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 know you didn't mean it and you're sorry that I left
I'll go right on pretending I've got nothing to regret
Except all of the times we wasted getting only second best
You always seemed to lose the spark when I was only half undressed
I drove across a sea of ice to find my own command
The distance paid a lonesome price to see its motherland
Now if you would unbuckle sir, receive your reprimand
And hey I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
How can I ever apologize? I meant you no such harm
I never knew I could possess that fatal kind of charm
I just wanted to be good to you but I found I was disarmed
By a lifetime of disillusionment and the distraction of the stars
I abdicated now I'm just a prince without a land
My subjects all adore me but for this I have been banned
Now could I trade my guilt for a good flogging by your hand?
And hey I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I can't understand why you refuse my one request
Just to press against my weaponry and then lay bare your chest
Challenges like these can be won or lost or laid to rest
Now we both agree to separate from the lonely castle steps
The kingdom is destabilized, the watchtower unmanned
The bedroom lies abandoned and the future is unplanned
But we've got the past to remind us of what's chivalrous and grand
And hey I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I'll go right on pretending I've got nothing to regret
Except all of the times we wasted getting only second best
You always seemed to lose the spark when I was only half undressed
I drove across a sea of ice to find my own command
The distance paid a lonesome price to see its motherland
Now if you would unbuckle sir, receive your reprimand
And hey I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
How can I ever apologize? I meant you no such harm
I never knew I could possess that fatal kind of charm
I just wanted to be good to you but I found I was disarmed
By a lifetime of disillusionment and the distraction of the stars
I abdicated now I'm just a prince without a land
My subjects all adore me but for this I have been banned
Now could I trade my guilt for a good flogging by your hand?
And hey I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I can't understand why you refuse my one request
Just to press against my weaponry and then lay bare your chest
Challenges like these can be won or lost or laid to rest
Now we both agree to separate from the lonely castle steps
The kingdom is destabilized, the watchtower unmanned
The bedroom lies abandoned and the future is unplanned
But we've got the past to remind us of what's chivalrous and grand
And hey I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
I'm sorry 'bout so much baby but I know you'll understand
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lovely lovely words