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"
We used to talk about the Rock and the Roll
That made it matter not to sell your soul
Like a banner that we held so high, we weren't afraid to fall
Steady rolling through the warning signs
That were hidden in between the lines
That kept us rocking 'til the break of day
Or any break at all
We used to take about a day and a night
To try to sing up all the soul in sight
And anyone who couldn't see the light
We had to leave behind
And the sweetest thing you ever heard
Was the singing of the Speckled Bird
And commercial was a dirty word
We laid it on the line
Chorus
It was all so easy then
We could do no wrong
We'll never be the same again
But the show goes on
We used to drink about a bucket of booze
To try to chase away the black and blues
And when it came the time to pay your dues
You gave an I.O.U.
To the devil with the dirty smile
Which he added to the growing pile
Of the promises you mean to keep
The day your dreams come true
Repeat Chorus
That made it matter not to sell your soul
Like a banner that we held so high, we weren't afraid to fall
Steady rolling through the warning signs
That were hidden in between the lines
That kept us rocking 'til the break of day
Or any break at all
We used to take about a day and a night
To try to sing up all the soul in sight
And anyone who couldn't see the light
We had to leave behind
And the sweetest thing you ever heard
Was the singing of the Speckled Bird
And commercial was a dirty word
We laid it on the line
Chorus
It was all so easy then
We could do no wrong
We'll never be the same again
But the show goes on
We used to drink about a bucket of booze
To try to chase away the black and blues
And when it came the time to pay your dues
You gave an I.O.U.
To the devil with the dirty smile
Which he added to the growing pile
Of the promises you mean to keep
The day your dreams come true
Repeat Chorus
Lyrics submitted by Ocean Soul
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