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"
Their custom concern for the people
Build up the monuments and steeples
To wear out our eyes
I get up just about noon
My head sends a message for me
To reach for my shoes then walk
Gotta go to work, gotta go to work, gotta get a job
Goes through the parking lot fields
Doesn't see no signs that they will yield
And then thought, this'll never end
This'll never end, this'll never stop
Message read on the bathroom wall
Says, "I don't feel at all like I fall."
And we're losing all touch, losing all touch
Building a desert
Build up the monuments and steeples
To wear out our eyes
I get up just about noon
My head sends a message for me
To reach for my shoes then walk
Gotta go to work, gotta go to work, gotta get a job
Goes through the parking lot fields
Doesn't see no signs that they will yield
And then thought, this'll never end
This'll never end, this'll never stop
Message read on the bathroom wall
Says, "I don't feel at all like I fall."
And we're losing all touch, losing all touch
Building a desert
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
This is just my intreperetation and I don't claim this to be the right, its just what I think. I think that this is deeper than just drugs or social pressure or something similar. Ithink the main purpose of this song is to describe depression. I think whoever wrote this song used a lot of heavy metaphor, tone of music, imagery, and description of depression (without directly addressing it). I think that this is true because of, for starters, the music itself is very dreary and depressing. The banjo (I think it is, correct me if I am wrong) alone gives the listener a sense of mourning throughout the song. For the purpose of my interpretation, I would say that sense of mourning is for the loss of happiness (or the lack of it). Also, the writer uses images that are visually empty like a desert or "parking lot fields". Besides this being completely brilliant (sorry if this is a tad off topic of my analysis, but I just can't resist), it also reflects the how the writer feels, emotionally, empty, barren. Such a feeling, is often a common sign of depression. Also, the author presents waking up and going to work, something that is an ordinary task for every working person as difficult, hence reflecting another sign of depression, the agony of merely living and carrying out a life, and the last verse in the second stanza, "this'll never end, this'll never end, this'll never stop" plays well with the former line described. It describes the never ending hopelessness of the depression that the writer faces every day. Sorry if it was a little long, but for those who read it, thank yhou. I apprecate your consideration for my opinion.
You took the words right out of my mouth. I read an article a couple months ago talking about songs that describe how depression feels and this is the first song I thought of. It just seems to describe the tedium of day to day life in the world really well.
Agree. I'm kind of depressed right now and this is the song i'm listening to. I can completely relate to how monotonous the "normal" life feels all of a sudden. And I'm in love with the phrases "I dont feel at all like I fall", "And we're losing all touch building a desert" Thats how this feels like. I normally dont comment on songs, but this is one of those few songs (like Radiohead's Motion picture soundtrack and Death cab's Line of best fit) that I simply feel like listening on forever. If they let me play a song at my funeral, then this is one of them. peace.
every single song by modest mouse makes people guess either drugs or depression. come on now.
@antrl I don't feel at all like I fall was a dead giveaway. i love that line.<br /> <br /> Basically saying the ups aren't worth the downs. they don't balance out.
@antrl Yup, reminds me of another great band Drive By Truckers song 'Gravity's Gone' " I've been falling so long its like gravity's gone and I'm just floating" They've got a way with words and backing it up with instrumentality. M.M. was one of my first and have always highlighted certain things some people just don't care to understand, which is understandable. <br /> <br /> Duh duh duh duh duhduhduhduh duh duh duh duhduhduhduh...ups and downs. Its brilliant with the banjo. I see them every chance I get and it never seems like the younger kids get what the songs are about. On a good note I got two jobs today that I'm going to LOVE. I thought of this song. Great post, thanks!