Shakin' like the Devil when she lets me go
Got a new place and how it's so much better
Falling over myself, the televisions on
I turn it off and smile
Oh, Jennifer, you know I always tried
Before you say goodbye

Leave the bourbon on the shelf
And I'll drink it by myself
And I love you endlessly
Darling don't you see I'm not satisfied
Until I hold you tight
Give me one more chance tonight
And I swear I'll make it right
But you ain't got time for this
And that wreckin' bell is ringin'
And I'm not satisfied
Until I hold you

Jennifer, tell me where I stand
And who's that other boy holdin' your hand?
Oh, Jennifer, you know I've always tried
Before you say goodbye

Leave the bourbon on the shelf
And I'll drink it by myself
And I never liked your hair or those people that you lie with
And I'm not satisfied
Until I hold you tight
And I love you endlessly
Darling don't you see I can't be satisfied
Until I hold you tight

Leave the bourbon on the shelf
And I'll drink it by myself
And I love you endlessly
Darling don't you see
I'm not satisfied


Lyrics submitted by ShotgunXXWedding, edited by Mellow_Harsher, emily608

Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf Lyrics as written by Dave Brent Keuning Brandon Flowers

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

45 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +4
    My Interpretation

    I adore this song. It's the perfect beginning to The Murder Trilogy. Now, I'd like to share my interpretation on the trilogy and see if anyone agrees with me. 1) Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf

    • It's full of imagery. I can completely see the story in my head and when a band can do that, they have hit the fantastic mark in my book. This is pretty much about the nasty break up that he and Jenny has. He's completely smashed. "Fallin' over myself" and he's obviously gone a little crazy "The television’s on, I turn it off and smile." and he's trying to get her to stay and she just wont. Now he asks her to leave the bourbon on the shelf so he can drink away his agony. When people get mad they become blatantly honest and they just say how they feel so they can tear the other person down (and it doesn't help that he's tanked either.) So he starts spewing insults "And I never liked your hair or those people that you lie with" etc. By the end of the song he is just drained. He's filled with anger, yet he still loves her "endlessly"... 2) Midnight Show So I'm not totally sure how he got her in the car with him after they broke up like that...maybe they "reconciled"? But here is what I get from this song.
    • He has somehow convinced her that they are going somewhere alone to talk or mess around. It's underneath the stars and the ocean is there (which makes it seem all romantic).I believe the first "drive faster boy" is Jennifer speaking. Then while he's driving he's thinking of all the people who have tried to help him through everything (maybe the break up or the apparent drinking problem or some other life issue) He's obviously distracted because he finds her attractive 'You've got a real short skirt I want to look up'. Then all the "Drive faster boy" lyrics sound more like his thoughts-'I just want to get this over with, drive faster!' Then you hit 'We were just in time. Let me take a little more off your mind' this is possibly when he decides that it's time to kill her but he kisses her first (that would be very murder-esque ha) then he starts to have second thoughts on going through with it 'We were just a good thing. We were such a good thing'. He tries to ask her to stay again 'But promise me you'll stay, Fix these things I've hurt' she refuses. Then he pushes those second thoughts back 'make it go away!' He finally kills her (by choking I suppose) 'I took my baby's breath beneath the chandelier of stars in atmosphere' and then throws her into the raging ocean. 'And watch her disappear into the midnight show'. Then in the last verse you can tell that he is going back over what he has just done and is feeling wretched, this explains the "Oh no" at the end. Then you hear him sing in agony "She said she loved me!" He's gone crazy, the music at the end sounds straight out of a horror movie, where the killer is standing there obove where he threw the body into the ocean. 3) Jenny was a friend of mine -Fabulous. You hear the chopper at the beginning and the police sirens...I can almost picture the search light on the helicopter finding the body in the ocean. The police are interrogating him, asking him where they last saw her, what happened. He claims that they took a walk and she seemed weird, they had been fighting (and it was raining...perfect horror movie visual imagery! he) She told him that she loved him but she needed to go somewhere (he's trying to convince the police that she left, therefore he has no idea where she went or how she died). Then he try’s to play on their sympathy and says 'she couldn't scream while I held her close (because people yell when they fight) I swore I'd never let her go'(trying to convince them he adored her) Then he tells them that he would never kill her because he loved her, they were friends, why would he ever do something to harm her? Then he wants to leave the office: He claims he knows his rights and that he's been there all day. He thinks it's time for him to leave blah blah. And then they ask him (again) if he killed her. 'I just can't take this! I swore I told you the truth!'

    Woooow. Sorry for how long that was...I understand if you didn't read the whole thing. And if you did, thank you for taking the time!

    willowsongon May 22, 2009   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song: Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.” That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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"
Album art
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version. Great version of a great song,
Album art
No Surprises
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.