You think I'm crazy or something
Always following you around
You say I'm a hopeless case
Run an obsession into the ground

You call me a loser
You call me a shadowing fool
Look over your shoulder
And you say I'm haunting you

So why do you call me
Why do you look for me
Why do your eyes follow me the way they do
You hold me responsible

Yeah, so I stand accused
Of causing all the trouble
After high school
(Between him and you)

You call me a loser
You call me a shadowing fool
But I was a good girl
Yeah, 'till you taught me

What it means to be true
Why do you call me
I know you look for me
Why do your eyes follow me the way they do


Lyrics submitted by Ice

Following Lyrics as written by Michael Susan Steele

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Following song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

7 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +2
    General Comment
    At first this always seemed to me to be a total stalker song. But I think its more about him stalking her, but making it look like the other way around. She got between him and a friend of his and now he pretends like he hates her, but he's still following her and calling her.
    mrsdarthvaderon July 12, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment
    I think its a totally great song, underrated. In fact the entire album is really good. Walk Like an Egyptian is my least favorite song on it.
    scarfoneon April 25, 2010   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation
    I know it sounds like a "boy/girl" song, but try to listen to it as a "girl/girl" song. Makes much more sense.
    bodboton January 02, 2014   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    It feels like when you get dumped, and you are trying to move on from relationship, but someone who dumped you keep you in contact. Making it much harder to move on.
    douleuron May 07, 2005   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation
    Sounds more of a girl/girl song than a girl/boy song. Try to imagine it that way when you listen to it.
    bodboton January 02, 2014   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation
    I think it's definitely a girl/girl song, and the more I think about it, the more I think the "relationship" is almost entirely imaginary on the part of the singer. The singer is the stalker-y one, but she justifies her own obsession with the idea (which I take to be entirely in her head) that the target it obsessed with *her*. She's not actually calling her, looking for her, or following her with her eyes except in the sense that she's keeping track of the crazy chick's movements. And "the trouble after high school" stems from some public altercation that made "him" think the target actually was cheating on him with the singer.
    suzanne109on November 25, 2018   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion
    I don't think the relationship is entirely in someone's head. I've always heard it as a lesbian singing to a friend who experimented with her when they were teenagers, to the point that the singer thought of them as girlfriends. But either it was never as serious to the other girl, or it was at odds with the conventional life she planned for herself. After high school, she got involved with a guy and tried to put some distance there, and the singer reacted badly. The singer didn't want to let go. She wants to believe she meant something. And maybe she did/does, or maybe she's just overinterpreting things. It's open to interpretation, and that veiled quality is part of what makes it striking. There's also anger in it, hurt, need. It's obviously a personal song. The writer (whose sexual orientation I don't know) has said she was writing about her "high-school sweetheart." A lot more gay people were closeted or in denial even when the song was recorded in the mid '80s, let alone in the time period it presumably would be written about (the early '70s, going by when the writer would have been in high school).
    TokedDingoon November 05, 2019   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Zombie
Cranberries, The
"Zombie" is about the ethno-political conflict in Ireland. This is obvious if you know anything of the singer (Dolores O'Riordan)'s Irish heritage and understood the "1916" Easter Rising reference. "Another head hangs lowly Child is slowly taken And the violence caused such silence Who are we mistaken - Another mother's breaking Heart is taking over" Laments the Warrington bomb attacks in which two children were fatally injured on March 23rd, 1993. Twelve year old Tim Parry was taken off life support with permission from his mother after five days in the hospital, virtually braindead. "But you see it's not me It's not my family" References how people who are not directly involved with the violence feel about it. They are "zombies" without sympathy who refuse to take action while others suffer.
Album art
Indigo
Of Mice & Men
This track is about is about questioning why the sky would choose to be blue if it had the choice to be anything else, “blue also meaning sad,” states frontman Aaron Pauley. “It's about comforting a loved one in a time of loss by telling them you feel blue, too.”
Album art
System
Mel And Kim
Just listening for the 784,654th time....and it's just perfect in every way. Just incredible. The only reason it was remade was to scoop up a boatload of money from a more modern and accepting audience. But it is a completely different song than the other one that sounds slapped together in a few takes without a thought for the meaning. This song captivates me still, after 50+ years. Takes me to the deep South and the poverty of some who lived thru truly hard times. And the powerful spirit of a poor young girl being abandoned to her future with only a red dress and her wits to keep her alive. She not only stayed alive, she turned her hard beginnings around, became self sufficient, successful and someone with respect for herself. She didn't let the naysayers and judgers stop her. She's the one sitting in the drivers seat at the end. So, not a song about a poor girl, but a song of hope and how you can rise up no matter how far down you started. There is a huge difference between a singer who simply belts out a song that is on a page in front of them, and someone who can convey an entire experience with their voice. Telling not just a story with words, but taking you inside it and making you feel like you are there, with their interpretation.
Album art
Blank Space
Taylor Swift
This song is Swift's response to the negative reputation the media has given her. "I can make the bad guys good for a weekend" - the bad guys are the paparazzi to Swift, but are good to the "player" since association with Swift immediately gives publicity. Any publicity is good publicity and Swift knows this. "You can tell me when it's over" - the tabloids rumor relationships are over before the couple announces it officially. With this song Swift is portraying the way she is portrayed by the media. It is a sarcastic jab at how she views herself and how her "ex-lovers" only wanted to be with her to increase their fame. I applaud the brilliance in writing about how you always write about relationships. It is expected so Swift is giving the media what they want and profiting off the attention.
Album art
Anti-Hero
Taylor Swift
I believe this is another amazingly on point and nuanced commentary on the insanity that follows emotionally abusive relationships. The abuser has no anxieties, no emotional pain, or salience/memory for that matter, so the survivor appears to be the crazy one, obsessed with the abuse and that buzzword that seems to ignite arguments about diagnosing people without a degree, etc. funny how you say the words domestic violence, abuse, abuse survivor and boom the subject changes. Anyways, I especially relate to her midnights becoming afternoons, complex PTSD often leads to this phenomenon, whether due to purposeful sleep deprivation by the abuser, or just hyper vigilance associated with the PTSD, along with the fear of facing people, especially your loved ones, who Never actually understand, even if they try, because all they see is you, on fire, screaming about the arsonist that no one ever sees, and who has been spreading lies about your alleged mental instability, deceptive personality, etc. the whole time. While the last thing survivors need is more blame, our society supports a narrative that blames the objectively innocent party because the blatantly guilty party has spent their entire lives fabricating a persona and we’re just being human, and human psychology is quite counterintuitive especially in the context of trauma. Look at Amber Heard. Vilified and not believed, regardless of what any abuse survivor could recognize as a fellow survivor instantly. But Johnny depp is a malignant narcissist, a man, and wealthy as all get out. It’s sick.