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'd like to wake up with you early in the morning or stay up late just playin' records on your phonograph. I'd like to get to know your mother and your father, maybe just once pretend to be somebody's better half. And I would like to tell the very first lie.
I'd like to ignore all my friends and spend my time with you, maybe shake your tambourine. I'd like to do the sorts of things that you and I could do, and we could most anything. And I would like to tell the very first lie.
I'd like to get to know your family and friends you know. Maybe pick you up from work. I'd like to do the sorts of things that you and I could do 'till it hurts.
I'd like to wake up with you early in the morning or stay up late just playin' records on your phonograph. I'd like to get to know your mother and your father, maybe just once pretend to be somebody's better half. And I would like to tell the very first lie.
I'd like to ignore all my friends and spend my time with you, maybe shake your tambourine. I'd like to do the sorts of things that you and I could do, and we could most anything. And I would like to tell the very first lie.
I'd like to get to know your family and friends you know. Maybe pick you up from work. I'd like to do the sorts of things that you and I could do 'till it hurts.
I'd like to wake up with you early in the morning or stay up late just playin' records on your phonograph. I'd like to get to know your mother and your father, maybe just once pretend to be somebody's better half. And I would like to tell the very first lie.
Lyrics submitted by Trom12bone
Very First Lie Lyrics as written by Jim Ellison
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I love this song. It's likely about love and how even though you always have good intentions lies spring up in any relationship
could be in two ways both twisted 1) the very first lie- everybody lied to their significant other at least once and he wants to do it and it matters to her that he is lying
2) EVERY LINE IN THE SONG IS WHAT A BOY SAY TO A GIRL HE'S BEEN DATING TO GET HER IN THE SACK...this is what i think the song is all about, just the irony of it, everything so sweet but yet wanting to tell a lie
I agree with the second twisted interpretation above. He is saying all these nice sweet things, and he is lying. He just wants to shake her tamborine. Too bad we'll never know because sadly Jim decided to take the dirt nap.
I've always thought about it similar to the first scenario presented by airportle. Something about having been in relationships in the past where he'd been lied to, and this time he wants to be the first one to do it.<br /> <br /> What I really love is the idealized version of young love with its simplistic goals of playing records and picking her up at work. Very sweet song...except for the whole lying part.
This song is about all the sweet and obvious things he is saying but also how the first lie in a relationship is a special moment too. It is a threshold you can only cross once.