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"
Pretend prayer
Pretend care
Makes everything seem so fair
These perfect abattoirs
These perfect actors
These perfect abattoirs
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Oh, such love
Sweet stimulus
PG certificate and cuts unfocused
Stitches and wounds
Doctored divinity
So much love there's blind affinity
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Pretend care
Makes everything seem so fair
These perfect abattoirs
These perfect actors
These perfect abattoirs
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Oh, such love
Sweet stimulus
PG certificate and cuts unfocused
Stitches and wounds
Doctored divinity
So much love there's blind affinity
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Only a god can bruise
Only a god can soothe
Only a god reserves the right
To forgive those that revile him
Lyrics submitted by deltasunlight
Journal for Plague Lovers Lyrics as written by Nicholas Jones James Bradfield
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The message here is in line with sentiments presented by Dostoevsky and Camus regarding an omnipotent-omniscient deity and humans' free will. As stated by Dostoevsky in I believe "Demons," if an interventionist God exists, by the concept's very design and definition we can do nothing outside of His will. Only if He does not exist are humans truly independent and free. To claim we are all part of God's divine plan, but to also maintain in the same breath that we have free will is an innate contradiction, which is what I think Richey is pointing out here with bitter sarcasm. For many who do not recognize the blatant discrepancy, when something beneficial occurs, it is because God caused it to happen; when something harmful takes place, it is because humans choose of their own free will to do evil. What Dostoevsky and Camus pointed out--and, again, what Richey is echoing, at least in my interpretation of this song--is you can't have it both ways. Either everything comes from God or from us.
You clearly misunderstand Dostoevsky's writing but I see where you are coming from.<br /> <br /> "They are little children rioting and barring out the teacher at school. But their childish delight will end; it will cost them dear. They will cast down temples and drench the earth with blood..."
The ????? is "Oh such love smeared stimulus, PG Certificate all cuts unfocused."
This definitely seems to be about people who believe god is responsible for everything that happens and life is destiny over choice. True believers always say they leave their life in god’s hands, and justify misery in the world as “part of god’s plan” instead of wanting to do something about it. This song definitely could have fit in on The Holy Bible since so much of the world’s evil is done in the name of some kind of god, which somehow makes it okay. And unfortunately, with the war on terror, this sentiment sounds incredibly fresh even though it was written in 1994. Some things never change. But just think about how great Richey's songs about the post-9/11 world would have been. It's something Nicky doesn't touch on nearly enough.
The way I interpret it -- all of the songs in Journal for Plague Lovers were written during Richey's last days, when he was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Some parts of the treatment that he underwent (like for his alcoholism) required him to believe in a god-like 'higher power', but because Richey didn't believe in a benevolent higher power he eventually rejected the treatment.
One of the things Nicky and James DB said about the treatment was that it threatened to change Richey into a different person and required him to embrace all the ideas that he had mocked when he was 'okay'. It resulted in really erratic behavior, like writing the word 'Love' on his knuckles. I think Richey wanted to get better, but he couldn't do it on the terms that he was given, and in fact, absolutely hated how it destroyed him as an individual. He cruised along with the treatment ('pretend prayer / pretend care'), but held bitter resentment against the values the treatment endorsed (like love, which he rejected).
The reason I interpret it this way is because elsewhere in Journal for Plague Lovers Richey expresses similar distrust and discontent with the psychiatric treatment he was undergoing. It made him feel as if he was a sick person who was unfit for society and going to be weeded out of the gene pool, figuratively speaking ('Me and Stephen Hawking' and 'Virginia State Epileptic Colony' being the most prominent).
Its about people who use religion to justify their actions when really their just serving their own agenda. If god really cared/existed he would do something about it