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"
My eyes burn
Everybody smokes
My eyes burn
Everybody smokes
I smoke too
But not as much as you
I do the smoke detector
There is a girl in a tank top
She is not wearing a bra
She looks so hot on the dance floor
She does the smoke detector
[Chorus]
She says danger
Do the smoke detector
She says danger
I'm a smoke detector
I took a man back to my room
I was smoking him in bed
Yeah, I was smoking in bed
This is what he said
I took a man back to my room
Yeah, I was smoking in bed
Yeah, I was smoking in bed
This is what he said
[Chorus]
I said danger
Do the smoke detector
[x4]
I said danger
Do the smoke detector
Danger
Do the smoke detector
[x2]
Everybody smokes
My eyes burn
Everybody smokes
I smoke too
But not as much as you
I do the smoke detector
There is a girl in a tank top
She is not wearing a bra
She looks so hot on the dance floor
She does the smoke detector
[Chorus]
She says danger
Do the smoke detector
She says danger
I'm a smoke detector
I took a man back to my room
I was smoking him in bed
Yeah, I was smoking in bed
This is what he said
I took a man back to my room
Yeah, I was smoking in bed
Yeah, I was smoking in bed
This is what he said
[Chorus]
I said danger
Do the smoke detector
[x4]
I said danger
Do the smoke detector
Danger
Do the smoke detector
[x2]
Lyrics submitted by southboundpachyderm
Smoke Detector Lyrics as written by Jenny Diane Lewis Blake Sennett
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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hmm so smoking and smoke is a metaphor for something? possibly something involving sex? i dont really know.... i mean "do the smoke detector" sounds like a dance move or something haha i dont know
There's something sweetly sinister about the 'I was smoking him in bed.' It's a cute pun as well.
To me, this carries on the theme from 15 about underage sex, this time in the club scene. You could see the 'smoke detector' as being someone who bums off other people's cigarettes, but as the saying goes, 'there's no smoke without fire', and therefore the chorus is a playful warning to watch out for the peril you can't see.
It really does sound like a play on the Frug or something. But agreed. Frug > Smoke Detector
i take back my previous comment. this song is way worse than dejalo
Jenny said at the concert that this is an "anti anti-smoking" song.
Rofl i love all of the negative comments for this song. Yes, this cd, or song isnt like much of Rilo's old stuff, but isnt that what makes a band good, not having the same sound to everyone of thier cd's? They did an awesome job with this cd. And to the comment about a band being dead bc you can dance to their music... I am able to dance to about 40 % of all of rilo's stuff, so they must have been dead a long time ago. Fuck all you rilo haters.
....this song is NOT embarrassing to listen to.
lighten up.
i don't see how this song is embarrassing to listen to. it's fun and upbeat. i love it.
it took me a while to figure out how cleaver this song is, but im pretty sure i have it figured out... i didnt want to believe SepturpleAs comment, but after thinking about it, i think she might be right
My eyes burn, everybody smokes My eyes burn, everybody smokes I smoke too, but not as much as you I do the smoke detector (this is a play on words. she is saying that she is associated with smoke, but her association is with giving warning to it)
There is a girl in a tank top She is not wearing a bra She looks so hard on the dance floor She does the smoke detector (she is saying that smoke crazy drunk girl on the floor of a dance floor does the smoke detector too, because you take off your clothes and rub around on the floor when a smoke detector goes off)
She says, "Danger Do the smoke detector" She says, "Danger I'm the smoke detector" (this sounds to me like a lousy form of manipulation)
I took a man back to my room I was smoking him in bed Yeah, I was smoking in bed This is what he said (good sex+smoking?)
I took a man back to my room I was smoking in bed Yeah, I was smoking in bed This is what he said (kind of surreal, he tells a story about the story he is telling. the interpretation of this could go a lot of different ways, so ill leave it up to discussion)
I said, "Danger Do the smoke detector" I said, "Danger Do the smoke detector" I said, "Danger Do the smoke detector" I said, "Danger Do the smoke detector"
I said, "Danger Do the smoke detector Danger Do the smoke detector" I said, "Danger Do the smoke detector" I said, "Danger Do the smoke detector"