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"
The fire caught us burning with desire to get out in the open
My daddy had a camera and he caught a few moments to
Show them
The fire took us higher
We were hoping to expire when you came in
With water
We were only kids when we first laid eyes on each other
Everything was great but you should have warned me about
Your father
At first he took the crap
But I soon learned not to even bother
With your father
Now that you're away I'm jerking off every day to your
Memory
You finding someone else was a real blow
Who will defend me?
I'm drinking every day but try to behave the same way I did
Before
But it's hard
It's oh so hard
My daddy had a camera and he caught a few moments to
Show them
The fire took us higher
We were hoping to expire when you came in
With water
We were only kids when we first laid eyes on each other
Everything was great but you should have warned me about
Your father
At first he took the crap
But I soon learned not to even bother
With your father
Now that you're away I'm jerking off every day to your
Memory
You finding someone else was a real blow
Who will defend me?
I'm drinking every day but try to behave the same way I did
Before
But it's hard
It's oh so hard
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I don't think the jerking off thing is inappropriate at all. The narrator is just being honest about what he has been up to, and I think that is just a crude way to say that he thinks about his ex-lover constantly. I definitely see the homosexual aspect of it, but it's not clear enough to concretely confirm or deny.
Inappropriate? Grow the fuck up. It's music.
The father prohibited their romance.
For some reason, I think the singer is talking about a same sex relationship. "the fire caught us burning with desire to get out in the open" They wanted their relationship out in the open.
But, sadly, the father disapproved and pushed his kid's lover away.
There are a lot of songs by the Radio Dept. referencing gay relationships, and for some reason I got that vibe from this song too. Either way a lot of the good in their lyrics is the ambiguity, so it could be about either. However, I do think they had to hide their relationship from the 'father', while the singer's 'daddy' was more open to it.
In the first verse, the fire represents internal lust and passion for each other, kids growing up with each other and feeling that for one another. The dad caught a few cute moments of them with one another in a slightly romantic or something manner, obviously to show to someone, perhaps to the other persons' parents. Then they may have done something like kiss or something, and someone came in with water, they were so embarrassed they wanted to expire, or die :).
Second verse, obviously theyre growing up and now older, we were first kids when we met, but now were not, and theyre probably getting more intimate, but the father doesn't approve because thats how fathers can be sometimes.
Third verse, obviously they grew up and lost each other, drifted apart or something, or in context, the father probably pushed them apart from each other, and she just learned to live without him and found someone else. But it doesn't sound like he transitioned so easily. :)
Such a great song :)
Yeah, after a long time of listening to this song, my ears just picked up the "jerking off every day to your memory" and I rushed here to confirm/deny. Holy crap, that's hilarious that I never noticed that before. Good song, anyway.
The first song I loved by The Radio Dept. This song is about youth, bittersweet memories, looking back on your first love... The guy actually sounds like a loser: he can't get past that golden age with the girl he used to love, and she has moved on but he hasn't:
I'm drinking every day but try to behave the same way I did before
I don't really get the whole father thing, though... What happened with him?
Oh, and I think the lyrics about jerking off aren't really appropriate in this kind of song, but I guess it only emphasizes the fact that the guy is, after all, a failure.