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"
I could make you scared, if you want me to
I'm not prepared, but if I have to
He said, I can make you scared, it's kind of what I do
If you're prepared, here's what I propose to do
You're in Russia and more than a million works of art
Are whisked out to the woods
When the Nazis find the whole place dark
They'll think God's left the museum for good
I can make you scared, if that's what I do
If you're prepared, and if I have to
If I make you scared, and you pay me to
That's the deal, now here's what I can do for you
Now there's a focus group that can prove
This is all nothing but cold calculation
Tests have shown that suspicious are hostile
Their lives need not be shortened
Truth be told, they can live a long, long while
Tickled to death by their importance
If you can make me scared, if that's what you do
If I'm unclear, can I get out of this thing with me and you
If you feel scared, and a bit confused
I got to say, this sounds a little beyond anything I'm used to
There's a precious few that can prove at the root
This is all nothing but cold calculation
Clearly entranced, you're leaving back now
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
Down at the beach it's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through the blood out to it to play
Okay, you made me scared, you did what you set out to do
And I'm not prepared, you really had me going there for a minute or two
He said, you made me scared too, I wasn't sure I was getting through
I got to go
It's been a pleasure doing business with you
I'm not prepared, but if I have to
He said, I can make you scared, it's kind of what I do
If you're prepared, here's what I propose to do
You're in Russia and more than a million works of art
Are whisked out to the woods
When the Nazis find the whole place dark
They'll think God's left the museum for good
I can make you scared, if that's what I do
If you're prepared, and if I have to
If I make you scared, and you pay me to
That's the deal, now here's what I can do for you
Now there's a focus group that can prove
This is all nothing but cold calculation
Tests have shown that suspicious are hostile
Their lives need not be shortened
Truth be told, they can live a long, long while
Tickled to death by their importance
If you can make me scared, if that's what you do
If I'm unclear, can I get out of this thing with me and you
If you feel scared, and a bit confused
I got to say, this sounds a little beyond anything I'm used to
There's a precious few that can prove at the root
This is all nothing but cold calculation
Clearly entranced, you're leaving back now
Defanged destroyer limps into the bay
Down at the beach it's attracting quite a crowd
As kids wade through the blood out to it to play
Okay, you made me scared, you did what you set out to do
And I'm not prepared, you really had me going there for a minute or two
He said, you made me scared too, I wasn't sure I was getting through
I got to go
It's been a pleasure doing business with you
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death, edited by P514sub
Scared Lyrics as written by Gordon Sinclair Gordon Downie
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is generally introduced as a song about a door-to-door salesman selling fear, which may be a sly comment on politicians or media.
It's one of several TTH lyrics dealing with Nazism (others are Fire in the Hole and Springtime in Vienna), and it's the one that deals with it most explicitly. Which of the three tales scares us?
First, we have the war, in which Russians hide art from Nazi invaders and the invaders think God has abandoned them. What's frightening about this? The Nazi's faith in God?
Then we're told that some group of people need not be killed (or at least, need not die prematurely). They can keep on living and feeling grandiose. Who are they?
Then the shark limps in, without its fangs, and kids play with it.
I think all these are the same: Nazis fight a war in God's name ("Gott mit uns" on their belt buckles); Nazi war criminals survive the war and are kept in prison; Nazi ideals, apparently defanged, live on and attract children. The last is certainly the most frightening.
But is the fear based on reality, or on some tale concocted out of the cold calculation of a salesman pitching fear?