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"
What are you changing?
Who do you think you're changing?
You can't change things
We're all stuck in our ways
It's like trying to clean the ocean
What do you think, you can drain it?
Well, it was poison and dry
Long before you came
But you can wake up younger under the knife
You can wake up sounder if you get analyzed
And I'd better wake up
There but for the grace of God go I
It's hard to believe your prophets
When they're asking you to change things
With their suspect lives, we look the other way
Are you really that pure, sir?
Thought I saw you in Vegas
It was not pretty, but she was (not your wife)
But she will wake up wealthy
And you will wake up forty-five
And she will wake up with baby
There but for the grace of God go I
What am I fighting for?
The cops are at my front door
I can't escape that way
The windows are in flames
And what's that on your ankle?
You say they're not coming for you
But house arrest is really just the same (just the same)
Like when you wake up behind the bar
Trying to remember where you are
Having crushed all the pretty things
There but for the grace of God go I
But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists
And I will take what's mine
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
Who do you think you're changing?
You can't change things
We're all stuck in our ways
It's like trying to clean the ocean
What do you think, you can drain it?
Well, it was poison and dry
Long before you came
But you can wake up younger under the knife
You can wake up sounder if you get analyzed
And I'd better wake up
There but for the grace of God go I
It's hard to believe your prophets
When they're asking you to change things
With their suspect lives, we look the other way
Are you really that pure, sir?
Thought I saw you in Vegas
It was not pretty, but she was (not your wife)
But she will wake up wealthy
And you will wake up forty-five
And she will wake up with baby
There but for the grace of God go I
What am I fighting for?
The cops are at my front door
I can't escape that way
The windows are in flames
And what's that on your ankle?
You say they're not coming for you
But house arrest is really just the same (just the same)
Like when you wake up behind the bar
Trying to remember where you are
Having crushed all the pretty things
There but for the grace of God go I
But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists
And I will take what's mine
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
There but for the grace of God go I
Lyrics submitted by y plus white girl
Rise Up with Fists Lyrics as written by Jenny Lewis
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song is so delicious.
"What are you changing? Who do you think you're changing? You can't change things, we're all stuck in our ways. It's like trying to clean the ocean. What do you think, you can drain it? Well it was poison and dry long before you came."
Sel-explanatory, I think. Reminds me of a quote: "Everybody thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves." I don't remember who said it, so I can't credit. But, basically, touching the subject that people see their friends/family whoever in trouble, and take it upon themselves to "fix" them, even though they had NOTHING to do with them getting that way. Lives are going to be lived, and you can't take away the past (What, do you think you can drain it?), so let them fix their future.
"But you can wake up younger under the knife. You can wake up sounder if you get analyzed, and I'd better wake up. There but for the grace of God, go I."
Again, I think touching on the trying to fix the past. Like, getting plastic surgery, or therapy, trying to take the life you have lived and adjust it to better fit you, when in reality, you've lived that life no matter what. And then the most imporant and amazing line in the song, repeated much, "There but for the grace of God, go I." I think anyone, religious or not, should use this as their motto. No matter where they've been, or the things they've done, they've never made a final choice to influence their life because of what they believe in. I was there, but because of what I believe in (God, or yourself, or anything) I am no longer there.