My Interpretation on this is that the narrator in the song used to be with a girl that he loved so much and but during that time he was one of the cool guys at school that lived freely(partying and alcohol, etc.) and he wasn't really able to get over his former glory. on the other hand, his girlfriend/ex matured, and started thinking about their future and got a job/career. and since he became much like an alcoholic bum of a sort, he got jealous with the girl having to work all the time having no time for him so didn't felt like "he mattered to her". somewhere in there, they broke up. so one night he went to her place all drunk so he's got this "too drunk to drive" excuse to stay. Trying to somehow patch things between them by telling her that she was "the best he ever had" and that he's really sorry for having "blew up" their relationship years ago, or else they'd still be together.
On the second verse he was trying to tell her that all he really want is to be with her and that he has somehow improved that if she'd take him back, he'd no longer drink and sleep around and if she'll accept that he's still in the process of picking himself up and not to expect a great make over, then she might not be let down.
The chorus is his way of telling her that they can still do what they used to find exiting or an adrenaline rush and that by doing so, even if the past is gone, they might still be able to pick-up some of the pieces of their past and replace their past failures with a renewed love to take it's place.
The last part he says, "she took my heart", means he never got over her and probably never will.
The line "there's only one thing I couldn't start", means that he couldn't actually start the conversation with her because he was too drunk to think straight and all of these words were just running inside his head and these were all the things he wanted to tell her.
Meet you downstairs in the bar and heard
Your rolled up sleeves and your skull t-shirt
You say, "why did you do it with him today?"
And sniff me out like I was Tanqueray (yeah, yo)
Why you actin' like you're more trouble than Toney Starks?
You need to just walk away like Kelly Clarkson
I know we were free to sleep around town
But I figured you said that 'cause how I get down
Now, of course, you were out there messin' around
I would've told you
Once you ghost, you never go back
Try geein' me like I don't know how to mack
I'm a don, and
Top of the line I stay fly, and
Stop tryin'
To keep coverin' the lies, and
Using my credit cards to buy diamonds
We need to straighten this out
Get to the bottom of it all
Let's go before we start the war
Begin with two reasons why we need to talk
And stop poppin' up in my cribs all over New York, and
Death stalkin'
You such trouble and no good
Them fightin' words in my block, and we in the hood
I cheated myself
Like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
You know that I'm no good
You had to be a nasty girl and try to play me
Play me, play me, play me (nasty girl, nasty girl, nasty girl)
Try to play me (yeah)
Yo
A-yo, I knew you was trouble when I first laid eyes on you
Temperature so hot, the heat just rise with you
Lemme ride with you, talk about your mistakes
You cheated yourself, but these are the breaks
And it'll never be the same again 'cause of old boy
But, oh boy
Together we make so much joy
In the sands, and, oh, what a web we weave
But you played me so I had to roll up my sleeves
And hunt you down, holding the next man's stacks
Now you sorry and trying to bring that old thing back
Act like we can rekindle that flame
It's a shame
How you can't get me off the brain
He that lame
You love how I bring the pain
Got them rug burns stinging, and you saying my name
Say my name, uh
That's right, I'm high post
Get the champagne love, word up, we gonna toast
I cheated myself
Like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
You know that I'm no good
Yeah, yo you had to be a nasty girl and try to play me
Nasty girl, girl
You can't leave the kid
You can't leave the kid
Don't worry, I'm gonna be around forever
Nasty girl
Don't forget it I'm a be around forever
Don't forget it I'm a be around forever
Sweet reunion, Jamaica and Spain
We're like how we were again
I'm in the tub, you're on the seat
Lick your lips as I soak my feet
Yo, get to bath and bodyworks pumpin' the spice cream
Together like Cheech and Chong we make nice dreams
These fight scenes
I take the good with the bad
'Cause you give the best brains that I've ever had
Anything worth having is hard to keep
I love you like my coffee, so hot and so sweet
So let's stick it out so we never regret it
I could forgive the past, but I never forget it
I cheated myself like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
You know that I'm no good
I cheated myself like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
Yeah, ya know that I'm no good
I could forgive the past, but I never forget it
Nasty girl, nasty girl
Try to play me
Nasty girl
You had to be a nasty girl and try to play me
Nasty girl
Try to play me, try to play me
Nasty girl
I could forgive the past, but I never forget it
Your rolled up sleeves and your skull t-shirt
You say, "why did you do it with him today?"
And sniff me out like I was Tanqueray (yeah, yo)
Why you actin' like you're more trouble than Toney Starks?
You need to just walk away like Kelly Clarkson
I know we were free to sleep around town
But I figured you said that 'cause how I get down
Now, of course, you were out there messin' around
I would've told you
Once you ghost, you never go back
Try geein' me like I don't know how to mack
I'm a don, and
Top of the line I stay fly, and
Stop tryin'
To keep coverin' the lies, and
Using my credit cards to buy diamonds
We need to straighten this out
Get to the bottom of it all
Let's go before we start the war
Begin with two reasons why we need to talk
And stop poppin' up in my cribs all over New York, and
Death stalkin'
You such trouble and no good
Them fightin' words in my block, and we in the hood
I cheated myself
Like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
You know that I'm no good
You had to be a nasty girl and try to play me
Play me, play me, play me (nasty girl, nasty girl, nasty girl)
Try to play me (yeah)
Yo
A-yo, I knew you was trouble when I first laid eyes on you
Temperature so hot, the heat just rise with you
Lemme ride with you, talk about your mistakes
You cheated yourself, but these are the breaks
And it'll never be the same again 'cause of old boy
But, oh boy
Together we make so much joy
In the sands, and, oh, what a web we weave
But you played me so I had to roll up my sleeves
And hunt you down, holding the next man's stacks
Now you sorry and trying to bring that old thing back
Act like we can rekindle that flame
It's a shame
How you can't get me off the brain
He that lame
You love how I bring the pain
Got them rug burns stinging, and you saying my name
Say my name, uh
That's right, I'm high post
Get the champagne love, word up, we gonna toast
I cheated myself
Like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
You know that I'm no good
Yeah, yo you had to be a nasty girl and try to play me
Nasty girl, girl
You can't leave the kid
You can't leave the kid
Don't worry, I'm gonna be around forever
Nasty girl
Don't forget it I'm a be around forever
Don't forget it I'm a be around forever
Sweet reunion, Jamaica and Spain
We're like how we were again
I'm in the tub, you're on the seat
Lick your lips as I soak my feet
Yo, get to bath and bodyworks pumpin' the spice cream
Together like Cheech and Chong we make nice dreams
These fight scenes
I take the good with the bad
'Cause you give the best brains that I've ever had
Anything worth having is hard to keep
I love you like my coffee, so hot and so sweet
So let's stick it out so we never regret it
I could forgive the past, but I never forget it
I cheated myself like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
You know that I'm no good
I cheated myself like I knew I would
I told ya I was troubled
Yeah, ya know that I'm no good
I could forgive the past, but I never forget it
Nasty girl, nasty girl
Try to play me
Nasty girl
You had to be a nasty girl and try to play me
Nasty girl
Try to play me, try to play me
Nasty girl
I could forgive the past, but I never forget it
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More Featured Meanings
Hey Jealousy
Gin Blossoms
Gin Blossoms
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
Word Alive, The
This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
I love the line "who truly stuck the knife in first". Meaning "Who really messed up first?"
Also, "He's in a place, but I can't get joy" to me means the guy is giving her head ("a place"), but she can't enjoy it 'cause she's thinking of someone else.
Is it not physically impossible to give a girl "head." The song's more simple than that; it's about a guy who believes he's cheating on someone by sleeping with one or more females. It's a clever song.
Semantics. I've heard the expression "giving a girl head" many times before, but that wasn't even the point.<br /> <br /> (Unless, you really did mean "it is NOT physically IMPOSSIBLE". In that case, nevermind.)