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"
Did you really carry me when I was asleep
Did you try to defend me when I was weak
Did you pick me up that lonely night
When the lights died out
And they turned to the gray side
Did you carry me when I was asleep
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Did you lie for me
To keep me safe
Did you bare with me
When I misbehaved
Far from here could you feel my fear
When the lights died out
And they turned to the gray side
Did you lie for me
To keep me safe
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Water falling down
Frozen on the ground
I'm trying to stop the light
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Did you try to defend me when I was weak
Did you pick me up that lonely night
When the lights died out
And they turned to the gray side
Did you carry me when I was asleep
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Did you lie for me
To keep me safe
Did you bare with me
When I misbehaved
Far from here could you feel my fear
When the lights died out
And they turned to the gray side
Did you lie for me
To keep me safe
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Water falling down
Frozen on the ground
I'm trying to stop the light
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Now you're out on the bottomless sea
So it's time for you to lean on me
Lean on me
Lyrics submitted by 5weetToothCandy
Lean Lyrics as written by Daniel Carey Nanna Fabricius
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is my personal interpretation of this amazing song...
The singer has had someone in her life who has always been supporting her and worried for her well-being, but in a silent manner, unknown to her, during times when she was asleep/unconscious/mentally or physically unwell/in another faraway place. When other people talked/asked about her he lied to keep her safe, he bore with her misbehaviour/bad attitude for a long time and still protected her. The singer has gone through a traumatic event in her life ("..that lonely night when the lights died out and I turned to the grey side") and it is only now, years later, that she wonders if this person had been helping her through this bad time.
It's quite clear from the chorus that this person who has helped the singer is now in some kind of trouble ("out on the bottomless sea") and the singer realises it's time to offer this person her help and support.
I suspect this person is the singer's father, since (and I'm not 100% sure on this) someone who could be Oh Land's (Nonna Oland Fabricius') father, Bendt Fabricius, has collaborated on the strings composition of the song (see end credits of the video). The kind of things this person has done for the singer sounds a lot like something a father would do for his daughter, in my opinion. It could also apply to a friend, other family member or lover, but in this case I think the singer has discovered that as her father is getting older, the roles are reversed and it is time for her to be the one supporting him.
Totally. I think, though, that "Did you lie for me to keep me safe" could refer to the way parents often keep heavy, hard-to-understand things from their children to protect them from growing up too fast.
@roland44 I think yours is a great interpretation. It seems to me that the singer is trying to persuade a reluctant person who helped her in the past to accept her help now because s/he needs it. I can easily imagine that the song might be addressed to a father, as fathers tend to have a lot of pride when it comes to something like this. Beautiful song by the way.