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"
Freak of nature, with jaw dropping skill
From the low rhythmic bass lines to the harmonic fills
New Age Funk on acoustic guitar
Always wanted to be like him, Except for that day in the car
With the old beat up Martin
He would spank like a hound
Not even God knew what he turned to he had his own sound
[Chorus]
He was "Live on a Double Planet"
He was "Watching his Life go By"
All the "Aerial Boundaries"
Lifted me so I could fly
He had "Breakfast in the Field" with the "Taproot"
And the "Tourched" theories would burn
"The Oracle" of his own existence
Is now on "The Road to Return"
Sometimes the louden or the Impossible Harp thing
Playing drum on a bouncing ball, I loved to hear him sing
Spike dog collar that hung his rabies tag
Dramatic interpretation his shows would never drag
[Chorus]
The Flood Zone or Wolf Trap
Or way up to Telluride
Or that day in High Sierra
Where we definitely locked eyes.
From the low rhythmic bass lines to the harmonic fills
New Age Funk on acoustic guitar
Always wanted to be like him, Except for that day in the car
With the old beat up Martin
He would spank like a hound
Not even God knew what he turned to he had his own sound
[Chorus]
He was "Live on a Double Planet"
He was "Watching his Life go By"
All the "Aerial Boundaries"
Lifted me so I could fly
He had "Breakfast in the Field" with the "Taproot"
And the "Tourched" theories would burn
"The Oracle" of his own existence
Is now on "The Road to Return"
Sometimes the louden or the Impossible Harp thing
Playing drum on a bouncing ball, I loved to hear him sing
Spike dog collar that hung his rabies tag
Dramatic interpretation his shows would never drag
[Chorus]
The Flood Zone or Wolf Trap
Or way up to Telluride
Or that day in High Sierra
Where we definitely locked eyes.
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Without a question this song is a Tribute to the Late Michael Hedges. Wonder were i got my login id??
Keller Williams has said that Michael was one of his biggest influences. The influence of Michael's slap happy guitar style and strong use of not only open tuned guitars but "harmonic fills" are very evident in Kellers own style.
I've often described a Michael Hedges concert as a room full, half with guitarist, and almost all of them with their jaws sitting in their lap.
Hedges was on the Windham Hill label that is mainly a New Age label. But Michael was so different from the rest of the lot because he added a lot of "funk", rock, boogie to his style while also adding a "new age" melodic solo "acoustic guitar" style to his playing.
When Keller says he "always wanted to be like him" (personally i think he is very close with a lot of hippieness in breed in him) "except for that day in the car" which is a reference to how Michael died in a one vehicle car accident in which his BMW swirved off a Northern California mountain road.
Michael's favorite guitar was an old "Martin".
"Live on the Double Planet". "Watching my Life go By", "Aerial Boundaries", "Breakfast in the Field", "Taproot", "Tourched", "Oracle" and "The Road to Return" are all Michael Hedges releases. Personally i highly recommend "Live on the Double Planet" and "Taproot" for all those who might be curious.
"The Impossible Harp thing" is a refernece to several Harp Guitars that Michael owned and played on CD and Concert. The Harp guitar is guitar that looks like a distored two neck guitar on steroids. The top part is plucked and not fretted, like a harp. The lower part is a six string acoustic guitar. They were midly popular in the 1800s in one man bands.
The "drum on a bouncing ball" is Keller reference this gigantic ball that Michael would occasionall sit (bounce) on his last few years while playing guitar. There is a video of him doing this while playing a slow version of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone".
I'm not sure what Keller is referring to with the "Spike Collar/Rabies Tag". These are things i never noticed in any of the Michael Hedges shows I atteneded which was probably around 15 of them (1989-1997).
I think the last stanza is a reference to a time when Keller might have met Michael but i'm not sure. i thought i read somewhere that Keller did meet him but not sure, just a guess. The last line could be a Keller joke on a frequent comment made by Deadheads about Jerry Garcia. Some would freak out that "Jerry looked up and we definately were looking at each other". My guess is Keller either experianced the same thing with Michael or he is using Michael to replace Garcia in the joke.
Personal Note: Michael Hedges was the most charismatic performer, and (i love ya keller but i think you'd understand) by far the most amazing guitarist i ever saw or heard. Nothing can explain Michael more then this paraphrased William Ackerman quote: "My skull just got ripped apart as I watched the guitar get reinvented".
"No angel ever flew me throught this Heaven" -- Michael Hedges
I've heard this song many times. Just recently I was convinced this song was about indigo children or an indigo child. You know? lots of metaphors... That's the wonder of music, it can be interpreted any way. The other comment about this song being about Michael Hedges makes a lot of sense too, and thanks to that I now found a new artist to listen to!