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"
Bad luck comes in from Tampa
Bad luck comes in from Tampa
On the back of a truck
Doing ninety up the interstate
We have bad dreams the night he rolls in
We have bad dreams the night he rolls in
And we try to keep our sprits high
But they flag and they wane
When the truck pulls up out front
In the light spring rain
And they sag like withering flowers
Let the good times roll on
Through these first few desperate hours
Yeah the driver drops his cargo at the curb
The driver drops his cargo at the curb
And the sun peeks in
Like a killer through the curtain
And when cloven hoof prints turn up in the garden
Yeah when cloven hoof prints turn up in the garden
We keep up the good fight
We keep our spirits light
But they draw like flies
And there's a stomach-churning shift
In the way the land lies
And they lean like towers
On a hillside struggling to stand
Through these first few desperate hours
Yeah
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery
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I'm thinking the cargo being referred to is all their stuff that they couldn't fit in the car when they made the trip to tallahassee. and thus indicative of finalizing their move even though, by now, they've realized this was not such a good idea. (I could be wrong on this.)
the other part, I would think, quite obviously is trying to stay positive when the foundation of your new life is crumbling.
this is a real love american anthem, one of the greatest american songs i have ever enjoyed
lyrics correction: "we keep up the good fight to keep our spirits light but they drop like flies"
I agree. Everything's definitely finalizing, becoming more permanent, and they want to want to want to keep positive, but then every little thing compounds, it's worse than they thought, or wanted to believe at least.
I had always thought that this song may have been about domestic terrorism - perhaps the Oklahoma City bombing - the line "On the back of a truck" has particular resonance there. ...though, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 911 bombings, maybe "And they lean like towers On a hillside struggling to stand, Through these first few desperate hours" has some more (if not accidental) chilling power.
"And when cloven hoof prints turn up in the garden" reminds me of the Amityville Horror, but i'm not sure how that would related to the overall theme of the song/album
i always thought it was about drug dealing. maybe that has to do with the trip from asheville to atlanta where i only had the one tape, but....that's what i got.