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"
I shook hands with the president and the pope in Rome
I've been to parties where I had to be flown
This told me everything is sacred, nothing is profane
And money is something that you throw off of the back of a train
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Steamer of gravy and the little fried pearls
Floating like a necklace on a beautiful girl
And Chalmers said "thanks" for the food and the land
And something about God that I just don't understand
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
She's got the milk of human kindness and the fat of the lamb
Skin like a baby, but she drives like a man
She lives in Natchez where she operates a crane
She's like a wrecking ball that's no longer connected to the chain
Zerelda Samuel said she ain't never prayed
Since her right arm was blown off in the Pinkerton raid
They lashed her to a windmill with '3-fingered Dave'
Now she's 102, drinking juleps in the shade
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
I've been to parties where I had to be flown
This told me everything is sacred, nothing is profane
And money is something that you throw off of the back of a train
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Steamer of gravy and the little fried pearls
Floating like a necklace on a beautiful girl
And Chalmers said "thanks" for the food and the land
And something about God that I just don't understand
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
She's got the milk of human kindness and the fat of the lamb
Skin like a baby, but she drives like a man
She lives in Natchez where she operates a crane
She's like a wrecking ball that's no longer connected to the chain
Zerelda Samuel said she ain't never prayed
Since her right arm was blown off in the Pinkerton raid
They lashed her to a windmill with '3-fingered Dave'
Now she's 102, drinking juleps in the shade
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
Always keep a diamond in your mind
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Page
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This is obvious to a practitioner of Tibetan buddhism. Waits even mentions the Dali Lama in the current top youtube video for this song. In TB, we have a "Diamond Mind" meditation. Diamond Mind is an aspect of an "enlightened" "buddha" or mind. The "three-figured Dave" is a reference to statues showing mudras with are finger positions used during deep meditations. There are references to Tara - the female buddhas in TB. Often females sit with male aspects in statues. Waits says she's lashed to a windmill. He's obviously describing a statue of a male and female union forms. Chalmers is a famous author of a book about the mind - whom I don't doubt mentioned Tibetan monks deep knowledge of the mind through billions of repeitions of mantras and other practices. She's got the milk of human kindness. Many statues show a buddha with a bowl in front. Like half. This bowl contains nectar of compassion. There is no doubt here folks.
@weekendsammy Waits likely went to a lecture by Chalmers and the Dali Lama talking about the mind. East meets west. These were very popular many years ago.