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"
"Hey there love, let's get to catching up.
'Cause I been thinking those thoughts
that must have slipped my mind
that time that I left you there that night."
I replied, "Let me remind you of the guy
you failed to mention all along.
'Cause your actions have consequences and these are them."
[Chorus:]
I'll be your friend in hell, until then I despise you.
And I probably always will.
I can't afford to make another mistake like this,
'Cause this is more than I can take.
I don't mean to leave angry, this is by your own devise.
I'm sure this comes as no surprise.
Hey there babe, don't mean to cut you off,
but I've heard enough lies and you're dying to get caught.
I'll let you go call all your friends.
"Oh my god! Let me describe to you this guy,
his name is Ken, he's in this band that writes such,
awful songs about me all the time."
You're goddamn right!
[Chorus]
Fine, just let me lie here for a while,
'Cause I'll be staying up, yeah hanging up all night.
Oh, I'm spent with all intentions (of your bit?).
To a hopeless case, to a sharp headache, to a choice you make
To the reason why I, to the reason why I say.
[Chorus:]
I'll be your friend in hell, until then I despise you.
And I probably always will.
I can't afford to make another mistake like you.
I'm sure this comes as no surprise.
I'm sure this comes as no surprise.
Surprise, surprise.
'Cause I been thinking those thoughts
that must have slipped my mind
that time that I left you there that night."
I replied, "Let me remind you of the guy
you failed to mention all along.
'Cause your actions have consequences and these are them."
[Chorus:]
I'll be your friend in hell, until then I despise you.
And I probably always will.
I can't afford to make another mistake like this,
'Cause this is more than I can take.
I don't mean to leave angry, this is by your own devise.
I'm sure this comes as no surprise.
Hey there babe, don't mean to cut you off,
but I've heard enough lies and you're dying to get caught.
I'll let you go call all your friends.
"Oh my god! Let me describe to you this guy,
his name is Ken, he's in this band that writes such,
awful songs about me all the time."
You're goddamn right!
[Chorus]
Fine, just let me lie here for a while,
'Cause I'll be staying up, yeah hanging up all night.
Oh, I'm spent with all intentions (of your bit?).
To a hopeless case, to a sharp headache, to a choice you make
To the reason why I, to the reason why I say.
[Chorus:]
I'll be your friend in hell, until then I despise you.
And I probably always will.
I can't afford to make another mistake like you.
I'm sure this comes as no surprise.
I'm sure this comes as no surprise.
Surprise, surprise.
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I think it's pretty obvious of what this is about if you really know The Starting Line, or if you really listen to them. I personally do both, considering they grew up in my town and my friends had gone to school with them.
But this song is directed towards to an ex-girlfriend of Ken's, who he wrote most of his songs about in the Say It Like You Mean It album. After the album had made it big, she tried to get on good terms with Ken. Since they had been on bad terms before, Ken had probably picked up how she was being fake just to get on his good side since he had now become famous. He was disgusted by this, and told her he just didn't want to be friends with her. She became upset, and started drama, telling all of her friends about the songs Ken wrote about her, blah blah. He found out, told her she'd never have a chance in hell, and wrote this song as a updated song of how he feels about her. Also a song to give her something to tell her friends about.
Good guess.<br /> This song is about a girl Ken met in Seattle on tour after Say It Like You Mean it came out. They had talked for a like 6 months and he came to visit her and saw her when he toured. The last time he visited she blew him off. It was the girl he wrote Lasting Impressions about. I met him through her and she received the original demo for Lasting Impressions, Surprise, Surprise and a few other negative songs that didn't make the album. They since have talked and laughed about the situation.