third and then a fourth, and at one point a fifth as well - there was a hip hop bit at the end.
"It's a song about a girl around town, and being in awe/hurt by a powerful woman about town. And it's a celebration of absurd musical juxtapositions. I think the final section makes the song valid, because up 'til then it's an exercise in classicist rock music.
"It features a great vocal by Daf in the third part. It was a monster track to mix. And it's our chance to indulge in pantomime death metal at the end.
"It seemed the obvious song to give to Pete Fowler and his boundless imagination. The film is as unpredictable as the song. He's pushed his work into another dimension, and embraced art deco, which is the last thing you'd think he'd embrace. Pete Fowler now refers to his art as Monsterism. He didn't want to be a minor player in a big classification so he invented his own movement, and he's the biggest player in his field.
"The album to this point is a great driving album. I've recently passed my test and it's given me a new outlook on music. At that point it might be where drowsiness might kick in, so it's for the lorry driver who's got comfortable with the Bacharach-style balladry."
My take was that it is about being sold out by someone you really trusted. Receptable for the Respectable, meaning the trash can for the powerful
Paul McCartney plays the celery on this one.
Receptacle. For the respectable. WHOA!!!!