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"
Last night in the street collapsed on itself
In fact, it broke right in two
And I fell in
The strawberry vines
Into a pool of strawberry wine
Strawberry wine and clouds
Burning in the desert, surrounded in flowers
But the stems broke the armor
And the morning comes
Until it's all just the same things again
Oh god
Don't spend too much time on the other side
Let the daylight in
Before you get old and you can't break out of it
My old friend
'Cause its getting winter, and if you want any flowers
You gotta get your seeds in
And I worry about you
Why? Because you want me to
Can you still have any famous last words
If you're somebody nobody knows
I don't know
Somebody go and ask Clair
She's been dead twenty years just look at her hair
Strawberry blonde with curls
She gets hair done then she gossips
With the younger waitress girls at the bar
The old Irish rose
Drinking strawberry wine
Until it comes out her nose
She spent too much time on the other side
And she forgot to let the daylight in
Before you get old you'd better break out of it
My old friend
'Cause its getting winter and if you want any flowers
You gotta get your seeds in to the ground
And I worry about you
Why? Because you want me too
This fella downtown, he jumped off a bridge
He was angry about a letter he received from his friend
He fell in
To the arms of the most beautiful girls
That have ever, ever lived in the history of the world
And with nothing left to lose he got screwed
He sold his apartment before they made him move
Then he jumped straight in
To the San Francisco Bay
Now he lives on Molly's farm
Picking berries all day
Don't spend too much time on the other side
Let the daylight in
Marty was a kid when he learned to steal boats
His dad was a deejay on the radio
He fell in
To a life of riverboating crime
He's the man you see in prison
If you want strawberry wine
Strawberry wine and smokes
He sent a letter to his friend
Explaining one night on coke
He and Clair
Jumped in to the strawberry vines
And lord knows you get lost
On that strawberry wine
Don't spend too much time on the other side
Let the daylight in
Now I'm getting old and I gotta break out of it
My old friend
'Cause its getting winter and if I want any flowers
I gotta get those seeds in to the ground
And if you worry about me
Don't bother
Why?
I'll be fine
I'm just sitting here laughing
Little old me and my
Strawberry wine
In fact, it broke right in two
And I fell in
The strawberry vines
Into a pool of strawberry wine
Strawberry wine and clouds
Burning in the desert, surrounded in flowers
But the stems broke the armor
And the morning comes
Until it's all just the same things again
Oh god
Don't spend too much time on the other side
Let the daylight in
Before you get old and you can't break out of it
My old friend
'Cause its getting winter, and if you want any flowers
You gotta get your seeds in
And I worry about you
Why? Because you want me to
Can you still have any famous last words
If you're somebody nobody knows
I don't know
Somebody go and ask Clair
She's been dead twenty years just look at her hair
Strawberry blonde with curls
She gets hair done then she gossips
With the younger waitress girls at the bar
The old Irish rose
Drinking strawberry wine
Until it comes out her nose
She spent too much time on the other side
And she forgot to let the daylight in
Before you get old you'd better break out of it
My old friend
'Cause its getting winter and if you want any flowers
You gotta get your seeds in to the ground
And I worry about you
Why? Because you want me too
This fella downtown, he jumped off a bridge
He was angry about a letter he received from his friend
He fell in
To the arms of the most beautiful girls
That have ever, ever lived in the history of the world
And with nothing left to lose he got screwed
He sold his apartment before they made him move
Then he jumped straight in
To the San Francisco Bay
Now he lives on Molly's farm
Picking berries all day
Don't spend too much time on the other side
Let the daylight in
Marty was a kid when he learned to steal boats
His dad was a deejay on the radio
He fell in
To a life of riverboating crime
He's the man you see in prison
If you want strawberry wine
Strawberry wine and smokes
He sent a letter to his friend
Explaining one night on coke
He and Clair
Jumped in to the strawberry vines
And lord knows you get lost
On that strawberry wine
Don't spend too much time on the other side
Let the daylight in
Now I'm getting old and I gotta break out of it
My old friend
'Cause its getting winter and if I want any flowers
I gotta get those seeds in to the ground
And if you worry about me
Don't bother
Why?
I'll be fine
I'm just sitting here laughing
Little old me and my
Strawberry wine
Lyrics submitted by BlueAndStarry
Strawberry Wine Lyrics as written by Ryan Adams
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"And I worry about you Why? Because you want me to"
Most powerful lines in the song...it gives me chills.
Faulkner anyone!!!
I just love this song.
One; because it reminds me of someone I love, another; because it just gives me chills. I love songs with actual stories within them, they make me see everything so perfectly, and this has several, so voila, awesome.
It's a great song. My favourite from 29.
He uses the sad sweet voice, that he only rarely uses now. It always makes my heart break a bit.
this song is so beautiful, his voice is so amazing and full of feeling. he uses stories about random people to tell us about life. i think the strawberry wine is just beautiful stuff you get lost in that leaves you lonely, its a very melancholy song but in a beautiful way.
Thats just it though..... this song isn't just about "random" people and stories.
Read all of the verses backwards, not backwards like word for word, but the last one first and so on. It's one amazingly written story about a broken heart. The three are very connected.
I have a tiny little thought. I read a little book on writing called Negotiating With The Dead by Margaret Atwood. There was this whole long section about how a writer is someone who travels to the other side, the underworld, or whatever, and brings back their stories. And the dead generally give their stories for the price of... blood. It was all very metaphorical, because Dante and Homer and Virgil didn't really go to the underworld to write down their stories. But I think this underworld is a state of mind you create in yourself in order to create something. And you pay in blood. Blood represents loneliness and being misunderstood I guess.
Ryan sings "Don't spend too much time on the other side, Let the daylight in."
And it might not be what he meant, but, to me, it's a reminder to be kind to myself and live in daylight sometimes.