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"
How long before I get in?
Before it starts, before I begin?
How long before you decide?
Before I know what it feels like?
Where to, where do I go?
If you never try, then you'll never know
How long do I have to climb
Up on the side of this mountain of mine?
Look up, I look up at night
Planets are moving at the speed of light
Climb up, up in the trees
Every chance that you get
Is a chance you seize
How long am I gonna stand
With my head stuck under the sand?
I'll start before I can stop
Before I see things the right way up
All that noise, and all that sound
All those places I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Japan and China all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
Or a light that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
But others are puzzles, puzzling me
All that noise, and all that sound
All those places I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Ah, when you see it then you'll understand
All those signs, I knew what they meant
Some things you can invent
And some get made, and some get sent
Ooh
Birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Ah, when you see it then you'll understand
Before it starts, before I begin?
How long before you decide?
Before I know what it feels like?
Where to, where do I go?
If you never try, then you'll never know
How long do I have to climb
Up on the side of this mountain of mine?
Look up, I look up at night
Planets are moving at the speed of light
Climb up, up in the trees
Every chance that you get
Is a chance you seize
How long am I gonna stand
With my head stuck under the sand?
I'll start before I can stop
Before I see things the right way up
All that noise, and all that sound
All those places I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Japan and China all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
Or a light that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
But others are puzzles, puzzling me
All that noise, and all that sound
All those places I got found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Ah, when you see it then you'll understand
All those signs, I knew what they meant
Some things you can invent
And some get made, and some get sent
Ooh
Birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show you how it all began
Birds came flying from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
Ah, when you see it then you'll understand
Lyrics submitted by jommaz, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Speed of Sound Lyrics as written by William Champion Guy Rupert Berryman
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Anthem Entertainment, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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.
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
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Great version of a great song,
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"Birds go flying from the underground, If you could see, then you'd understand."
My interpretation of this piece of lyrics is that it is directly connected to the entire song itself. It's crucial for it means (to me) that if the reader/listener of the song could decipher or imagine how "birds can fly from underground, then we'd understand." Once the reader/listener can tap into that universal stream of knowledge or imagination it leads to a higher dimension of consciousness, a place that can be spiritual, physical, etc. to one. Thus the connection to the lyrics that "to understand" this stream of knowledge that cannot be taught but just "seen", it creates
"ideas that you'll never find or the inventors could never design the buildings that you put up Japan and China... all lit up the sign that I couldn't read or the light that I couldn't see"
Which brings me to my next point... is this a secret code or an essence that Coldplay is trying to tap us listeners into by ulitilizing the system of the English language to explain a spiritual understanding?