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"
Now each day when I wake up and I set my best foot forward,
I'll make an effort to be all that I can be.
And I take a look around me and I wonder how things change so much,
in the few short years since I was a young boy.
LET'S GO!
Do you know what we're fighting for?
I know in an instant I could lose everything I'm working toward.
chorus
I know I'll win my battles, though I fear we'll lose the war
to the new American way.
The morals of this nation's youth have long gone astray.
Led by tolerance, indifference, in this kinder, gentler way.
That has corrupted and destroyed, so many of our boys and girls.
Oh lord I start to wonder, will it ever come around?
I'll make an effort to be all that I can be.
And I take a look around me and I wonder how things change so much,
in the few short years since I was a young boy.
LET'S GO!
Do you know what we're fighting for?
I know in an instant I could lose everything I'm working toward.
chorus
I know I'll win my battles, though I fear we'll lose the war
to the new American way.
The morals of this nation's youth have long gone astray.
Led by tolerance, indifference, in this kinder, gentler way.
That has corrupted and destroyed, so many of our boys and girls.
Oh lord I start to wonder, will it ever come around?
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
68% of US prisoners are minorities, I don't think there's a problem locking up people because they are part of some minority.
honestly, I don't know what to think of this song. If it is satirical, I missed it. If it's not, I can't really get behind a song that things "tolerance" and "kindness" are things to look down upon.
Yeah, a few years later... What this is talking about when they complain about is not real tolerance, but the new-age "tolerance" that is shoved down people's throats by so-called "enlightened liberals" who believe that everything is permissible and that it is wrong to tell someone that they are wrong. (Contradiction alert!) The difference between real and modern "tolerance" is simple: real tolerance is saying, "Ok, you are different and I disagree with you, but I will not disrespect you because I believe you are wrong." Modern "tolerance" is where you, as previously stated, must never tell someone they are wrong, because you might hurt their pwecious, wittle feewings (baby talk for "precious, little feelings). As to the "kinder, gentler way" that they refer to, it is the attempt by society at large to take the masculinity out of men and turn them into gender-neutral "people" at best. This is especially noticeable with the rise of the "metrosexual" culture where men are acting more feminine and are, across the board, losing the drive and ability to stand up and be men. Men are supposed to be aggressive and combative but also able to control those drives, unleashing them only when necessary. Without men who know how to be men, you can see the state of the modern American "family" and the extreme rise of dysfunctionality in families and youth. Ask any psychologist you can find, a child will always be at least slightly mal-adapted if they grow up in a single-parent home. The "old" (read: original) American Way was self-reliance, self-determination, and perseverance in the face of adversity. The "new" American Way is being a passive push-over, all-excepting, spineless person who stands up for nothing and looks to someone else to solve his problems. These things are all offensive, especially to the fiercely independent Irish culture which still lives strongly in these men and Irish-rooted communities. Hopefully, we can spread the better way back to dominance in this country and make it as great as it once was.
Yeah, and this interpretation is the reason they never play this song anymore (and probably why it was rarely played it to begin with). <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> I wanted to address primarily your discussion about masculine dominance. By your whole "live and let live model" what's wrong with being a metro-sexual? Or what's wrong being a dominant female? <br /> <br /> Just because someone refuses to embrace stereotypical masculinity that demands that you be macho and tough and "dominant", does that mean you are a "passive push-over" that is tearing apart the fabric of American family values? Give me a break. <br /> <br /> (And if we're gonna talk about single parent homes being "mal adaptive", you probably have to talk about poverty, and the million other issues involved)<br /> <br /> I any case, it's one thing to tell people their wrong about their IDEAS, but why does a different lifestyle mean it's wrong.<br /> <br /> Sports are a bore, war is stupid, I don't like meat, and me and my girlfriend split the bill cause she's just as entitled to as I am. Am I tearing apart America?<br />