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"
I get up to dance no matter what they play
my feet move this and then that way
pull on my drink and give 'em the eye
then go home alone and cry
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
Get to work 'bout half past 8
come quitting time I accelerate
running towards what I'm running from
from the trigger to the barrel of the gun
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
used to count the days you've been away
and practice the words that I would say
when you'd come back saying you were wrong
and wondering how I stayed so strong
but now I got the notion
that I'm just going through the motions
and you might not come back at all
I tried to pray but I'd lose my place
with my mind searching for your face
and the rosary pressed into my hand
like a stranger in a foreign land
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
used to count the days you've been away
and practice the words that I would say
when you'd come back saying you were wrong
and wondering how I stayed so strong
but now I got the notion
that I'm just going through the motions
and you might not come back at all
I get up to dance no matter what they play
my feet move this and then that way
pull on my drink and give 'em the eye
then go home alone and cry
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
my feet move this and then that way
pull on my drink and give 'em the eye
then go home alone and cry
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
Get to work 'bout half past 8
come quitting time I accelerate
running towards what I'm running from
from the trigger to the barrel of the gun
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
used to count the days you've been away
and practice the words that I would say
when you'd come back saying you were wrong
and wondering how I stayed so strong
but now I got the notion
that I'm just going through the motions
and you might not come back at all
I tried to pray but I'd lose my place
with my mind searching for your face
and the rosary pressed into my hand
like a stranger in a foreign land
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
used to count the days you've been away
and practice the words that I would say
when you'd come back saying you were wrong
and wondering how I stayed so strong
but now I got the notion
that I'm just going through the motions
and you might not come back at all
I get up to dance no matter what they play
my feet move this and then that way
pull on my drink and give 'em the eye
then go home alone and cry
because I'm going through the motions
I'm going through the motions baby
waiting here for you
Lyrics submitted by azkm
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