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"
There's too many things that I haven't done yet
There's too many sunsets I haven't seen
You can't waste the day wishing it'd slow down
You would've thought by now
I'd have learned something
I made up my mind when I was a young girl
I've been given this one world
I won't worry it away, no
Now and again I lose sight of the good life
I get stuck in a low light
But then love comes in
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
But send me the miles and I'll be happy to follow you, love
I do what I can wherever I end up
To keep giving my good love
And spreading it around
'Cause I've had my fair share of take care and goodbyes
I've learned how to cry
And I'm better for that
Sing, how far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Send me the miles and I'll be happy to, yeah
Red letter day and I'm in a blue mood
Wishing that blue would just carry me away
I've been talking about
Don't know if it's helping or not
But surely something has got to, got to, got to give
'Cause I can't keep waiting to live
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
But send me the miles and I'll be happy to yeah
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
I've been talking to God, don't know if it's helping or not
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Ooh, send me the miles and I'll be happy to
Follow you, love
There's too many things I haven't done yet
There's too many sunsets I haven't seen
There's too many sunsets I haven't seen
You can't waste the day wishing it'd slow down
You would've thought by now
I'd have learned something
I made up my mind when I was a young girl
I've been given this one world
I won't worry it away, no
Now and again I lose sight of the good life
I get stuck in a low light
But then love comes in
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
But send me the miles and I'll be happy to follow you, love
I do what I can wherever I end up
To keep giving my good love
And spreading it around
'Cause I've had my fair share of take care and goodbyes
I've learned how to cry
And I'm better for that
Sing, how far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Send me the miles and I'll be happy to, yeah
Red letter day and I'm in a blue mood
Wishing that blue would just carry me away
I've been talking about
Don't know if it's helping or not
But surely something has got to, got to, got to give
'Cause I can't keep waiting to live
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
But send me the miles and I'll be happy to yeah
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Many the miles
I've been talking to God, don't know if it's helping or not
Many the miles
Many the miles
How far do I have to go to get to you
Many the miles
Ooh, send me the miles and I'll be happy to
Follow you, love
There's too many things I haven't done yet
There's too many sunsets I haven't seen
Lyrics submitted by ld305, edited by Paul123456
Many the Miles Lyrics as written by Sara Bareilles
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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From Sara's own words on her website...
So I wrote this song as a reminder to myself to keep going in search of love and truth and light and it remains to be and ideal I love to stay connected to.
I suck at it a lot of the time actually, to be honest. I get b*tchy, and bored, and irritable, and uninspired and I spend a lot of energy on what i don't like about myself. But at the end of a good day I can take solace in the fact that I am someone who truly wants to be peaceful. Who knows I have the capacity to be truly happy. Not every moment of everyday... but sometimes, and if I'm really committed... a lot of the time.
I don't want to settle for less.
This song is sooo awesome!
Basically, I think it's about really wanting something and almost worrying yourself over it that you won't get it. I think it's sort of like a bittersweet feeling. You love something so much, but it's so far away from you, and you keep on trying and trying to get it, and in the end, you sort of end up asking "How far do I have to go to get to you?" But, I think this song is also saying that you shouldn't perish in an aim to fulfill your passions. You can't just stop living and start working and worrying, hoping that one day you'll get that thing you wanted (thus, "but surely something has got to got to got to give/cause i can't keep waiting to live")
So, love something, and get it. But don't try so much that you're ruining yourself in the pursuit of it.
this song covers a lot of topics, first, how she has yet to live fully, so she has to keep experiencing new things, second, she needs to live life to the fullest, that is her maxim, third, every once and a while she gets caught up in the hype, but love pulls her back, and fourth, she will go however far it takes to get to love...
I don't think that's right.
I think it's more along the lines of...
She's got feelings for a guy, but he honestly either doesn't care or doesn't feel the same, so she's telling him to just tell her what he expects from her or she'll stop caring too because she can't keep wasting her life away chasing him.
i like this song;]
It's about going through a lot of bad relationships
"I've had my fair share of take care and goodbyes I've learnt how to cry and I'm better from that"
And now she's trying to find the right guy for her, and she's wondering how long/how far it's gonna take her to find him.
She's hoping it will be soon:
"i've been talking to god don't know if it's helping or not but surely something has got to got to got to give cause i can't keep waiting to live"
Indeed.
At first when I just heard the song without paying a lot of attention I thought it was about being far away from someone you love and she was saying that she would go anywhere no matter how far to be with that person. BUT, paying close attention I realize now that Sara is so much more than what the "girls across the nation would eat up".
Sara pretty much says in the piece Laurenm209 posted. It's perfect and totally sums it up.
She sometiems get overwhelmed about life and how fast it goes and how she is scared of not leaving it right ("so many things I haven't done yet" "can't waste a day wishing it'd slowed down") and that makes her sad ("but now and again i lose sight of the good life i get stuck in a low light") but than love (the thing she is all about, the thing she thinks life is for, "the only good thing worth trying to be") makes it all better ("but then love comes in"). And she will go as far as she has to to follow that love.
Amazing. I love Sara's songs more and more every day. Who hasn't felt that way, sad and frustrated because of all the things you haven't lived yet? Wondering if you're living your life right. And then she offers her insight, her piece of advice: love, follow it, go for it, don't let the rest get to you. Do everything for love and you'll be living your life to the fullest. And when I say love I don't mean the commercialized man&woman, couple kind of love. I mean and that's what I think she also means, love for everything in life. Love for life itself.