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"
come off it, you know you want to start it
just tell it right
come off it, you know you have to drop this
a thousand acre canvas and you couldn’t bear to crop it
i’m a little tired, i'm a little weak
it weighs an ounce in silver, and ten pounds in fresh meat
when she fools you, she fools you in distortion
the night rare topics left us all out in the open
if it lasts an instant, it will smart one week
if it costs a weekend, oh my god oh good grief
i haven’t seen you now for years
i hear you stepping down each step
your body burning through a shuttered glade
i’ll play the listing doctor, righted by the rube,
you play the unkempt nurse, where lighting’s confused
they tangle antlers over all you said you think you could do
which tangle up mine too, but i’ll be back next year,
with a cape and a cane, and my frail restraints
first the actors, then brokers, last the ad-men lose disdain
you got off early, from where ever you’d been
one single flaw, and we’re back at the beginning
i haven’t seen you now for years
i hear you stepping down each stair
a knowing laugh that could defy that place
i can feel it shifting back, from this, from this
i can feel it shifting back, from this, from this
you play the sleeping circuit boards,
i’ll play a rye escort
we could stand outside the din, again, again
we could stand outside the halls, again, again
you might even want me still, you just don’t know how
just tell it right
come off it, you know you have to drop this
a thousand acre canvas and you couldn’t bear to crop it
i’m a little tired, i'm a little weak
it weighs an ounce in silver, and ten pounds in fresh meat
when she fools you, she fools you in distortion
the night rare topics left us all out in the open
if it lasts an instant, it will smart one week
if it costs a weekend, oh my god oh good grief
i haven’t seen you now for years
i hear you stepping down each step
your body burning through a shuttered glade
i’ll play the listing doctor, righted by the rube,
you play the unkempt nurse, where lighting’s confused
they tangle antlers over all you said you think you could do
which tangle up mine too, but i’ll be back next year,
with a cape and a cane, and my frail restraints
first the actors, then brokers, last the ad-men lose disdain
you got off early, from where ever you’d been
one single flaw, and we’re back at the beginning
i haven’t seen you now for years
i hear you stepping down each stair
a knowing laugh that could defy that place
i can feel it shifting back, from this, from this
i can feel it shifting back, from this, from this
you play the sleeping circuit boards,
i’ll play a rye escort
we could stand outside the din, again, again
we could stand outside the halls, again, again
you might even want me still, you just don’t know how
Lyrics submitted by downhillracer
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probably their most straight forward song, lyrics and music wise. stellar.