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"
Well your eyes just haven't been the same, Joseph
Are you bad at dealing with the fame, Joseph
There's a pale moonshine, above you
Do you see both sides, do they shove you, around
Is the touchstone forcing you to hide, Joseph
Are the rumors eating you alive, Joseph
When the holy night is upon you
Will you do what's right, the position is yours
From the temple walls to the New York night
Our decisions rest on a child
When she took her stand
Did she hold your hand
Will your faith stand still or run away
Run away
When they've driven you so far
That you think you're gonna drop
Do you wish you were back there at the carpenter shop
With the plane and the lathe
The work never drove you mad
You're a maker, a creator
Not just somebody's dad
From the temple walls to the New York night
Our decisions rest on a man
When I take the stand
When I take the stand
Will he hold my hand
Will my faith stand still or run away
(Run away)
And the desert
It's a hell of a place to find heaven
Forty years lost in the wilderness looking for God
And you climb to the top of the mountain
Looking down on the city
Where you were born
(On the years since you left gave you time to sit back and reflect)
Better you than me (better you than me)
Better you than me
Yes
Well the Holy night is upon you (better you than me, better you than me)
Do you see both sides, do they shove you, around
Better you than me, Joseph (better you than me)
Better you than me
Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph
Than me
Better you than me
Better you than me (better you, better you, better you)
Than me
Well your eyes just haven?t been the same, Joseph
Are you bad at dealing with the fame, Joseph
There's a pale moonshine, above you
Do you see both sides, do they shove you, around
Is the touchstone forcing you to hide, Joseph
Are the rumors eating you alive, Joseph
When the holy night is upon you
Will you do what's right, the position is yours
From the temple walls to the New York night
Our decisions rest on a child
When she took her stand
Did she hold your hand
Will your faith stand still or run away
Run away
When they've driven you so far
That you think you're gonna drop
Do you wish you were back there at the carpenter shop
With the plane and the lathe
The work never drove you mad
You're a maker, a creator
Not just somebody's dad
From the temple walls to the New York night
Our decisions rest on a man
When I take the stand
When I take the stand
Will he hold my hand
Will my faith stand still or run away
(Run away)
And the desert
It's a hell of a place to find heaven
Forty years lost in the wilderness looking for God
And you climb to the top of the mountain
Looking down on the city
Where you were born
(On the years since you left gave you time to sit back and reflect)
Better you than me (better you than me)
Better you than me
Yes
Well the Holy night is upon you (better you than me, better you than me)
Do you see both sides, do they shove you, around
Better you than me, Joseph (better you than me)
Better you than me
Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph
Than me
Better you than me
Better you than me (better you, better you, better you)
Than me
Well your eyes just haven?t been the same, Joseph
Lyrics submitted by ShotgunXXWedding, edited by unillama
Joseph, Better You Than Me Lyrics as written by Elton John Neil Tennant
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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40 years in the desert is about the isrealites going across the desert it fits because it's comparing his and the isrealites expirences and saying God taught them both stuff (least I take it in that way)......and also maybe more theologically they they meant it. The isrealights were gods chosen people and were carrying forth his plan by crossing the desert to reach the promised land, J+M were crossing the desert for Jesus to be born in beth (and fufill the prophets) so they were also carrying forth God's plan