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"
Alice pressed against the wall
So she can see the door
In case the laughing strangers crawl and
Crush the petals on the floor
Alice in her party dress
She thanks you kindly
So serene
She needs you like she needs her tranqs
To tell her that the world is clean
To promise her a definition
Tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright
And tell her she can have it all
Today
Today
Pass the crystal spread the tarot
In illusion comfort lies
The safest way the straight and narrow
No confusion no surprise
Alice in her party dressed to kill
She the thanks you turns away
She needs you like she needs needs her pills
To tell her that the world's okay
To promise her a definition
Tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright
And tell her she can have it all
Today
Today
Alice
Don't give it way
So she can see the door
In case the laughing strangers crawl and
Crush the petals on the floor
Alice in her party dress
She thanks you kindly
So serene
She needs you like she needs her tranqs
To tell her that the world is clean
To promise her a definition
Tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright
And tell her she can have it all
Today
Today
Pass the crystal spread the tarot
In illusion comfort lies
The safest way the straight and narrow
No confusion no surprise
Alice in her party dressed to kill
She the thanks you turns away
She needs you like she needs needs her pills
To tell her that the world's okay
To promise her a definition
Tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright
And tell her she can have it all
Today
Today
Alice
Don't give it way
Lyrics submitted by o0Sid0o, edited by stephen103
Alice Lyrics as written by Andrew Eldritch
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Son Şansın - Şarkı Sözleri
Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
"In illusion comfort lies"!!! It's possible to interprete this sentence in two ways. As well "comfort" as "lies" could be the verb. Very interesting...
People must treat Alice with kid gloves; otherwise her imaginary world (the serene world that she had constructed in her head) will dissolve and she will not be able to handle it.
Alice represents all that is weak, naive, or childlike within each of us. She is defined by her need. She needs "tranqs," "pills," "you," and ultimately, she needs her definitions (her view of the world) to remain intact in order for her to go on living, breathing, and hoping that she can one day "have it all."
I've often wondered if it was an allusion to Alice in Wonderland -- someone who needs to be patted on the head and comforted in her pink party dress so that she can go on believing that the world is "clean."
Crushed petals represent the disillusionment of adulthood, especially the deflowering of a maiden. The one thing Alice absolutely cannot tolerate is confusion. She needs to be in control, and the "straight and narrow" provides a way for her to maintain the illusion of that she is in control.
@laurie_sunshine Very good interpretation. I dated this type of girl before!
Sounds like psychosis, regardless of the fact that I bring up severe mental illnesses whenever I can. =P Delusions and hallucinations are what constitute the symptoms of psychosis. In this case, the delusions would be of paranoia, not grandeur.
"Alice pressed against the wall So she can see the door In case the laughing strangers crawl and Crush the petals on the floor"
The character, Alice, is watching the entranceway, petrified; she's scared of the /unfamiliar/ things she sees. I've always thought of flowers as symbols of beauty. The crushed petals represent the fallacy that's breaking, the fallacy broken by "the laughing strangers."
Going with this interpretation, the second stanza is rather self-explanatory.
"Pass the crystal spread the Tarot In illusion comfort lies"
The crystal, or crystal ball, and the Tarot, represent the need to know her future, or in her eyes, her impending destruction.
"The safest way the straight and narrow No confusion no surprise"
She's so confused about what's going to happen. How will they get me? What more will come? If she believes in one thing and one thing only, she won't be surprised. So, she's either subconsciously or consciously decided to believe in her death.
Alice is a wallflower - shy, retiring, fearful - pressed against the wall, laughing strangers threatening to crush her, leaving her petals on the floor.
The song is about the drug addicted Alice who is also a prostitute. "...She the thanks you turns away She needs you like she needs needs her pills To tell her that the world's okay..."
She needs you - meaning she needs you to get money for the pills. Or it could also be that she uses sex and pills to "hide" her true depressed mind.
@webguide I dated a girl like this. she was sexually, verbally and physically abused as a child and she was mentally messed up trying to process her life. She was addicted to drugs and used sex to get what she wanted. Always looking for a way to run away from things she could not process.
Alice is a (in my opinion beautiful) metaphor of 'The Self Illusion', the construct of the human brain to think there is a 'you'. The first part of Alice is how we all are, the second part is mostly for people who believe in a god.
Alice is afraid of strangers and needs to know the escape route. Alice presents herself in the best way she can (physical: party dress / socially: thanking you). Alice needs others for happiness (tranqs = dopamine/serotenin you get from acceptance / intimacy like sex etc). Alice needs (false) predictions, clarity and safety, basically the feeling of some kind of control, although it doesn't exist (definition/rain) Alice needs a goal and dreams for motivation in life (shining sun/have it all).
Alice believes in predestination she can't control, so she's lifted from the burden of responsibility of choosing her own path (crystal/Tarrot) Alice's ignorance is bliss, doubting will mean anxiety (in illusion comfort lies)
Alice therefor follows the rules, so she's sure of a certain outcome (like heaven for instance -> safest path / no confusion, no surprise).
The song is actually about Alice, the heroine in Lewis Carroll's "Alice's adventures in Wonderland & Through the looking glass" Eldritch stated that in an interview.
To me this song tell a story of an extremly shy girl named Alice, obviously. But somehow she ends up at a party, I tend to think of it as a high school party. I see her in a room upstairs, by herself. She is aquainted by some other caring person, perhaps a friend of hers. It is very possible that this girl is crazy, more likely than not. I see the other person,"She needs you like she needs her tranqs", as some invisible imaginary friend. She needs a figure to be the end of all her internal conversations. In her past(and present) she is ridiculed and made fun of, the made reference of the "Laughing Stangers". And her friend is her only pertection from the verbal(and maybe unmentioned phsyical) abuse. "In illusion, confort lies". In her dreams(internal conversations) she is safe from the others. She fears the door which she so carfully watches. ] But this was only my interperation.