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"
Blame it on the Tetons. Yeah, I need a scapegoat now.
No my dog won't bite you, though it had the right to.
You oughta give her credit 'cause she knows I would've let it happen.
Blame it on the weekends. God I need a cola now.
Oh we mumble loudly, wear our shame so proudly.
Wore our blank expressions, trying to look interesting.
Blame it all on me 'cause God I need a cold one now.
All them eager actors gladly taking credit
For the lines created by the people tucked away from sight
Is just a window from the room we're bound to.
If you find a way out, oh would you just let me know how?
Would you just let me know how?
Blame it on the web but the spider's your problem now.
Language is for liquid that we're all dissolved in.
Great for solving problems, after it creates a problem.
Blame it on the Tetons. God, I need a scapegoat now.
Everyone's a building burning
With no one to put the fire out.
Standing at the window looking out,
Waiting for time to burn us down.
Everyone's an ocean drowning
With no one really to show how.
They might get a little better air
If they turned themselves into a cloud.
No my dog won't bite you, though it had the right to.
You oughta give her credit 'cause she knows I would've let it happen.
Blame it on the weekends. God I need a cola now.
Oh we mumble loudly, wear our shame so proudly.
Wore our blank expressions, trying to look interesting.
Blame it all on me 'cause God I need a cold one now.
All them eager actors gladly taking credit
For the lines created by the people tucked away from sight
Is just a window from the room we're bound to.
If you find a way out, oh would you just let me know how?
Would you just let me know how?
Blame it on the web but the spider's your problem now.
Language is for liquid that we're all dissolved in.
Great for solving problems, after it creates a problem.
Blame it on the Tetons. God, I need a scapegoat now.
Everyone's a building burning
With no one to put the fire out.
Standing at the window looking out,
Waiting for time to burn us down.
Everyone's an ocean drowning
With no one really to show how.
They might get a little better air
If they turned themselves into a cloud.
Lyrics submitted by Grim713, edited by ApacheTomcat
Blame It on the Tetons Lyrics as written by Eric Judy Dann Gallucci
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
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.
I read the feature article in Spin last year about Modest Mouse and I found a copy of it on the magazine's website. If you haven't read it I suggest that you do, but here's a quote about Good News:
"its bright-side buoyancy suits the songs, which are about how life will beat your ass and how the only way to cope is to learn to love it anyway."
Keeping that in mind, this song makes a lot of sense to me. I think it exemplifies the quote's description of the songs on this album. The lines about everyone being a building burning make me think that they're saying that everyone is basically in the same boat. We all go through shit and there's always stuff that sucks in our lives. He then goes on to say that everyone is an ocean drowning and they should evaporate. Basically, really the only way to make things better is to stay above it all, lighten up about the shit because you're not alone and it's not going away anytime soon.
I also think the spider lines are a great example of this. You can spend your time focusing on the web, worrying about it, complaining about it, but there's other stuff, bad stuff in the case of this example, out there that we need to focus on. Don't dwell on one problem because there's another one coming and you're gonna have to deal with it. Similar idea with the dog. It apparently had license to bite somebody, but didn't. Don't waste time being angry about something and don't waste energy by being negative.
Now the Tetons. I really expect this to be the Indian reference, as someone pointed out earlier, as opposed to the mountains. I base this MM's recording history, most importantly the album "Lonesome Crowded West" because it feels like there're a lot of thematic elements having to do with Native Americans on it. My guess is that the reason he's blaming it on the Tetons is because the Tetons posed a large and recurring problem to the expansionist fervor that America was experiencing in the 1800s. They fought several costly wars with Americans and were basically mercilessly persecuted out of their territory over and over. Americans thought that the Tetons were a huge problem that needed solving, but in reality the Americans made them a problem when they didn't need to be. This goes along with the theme of making a big deal out of stuff that seems like it's impossible to get over or figure out but really is insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
So that's what I think. It took a long time to write. It is highly possible that I am reading way too much into the Teton reference, so if anyone else has another opinion I'd really like to hear it. Yes, I actually looked up the Tetons in a history book and did cursory research.