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"
Just take off your clothes and I'll drive you home I said
Knowing she never could pass on a dare
And knowing it sounded more desperate than reckless or bold
I just put it out there cold, too far gone to care
My eyes on the road, she slid herself down in the seat
And a vision of paradise swung into view
Across those five lanes not one driver glanced over to see
The beauty known only to me, and a big rig or two
On that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home
With the trace of a smile and that defiant look in her eye
She hurtled through space in a world of her own
And turning aside my caress spoke of all that she'd not yet done
As if I was the doubting one who would have to be shown
On that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home
She gathered her clothes
And ran through the yard in the dark
Up onto the porch like a flash, and inside
Then one room at a time
I watched every light in our house come on
Like the truth that would eventually dawn
Forcing me to decide
But on that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home
Knowing she never could pass on a dare
And knowing it sounded more desperate than reckless or bold
I just put it out there cold, too far gone to care
My eyes on the road, she slid herself down in the seat
And a vision of paradise swung into view
Across those five lanes not one driver glanced over to see
The beauty known only to me, and a big rig or two
On that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home
With the trace of a smile and that defiant look in her eye
She hurtled through space in a world of her own
And turning aside my caress spoke of all that she'd not yet done
As if I was the doubting one who would have to be shown
On that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home
She gathered her clothes
And ran through the yard in the dark
Up onto the porch like a flash, and inside
Then one room at a time
I watched every light in our house come on
Like the truth that would eventually dawn
Forcing me to decide
But on that freeway the light was receding
Her beauty, a sight so misleading
I failed to hear the heart that was beating alone
On the naked ride home
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
There are three questions to answer regarding this song. They all come in its last two lines:
"Like the truth that would eventually dawn" (what truth?) "Forcing me to decide" (between what? and what do we think he will decide?)
Using what we know of both characters from the earlier lyrics gets us at an answer.
The truth is this: "I need to break up with this girl." He's already living with her, so we know they're already in a relationship (notice they share a house). But it's just not working. This truth is bitter; he's reluctant to break up with her, but deep down, he knows its the only way.
Why is he reluctant? He's strongly attracted to her beauty (and possibly her happiness and carefree attitude). But he is also aware that the relationship cannot succeed, for at least two reasons. One is that she has some flaw in her character. Her beauty is "so misleading," suggesting that her external beauty is not reflective of her inner self.
The second reason is that she is not attracted to him as he is to her. She turns aside his caress, his heart beats alone, and she seems to doubt his potential ("as if I was the doubting one who would have to be shown").
The profoundness of his struggle is evidenced by the song's construction. It leaves on a point of tension, rather than resolution--he hasn't made a decision, but he is being pressed into one. It's also shown by the verse's construction. It starts with a "but," as if it contrasts from the rest of what the song presents. You can almost hear the struggle in his head when he starts to reflect on how he needs to break up with her...but then he remembers the night on the freeway. It's also significant that the song's final words are from this conflicted chorus, even when the last we hear of him is his being forced into a decision because of a truth that's dawning on him.
The last point I'd like to make is that Browne does an awesome job illustrating these characters by keeping her focus on the present and the physical (naked beauty, running, etc) and his on the past and future and mental (metaphors, images, ideas of paradise).
Lovely job, OldSouth. Methinks you know of word-smithing. Don't you find deconstructing Jackson's lyrics a pleasure and an education? <br /> <br /> Along with examining the language, I have included musical construction in some of my comments. If interested persons were to undertake a study of Jackson 101 from both aspects, we would birth some new songwriters. It's all there. To borrow from an old medical school reference (God, no. I am classical musician by act of Fate and Indoctrination), See one. Write one. Teach one
I think the love thing is doomed not because of any flaw but just because they are at different stations in life and she has a lot of things to do that don't involve him -- to me they are like 20 years apart in age.
i heard jackson say this song is regarding the political stands he has taken - he is using the reference to a girl as a political point of view
I have heard Jackson to say this song was about vulnerability and trust. That taking off her clothes represents a "nakedness" of the soul that few are willing to share/bare. Her beauty was misleading to him because inside, "underneath it all" she felt empty and unloved -- but she showed her beauty, inside and out, and her heart, only to him and he took advantage of it, knowing he no longer could love her the way she wanted but he was not able to commit and he lets her go... her heart beating alone.
Nice entries. As the previous writers note, the literal meaning is quite obvious and not just about this naked ride he remembers having taken with someone (did it really happen?), but he comes to some kind of revelation/realization about this relationship. I always assumed it had to do with one of his personal relationships, maybe even with the wife who committed suicide. But the political analogy is intriguing. I'll have to think about that!
Love and loss, with a side of comedy...that's Jackson's realm.
When interviewed on this album’s release, Jackson said it was about the end of a marriage. He has to decide to leave the marital home or? There are clues in the lyrics leading up to this point: “the heart beating alone”, “turning aside my caress”, “spoke of all she’d not yet done”. I found the initial premise very exciting but after the realisation that the marriage was over, quite sad.
@rohan10292 Yes, I heard that interview too Spot on. I know the girl he left behind to marry the one he wrongfully chose...