I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Maybe it was to learn how to love
Maybe it was to learn how to leave
Maybe it was for the games we played
Maybe it was to learn how to choose
Maybe it was to learn how to lose
Maybe it was for the love we made
Love is everything they said it would be
Love made sweet and sad the same
But love forgot to make me too blind to see
You're chickening out aren't you?
You're bangin' on the beach like an old tin drum
I cant wait 'til you make
The whole kingdom come
So I'm leaving
Maybe it was to learn how to fight
Maybe it was for the lesson in pride
Maybe it was the cowboys' ways
Maybe it was to learn not to lie
Maybe it was to learn how to cry
Maybe it was for the love we made
Love is everything they said it would be
Love did not hold back the reins
But love forgot to make me too blind to see
You're chickening out aren't you?
You're bangin' on the beach like an old tin drum
I cant wait 'til you make
The whole kingdom come
So I'm leaving
First he turns to you
Then he turns to her
So you try to hurt him back
But it breaks your body down
So you try to love bigger
Bigger still
But it...it's too late
So take a lesson from the strangeness you feel
And know you'll never be the same
And find it in your heart to kneel down and say
I gave my love didn't I?
And I gave it big...sometimes
And I gave it in my own sweet time
I'm just leaving
Love is everything...
Maybe it was to learn how to leave
Maybe it was for the games we played
Maybe it was to learn how to choose
Maybe it was to learn how to lose
Maybe it was for the love we made
Love is everything they said it would be
Love made sweet and sad the same
But love forgot to make me too blind to see
You're chickening out aren't you?
You're bangin' on the beach like an old tin drum
I cant wait 'til you make
The whole kingdom come
So I'm leaving
Maybe it was to learn how to fight
Maybe it was for the lesson in pride
Maybe it was the cowboys' ways
Maybe it was to learn not to lie
Maybe it was to learn how to cry
Maybe it was for the love we made
Love is everything they said it would be
Love did not hold back the reins
But love forgot to make me too blind to see
You're chickening out aren't you?
You're bangin' on the beach like an old tin drum
I cant wait 'til you make
The whole kingdom come
So I'm leaving
First he turns to you
Then he turns to her
So you try to hurt him back
But it breaks your body down
So you try to love bigger
Bigger still
But it...it's too late
So take a lesson from the strangeness you feel
And know you'll never be the same
And find it in your heart to kneel down and say
I gave my love didn't I?
And I gave it big...sometimes
And I gave it in my own sweet time
I'm just leaving
Love is everything...
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
My ex-wife cheated on me and left me and my children. I remember going to therapy and the therapist asking what I learned from the whole relationship. Not just the beginning, middle, or end, but the whole thing. This song describes my feelings and what I learned so beautifully.
My love was everything everyone said love is. (Especially musically). Love can be wonderfully (happy love songs), difficult (songs were boy meets girl, breaks up and they get back together), sad and painful.
My 15 year relationship taught me ‘not to lie’, ‘ how to cry’, how to see (“Love forget to make me too blind to see”) what was really going on, ‘how to leave’ (In my case, that was very difficult.)
The lines “Maybe it was for the love we made” always make me think about my two sons. Even with all the pain I went through, I would still have married her because I received the two greatest things in the world from the marriage.
Even the verse “First he turn to you” describes my relationship. I remember the first time I met the guy, and she turned to me and then she turned to him, and I wanted her to hurt so bad, but that’s not me. So I tried to “love bigger” but that was “still too late”
After being in love with someone for so long, there is a “lesson from the strangeness” you feel. You are forever changed.
But in the end, I know that I gave it my all (”I gave my love didn't I?” and that it was her that “chickened” out.
i love this song, probably because of Issa's voice.. but i still can't figure out what she meant in this song.. anyone?
The song is simply about the experience of being in love. The question of, why do we do it? With all the residual pain, why love at all?
The lyrics talk about how love is everything you’d imagine it to be and how it is all worth it. The things you feel and the memories are always worth it.
Then the pain comes, when you feel that person drifting further from you and you know there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Knowing that love was fleeting and that person has taught you so many important life lessons.
And that love is always a revolving door; people leave...