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"
(Roots Manuva)
Sin sinners, I got to talk to you about your sins
Sins on street corners, Sins in your shops
Sinny Sin Sins in your streets of yours
Sins in your eyes, sins gonna make you cry
Oh Lord, can you help me with my sins?
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins.
I was raised in a pentecostal Church of God
My father was the deacon, he used to stand preaching
I used to to steal collection, I used to catch a beating
Forgive me Lord, I knew not what I did
I was just a kid, trying to hustle up a quid
Feeling kinda ashamed, riding in the Church right
Bible in my hand, dressed in my sunday best.
Reach a Churchyard and I'm feeling depressed
I'm in the midst of the well-dressed, talking 'bout singing, singing
thanks and praise to the king of the Jews
And I'm all confused, 'cause I can't see the sense
Why should I turn the other cheek and get beat?
Ain't no peace without war so who am I?
The faster drives benz, got me looking to the sky
singing soon, very soon, we gonna see the king
Soon oh, very soon, we all gonna be blamed.
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins.
Woke up one Sunday, feeling kinda raw
I said "Dad, I don't really want to go Church no more"
Soon as I said shit, I felt a slap to my jaw
He said "Son, as long as your living under my roof
Your gonna heed my interpretation of the truth
And the truth is right here
It's written in this book the Holy Bible
It's the key to survival so you best heed the word"
He said, "Do as I say, not what I do
And you'll see, goodness will follow you"
begrudgingly, I ironed my shirt, polish my shoes
Went to Chruch and I took in their far-out views
with their strange perceptions of Heaven and Hell.
To this very day I still fight down their spell
'cause all that we pray, we still stay poor
With that leaky roof dripping on the front room floor.
Sins gonna make you cry
Oh Lord, can you help me with my sins?
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins.
Please don't get me twisted, I'm far from a heathen
This is just a simple song of basic rhyme and reason
It's not my meaning to demean or blaspheme
But most things in the Bible ain't as plain as they seem
Can I trust King James to translate these papers?
Do I need a middle-man to link with the creator
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
Church band plays, now I'm spending my pound
Looking for a short-cut to the road to Zion
We can't fool God, but we wasting time trying
Two third of the truth is yet to be told
Two thousand years of corruption soon unfold
Sins in your eyes, sins gonna make you cry
Oh Lord, can you help me with my sins?
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins
Sin sinners, I got to talk to you about your sins
Sins on street corners, Sins in your shops
Sinny Sin Sins in your streets of yours
Sins in your eyes, sins gonna make you cry
Oh Lord, can you help me with my sins?
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins.
I was raised in a pentecostal Church of God
My father was the deacon, he used to stand preaching
I used to to steal collection, I used to catch a beating
Forgive me Lord, I knew not what I did
I was just a kid, trying to hustle up a quid
Feeling kinda ashamed, riding in the Church right
Bible in my hand, dressed in my sunday best.
Reach a Churchyard and I'm feeling depressed
I'm in the midst of the well-dressed, talking 'bout singing, singing
thanks and praise to the king of the Jews
And I'm all confused, 'cause I can't see the sense
Why should I turn the other cheek and get beat?
Ain't no peace without war so who am I?
The faster drives benz, got me looking to the sky
singing soon, very soon, we gonna see the king
Soon oh, very soon, we all gonna be blamed.
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins.
Woke up one Sunday, feeling kinda raw
I said "Dad, I don't really want to go Church no more"
Soon as I said shit, I felt a slap to my jaw
He said "Son, as long as your living under my roof
Your gonna heed my interpretation of the truth
And the truth is right here
It's written in this book the Holy Bible
It's the key to survival so you best heed the word"
He said, "Do as I say, not what I do
And you'll see, goodness will follow you"
begrudgingly, I ironed my shirt, polish my shoes
Went to Chruch and I took in their far-out views
with their strange perceptions of Heaven and Hell.
To this very day I still fight down their spell
'cause all that we pray, we still stay poor
With that leaky roof dripping on the front room floor.
Sins gonna make you cry
Oh Lord, can you help me with my sins?
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins.
Please don't get me twisted, I'm far from a heathen
This is just a simple song of basic rhyme and reason
It's not my meaning to demean or blaspheme
But most things in the Bible ain't as plain as they seem
Can I trust King James to translate these papers?
Do I need a middle-man to link with the creator
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
Church band plays, now I'm spending my pound
Looking for a short-cut to the road to Zion
We can't fool God, but we wasting time trying
Two third of the truth is yet to be told
Two thousand years of corruption soon unfold
Sins in your eyes, sins gonna make you cry
Oh Lord, can you help me with my sins?
Oh Lord can you help me with my sin sin sinners?
There are no Sins like sins
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Clearly it's autobiographical and speaks for itself. I've read on several occasions that Rodney Smith (aka Roots Manuva) was raised in a strict pentecostal household.