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"
I am not the type of dog
That could keep you waiting
For no good reason
Run a carbon-black test on my jaw
And you will find it's all been said before
I can swing my megaphone
And long arm the rest
It's easier and better to just beat it from the chest
Of desire
I could walk into this room
And the waves of conversation are enough
To knock you down in the undertow
So alone
So all alone in my life
Feed me banks of light
And hang your hairshirt on the lowest rung
It's a beautiful life
And I can hang my hairshirt
Away up high in the attic of the wrong dog's life chest
Or bury it at sea
All my life I've searched for this
Here I am, here I am
In your life
It's a beautiful life
My life
It's a beautiful life
Your life
That could keep you waiting
For no good reason
Run a carbon-black test on my jaw
And you will find it's all been said before
I can swing my megaphone
And long arm the rest
It's easier and better to just beat it from the chest
Of desire
I could walk into this room
And the waves of conversation are enough
To knock you down in the undertow
So alone
So all alone in my life
Feed me banks of light
And hang your hairshirt on the lowest rung
It's a beautiful life
And I can hang my hairshirt
Away up high in the attic of the wrong dog's life chest
Or bury it at sea
All my life I've searched for this
Here I am, here I am
In your life
It's a beautiful life
My life
It's a beautiful life
Your life
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Hair shirts were scratchy woolen undergarments worn from the 13 century to about the 15th by religiously pentitant people. There were a form of self flagellation who used to believe that suffering brought you closer to God. I see a relationship in this song that is finally over. The singer is finally removing his Hair shirt, giving up on suffering in hopes of regaining his love.
a couple of years before spliting with my wife we shared the beauty of this track. I particularly love the line 'run a carbon black test on my jaw, and you will find its all been said before' Rather poignant at the time...
What a beautiful song. I like Stipe singing like this.. Can't believe the lack of comments on this one and on R.E.M. generally. They're the best :-)
@Henneby <br /> True
beautiful song, reminds me of everything good ive ever experiences
I think this song is about how a relationship with your partner is never in a constant parallel, but will always have it's ups and downs.
Maybe a feeling he had after an argument? .... hanging your hairshirt, or hanging up your self punishment and getting over it and still feeling glad that your partner is still in your life, regardless how awkward things might get.
"run a carbon black test on my jaw" this is a test they use to determine the life of a tree (could be wrong about that) or what kind of life the tree had.
great song.
@rubberneck <br /> Stipe could twist ambiguities into crystalised structures to beguile with the enigmatic <br /> A true Poet
whenever I would feel guilty about something, my grandma would tell me not to wear a hair shirt...she said it meant not to be a martyr. I just saw this song and had to check it out. :)
As someone commented, a hairshirt was a garment of self imposed punishment. Michael Stipe is gay and likely went through years of isolation, confusion, hiding and loneliness all his life….until he hung it up …freed himself…and became at peace with his love and life. Absolutely beautiful song in every way. Applies to anything anyone ever needs to quit to finally see the beautiful light and life.