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"
Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
Don't the sun look good today?
But the rain on its way
Watch the butcher shine his knives
And this town is full of battered wives.
Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
I ride your river under the bridge
I take your boat out to the reach
'Cause I love that engine roar
But I still don't know what I'm here for
Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
They shut it down
They closed it down
They shut it down
They pulled it down
Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
Don't the sun look good today?
But the rain on its way
Watch the butcher shine his knives
And this town is full of battered wives.
Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
I ride your river under the bridge
I take your boat out to the reach
'Cause I love that engine roar
But I still don't know what I'm here for
Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
They shut it down
They closed it down
They shut it down
They pulled it down
Round and round up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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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,
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
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“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.
Excellent song. Simply flawless.
Grant acknowledged in interviews at the time that the song was about his love/hate relationship with Brisbane. The 'striped sunlight sound' of the music is in stark contrast to the darkness of the lyrics, i.e, everything looks beautiful, but scratch away at the surface and....
Yeah, not bad at all. A very underated band
The quintessential 80s Brisbane song. Everytime I hear this it I am flooded with memories of growing up in Brisbane in the 80s. Very few songs stir so many emotions within me.
I have to disagree with everyone so far. I view it as a negative song. The streets of your town refer to where his lover lives. 'The rain is on it's way' is a euphamism as rain symbolises gloominess. 'Watch the butcher shine his knives and this town is full of battered wives' refers to the roughness and violence of the area. 'They shut it down, they closed it down' I view as a reference to the fact the area had nothing going for it so whatever was still operating there the people in power terminated. He goes everyday to the streets of your town to see his lover but everytime he does he is touched as it is so different to the normal lifestyle he is used to. If it was a reference to Brisbane then it would be the streets of my town not your town and it wouldn't be unusual for him to walk through it every day if it was in reference to where he lived.
As much as I try to like their songs out of loyalty to Brisbane (theirs & my home town), this is the only one of their songs I have ever really liked.
It is about Brisbane & always makes me think of Brisbane in the 80s - a fun place for me because it was the "big smoke" where I went on holidays & also reminds me of the the female Lord Mayor back then who always seemed very glamourous to me . I think it was the theme song to a daily/weekly show about Brisbane on TV too. the stuff about being full of battered wives was a bit rough, but then its always been cool for The Go-Betweens and other Bris-bands of that era to shit on Brissy. I happen to love the place tho.
dont think grant was trying to insult brisbane when he said this town is full of battered wives, he was just describing the town as he saw it, and what he saw, and yeah domestic violence does occur in brisbane, as well as a lot of love, and a lot of fun, and a lot of different people of different ages and cultures, all in all, its a good town, with the good and the bad, and i think thats what grant was trying to encapsulate about this, our town