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"
On a string
On a string
On a string, I was held
The way I move, can you tell?
My actions are orchestrated from above
And so I swing, and I sway
Wave my hand, kick my leg
And it's always right with the music
('Til all that swaying starts to make you sick)
For a song, I was bought
Now I lie when I talk
With a careful eye on the cue cards
Onto a stage, I was pushed
With my sorrow well-rehearsed
So, give me all your pity and your money now
All of it
(We used to think the sound was something good)
But if I could act like this was my real life
And not some cage where I've been placed
Well, then I could tell you
The truth like I used to
And not be afraid of sounding fake
Now all anyone's listening for are the mistakes
(Oh, I'm sorry)
No, it's okay, it's okay
One, two, three, one, two, three
In a house, by myself
I hear the ice start to melt
And I watch the rooftops weep for the sunlight
And I know what must change
Fuck my face, fuck my name
They are brief and false advertisements
For a soul, I don't have
Something true I have lacked
And spent my whole life trying to make up for
But I found, in a song
And in the people I love
They will lift me up out of darkness
And now my door, it stands open
I'm inviting everyone in
We're gonna laugh, we're gonna drink until the morning comes
That's what we're gonna do
Come on, come on
On a string
On a string, I was held
The way I move, can you tell?
My actions are orchestrated from above
And so I swing, and I sway
Wave my hand, kick my leg
And it's always right with the music
('Til all that swaying starts to make you sick)
For a song, I was bought
Now I lie when I talk
With a careful eye on the cue cards
Onto a stage, I was pushed
With my sorrow well-rehearsed
So, give me all your pity and your money now
All of it
(We used to think the sound was something good)
But if I could act like this was my real life
And not some cage where I've been placed
Well, then I could tell you
The truth like I used to
And not be afraid of sounding fake
Now all anyone's listening for are the mistakes
(Oh, I'm sorry)
No, it's okay, it's okay
One, two, three, one, two, three
In a house, by myself
I hear the ice start to melt
And I watch the rooftops weep for the sunlight
And I know what must change
Fuck my face, fuck my name
They are brief and false advertisements
For a soul, I don't have
Something true I have lacked
And spent my whole life trying to make up for
But I found, in a song
And in the people I love
They will lift me up out of darkness
And now my door, it stands open
I'm inviting everyone in
We're gonna laugh, we're gonna drink until the morning comes
That's what we're gonna do
Come on, come on
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great... just great...