"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.
Come on skinny love, just last the year
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
Tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right in the moment, this order's tall
And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And in the morning I'll be with you
But it will be a different kind
'Cause I'll be holding all the tickets
And you'll be owning all the fines
Come on, skinny love, what happened here?
Suckle on the hope in light brassieres
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Sullen load is full, so slow on the split
And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And now all your love is wasted
And who the hell was I?
'Cause now I'm breaking at the britches
And at the end of all your lines
Who will love you?
Who will fight?
And who will fall far behind?
Come on skinny love
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
Tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right in the moment, this order's tall
And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And in the morning I'll be with you
But it will be a different kind
'Cause I'll be holding all the tickets
And you'll be owning all the fines
Come on, skinny love, what happened here?
Suckle on the hope in light brassieres
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Sullen load is full, so slow on the split
And I told you to be patient
And I told you to be fine
And I told you to be balanced
And I told you to be kind
And now all your love is wasted
And who the hell was I?
'Cause now I'm breaking at the britches
And at the end of all your lines
Who will love you?
Who will fight?
And who will fall far behind?
Come on skinny love
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Lyrics submitted by AnneTUDUDUDU, edited by madi101498, hannah101201
Skinny Love Lyrics as written by Justin Deyarmond Edison Vernon
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
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I have a really odd interpretation of this song, but here it goes...
Come on skinny love just last the year/
I think that she is literally speaking of a love that is "skinny," like a love that is fragile and lasts a short amount of time? I actually think this love is toward herself.
Pour a little salt we were never here/
In history, when a city was destroyed, they salted the earth to purify it. She believes she is destroyed, but that if she erases her presence that she can purify the people around her in some way.
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer/
Veneer is a type of wood, not very sturdy. It sounds like she wants to kill herself, but then again she doesn't, so she takes her frustrations out on the bathroom counter, the blood in the sink from the wound she acquires.
I tell my love to wreck it all Cut out all the ropes and let me fall/
She is telling her love to let her go, to cut all ties with her to spare him/her pain, but in the process, he would let her fall because he is the only thing tying her to this world.
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Right in the moment this order's tall/
He doesn't want to let her go. He loves her too much, and he will never let her go now that he has learned the extent of things, making the order too much.
I told you to be patient I told you to be fine I told you to be balanced I told you to be kind/
She is trying to feel better about herself, but it is a long process. She is asking him to be patient with her, but also to not worry and to live his life, making him "fine" and "balanced."
In the morning I'll be with you But it will be a different kind/
She is saying that she will still be with him tomorrow, but only in spirit.
I'll be holding all the tickets And you'll be owning all the fines/
She will be the one to commit the deed, but he will be the one who has to suffer the consequences.
Come on skinny love what happened here/
At this point, I believe that the girl is watching her love from another world. She wonders how the boy she loved could turn out the way he does.
Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere/
A brassiere is a place that sells alcohol, so I believe that he takes up drinking to cope with her suicide.
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Sullen load is full; so slow on the split/
His load is full because he believes he could have saved the girl. The guilt and grief is slowing breaking him.
I told you to be patient I told you to be fine/
She told him to be patient because he would find someone else to love. She told him to be fine after she was gone, but he is obviously not.
I told you to be balanced I told you to be kind/
She told him to remain the same as he was, but he has slowly turned bitter. He loves her, but he also feels betrayed. He cannot remained balanced, and the anger toward her makes him a different person.
Now all your love is wasted? Then who the hell was I?/
He has become so bitter toward the girl that he believes that he wasted his time with her, after all, he wouldn't feel this way if he had never loved her. However, she knows that their love was real, it just hurts him too much to admit it anymore.
Now I'm breaking at the britches And at the end of all your lines/
She regrets her decission now, because she knows that he will never quite get over her because of the unanswered questions she left behind her.
Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind?/
She is asking him who will fight through the hard shell he has built for himself and still love him. She also knows that not many people will bother to try and love him.
Come on skinny love My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my/
He has little love for himself now, just as she did.
thats exactly what I thought! Except I also thought she might have a eating disorder because she sounds so fragile
Your comment about history and salt isn't accurate. They didn't salt the earth to purify it in any good sense of the word. They did it for one of two (theoretical) generally-accepted reasons: to keep anything from growing (salt inhibits plant growth, but it would have been difficult historically to get that much salt into a field) or to do the same thing on a symbolic level. It's mostly seen as a way of "cursing" anybody who dares to try to rebuild once a town has been razed - their fields are hexed from ever bearing fruit again.
You are brilliant! Your interpretation of this song is beyond beautiful and really gives it life. I am singing in a Talent Show on Thursday and I chose this song... now I have a bigger meaning than the one I had chosen. I can put passion behind the words, so thank you. Not everyone may agree, and some may only go through to criticize the little mistakes in other interpretations because they cannot thing of anything better, but I would take it as a compliment. You really interpreted this beautiful... I can't say it enough!
I really like your interpretation of this song. It fits. I'm not to jolly over the idea of her suicide, which now gives the song more depth, but also adds the gloom effect when I listen to it.
Oh. My. Gosh. You are brilliant, sir or madame. This is amazing. This song always made me sad, but I didn't know why. This is a haunting realization. I tried to read the other interpretations, but I just couldn't because I was biased by yours. ;-]
@indigojade this is seriously the most amazing thing i have ever read!
@indigojade i never understood this song until reading your image and assumption of what the song meant. wow thank you so much x
@indigojade I agree but I think also interpret that " pour a little salt we were never here" a little different although I agree in both ways, I think she is singing it as the saying " pour a little salt on the wound" like she is fighting so hard, and it's hurting her so deeply But there are still barely any results, so she is pouring salt on her wounds, hence " staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer" cause possibly mean self harm, but I think it means she wouldn't handle her own reflection and is implying she broke the mirror above the sink with her bare hands and now there are shards of glass, and the sink and the mirror laying there.
And also the " be with your but it will be a different kind" and from them on in the song, I think that it could also possibly mean that, she has left him, maybe it got too much for him to Handle and she could feel now more than ever that he wasn't feeling the same love for her and he could see how she loved him more than she loved herself and thst got to much. And she now like sees him from afar like in school or on the streets and he's let himself go or become a wreck, or he doesn't seem like himself anymore and that maybe he did get hurt by the ending of the relationship and he is bitter now.
And this whole ending implys she left abruptly and never answered to him why, so that leaves him confused and mad
Personally, I think it's the kind of love that's easily broken. It doesn't have to be someone who's anorexic. The title.. Skinny Love.. can be interpreted as brittle love or fickle love.
In the song, it was kind of implied that the relationship between those two lovers wasn't based on something strong or meaningful. In my opinion, their relationship was based on need. The need for someone to be there. The need for company.
The need for 'help' as Justin Vernon said.
That kind of love is easily broken since it's only based on the need for someone to be there. That kind of feeling passes pretty quickly and what happens then? What if that 'need' ceases to exist?
That's why it's called skinny love. Because it has no meaning it has no 'weight' (Again, Justin Vernon, sort of said that)
That's what I think was implied in the song. These are my thoughts and I'm perfectly fine if no one agrees with me.
I agree with you completely. This is how I took the song from the beginning, and imagined every time I listened to it.
I believe that a song cab have multiple meanings, depending on who is listening to it. You can interpret the words to best suit your emotional mood or needs at the moment. No song has ONE meaning. It is up to you to decide how you want to interpret it. As for "Skinny Love," I've read many great possible meanings. Anorexia, the voice of a mother helping her child, fickle love. And I completely agree with all of them. Nice job guys. (:
"Skinny Love" is about that time in a relationship that I was going through; you're in a relationship because you need help, but that's not necessarily why you should be in a relationship. And that's skinny. It doesn't have weight. Skinny love doesn't have a chance because it's not nourished."
I feel like this too is hinting at the aneroxic/bulemic The girl was in the relationship because she needed someone to care for her, but it didn't necessarily mean she cared for him, the relationship was indeed skinny in both ways, she cared so much about her ED that it was consuming her and she didn't have time to indulge in the relation ship because she was depressed, and depressed people tend to isolate themselves. So she wasn't nourished and neither was the relationship. He basically described in that quote, the relationship between a person w/ an ED and a person who is in love with that person.
Heres my interpretation of the song, "Come on skinny love just last the year" Referring to the state the girl was in, she was probably becoming increasingly thin, he was noticing and was wondering if she was gonna even last a year in her condition, He was pleading with her to just hold on a little longer and maybe she can get over her condition.
"Pour a little salt we were never here" He wants her to get over her condition and forget about it, pouring salt on wounds is said to slow the bleeding process down,
"Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer" People who suffer from ED's are also well known to self harm, he might have caught her cutting with a piece of veneer, weather its tooth veneer or wood veneer, which are both sharp. Referring back to the salt on the wound, maybe he caught her cutting, said, "Don't worry about it, it never happened, lets move on"
"I tell my love to wreck it all Cut out all the ropes and let me fall" He wants her to stop, she is dependent on him to keep her alive. He's giving up because he is sick of trying and being around someone who he loves, but who is slowly killing themselves and he doesn't want to stay around and watch, but he feels like he has to so she has to stop so he doesn't feel like this.
"Right in the moment this order's tall" watching and dealing with her ED and depression is too much for him and he doesnt think he can handle it.
"I told you to be patient" he told her that there is a healthy way to lose weight and that she could love herself if she just gave it time,
"I told you to be fine" He wants her to be okay because he thinks she's perfect the way she is but she just couldn't see it, people with ED are obsessed with the idea of the perfect body and they don't care what it takes to get it. He wants her to be normal and fine but she can't because she is diseased with an ED.
"I told you to be balanced" He wants her to eat a balanced diet but she won't eat at all, and he told her but she just won't listen.
"I told you to be kind" people with ED's are overly critical of not only themselves but other people, he wants her to be kind to herself, but she hates everything about herself and often punishes herself by cutting, because she hates her body so much. He told her to stop cutting and learn to love herself but she won't listen.
"In the morning I'll be with you But it will be a different "kind"" he's going to be there for her still, but he can't continue to be her boyfriend because he's giving up, and he did everything he could but she wouldn't listen.
"I'll be holding all the tickets And you'll be owning all the fines" He saw and was there through it all, he has the memories with him, but she is the one who is going to be paying for her ED in the long run, cuts, organ failure, death ect.
"Come on skinny love what happened here" Most ED's start out of nowhere, with no known cause, what happened to her to make her this way?
"Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere" when he found her, possibly when she was cutting herself, he might have found her dying, in that case he probably found her in her bra, because people with ED are obsessed with being skinny and small and often get undressed to see where they are at progress wise, she got upset, cut herself and now is laying on the floor dying. He wants her to feed off his hope that she is okay, she is in his arms, like a baby, and he wants her to suckle on his hope...
"Sullen load is full; so slow on the split" The sadness in her finally reached its capacity, it took a while for her to finally "split"
"I told you to be patient I told you to be fine I told you to be balanced I told you to be kind" He told her again and again, she never heard him, she just heard the voices in her head telling her she was worthless and fat.
"Now all your love is wasted?" All the love he had for her is wasted because it never reached her and she never understood it because she didn't even love her self, how could she love him, let alone except his love.
"Then who the hell was I?" If she couldn't love him back then what is he to her?
"Now I'm breaking at the britches" britches means pants, people with ED often cut not only their arms, but their stomachs, and their thighs. She could have cut herself on her legs and he was checking to see if she cut there as well.
"And at the end of all your lines" His heart is breaking because she is talking to him and the things she is saying is so depressing and sad, how she wants to die, and she's no good,
"Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind?" Who is going to love you in the condition your in, besides himself, she's probably sickly thin and has cuts all over herself, people with and eating disorder often have thin dry hair, when it gets really bad they look bald in places. Who's going to fight to keep you alive? No one besides himself who's been fighting her back the whole time, If he can't keep her alive and put up with this then no one will. She is a lost case, hopeless.
"Come on skinny love" one last plea before he has to move on from this
My my my the whole time is his desperation and astonishment at how bad its gotten.
this cover is simply gorgeous.
I think this song is absolutoly beautiful, the credit of course goes to Bon Iver for writing such a song but I personally prefer the sound of Birdy's cover and think she has huge talent for a 14/15 year old!
At the end of the day everybody interprets songs very personally and nobody is wrong. Most people have said this song is about a failed or failing relationsip somebody is desperately trying to hold together and I can see that. My interpretation is slightly different however due to my personal circumstances. I'm half in love with somebody who doesn't return my feelings, but initially said there "may be a chance".
I said a lot of foolish things to them and in all honesty wish I could just cut them out of my life to forget them and not have my false hope fed. Unfortunately I can't do this and have to see them regulary for at least another year. Hence the "Come on skinny love just last the year." I see myself as skinny love personified,somebody who loves another but is receiving no love in return so emotionally you're just wasting away
Having said this I have this natural need to be close to the person and want to be with them, so I have to force myself to avoid them as much as I can without being unpleasant. This is cutting the ropes to me and the acknowledgement that it's a tough thing to do or a "tall order". Like giving up a drug.
And I have told this person to be all the things listed in the song as I find the whole situation socially difficult and it's caused some issues. To me the line "And in the morning I'll be with you, But it will be a different kind" refers to the fact that once I've calmed down I will accept that we will just have to be distant friends.
The last stanza reers to the feelings of being lead on and the fact that I wonder if others will love this person as much as I would given the chance. The genereal references to blood and salt I do think are related to emotinal pain being like a wound, and maybe even literal wounds of self harm. The veneer to me is the seemingly lovely image I had of us being together because it's not real and never will be and it's been crushed.
Anyway that's all just my opinion and it's very personal...I suppose anybody going through the same thing would get what I meant though
I get exactly what you mean, very similar interpretation to me. I went out with a girl on and off from 14 to 21. Was crazy about her but we both moved away from our home town so naturally broke up. Recently we both moved back. Those old feelings came back for me but not for her. I think ill always love her but i have to put on an act that i am cool with seeing her out.
The way I interpret it (which is probably not the same interpretation its author had in mind as he was writing the song yet is how I get to related to myself). This song, to me, is about best friends who fell in love but know they're never really going to be together. However, they have already crossed a very delicate line between friendship and lovers. Skinny love refers to a love who is too fragile and complicated to make it too far. As a girl, I'll give out my interpretation of this song in such situation from a girl's point of view. So.. the girl would like to try to make it work or at least would like to keep seeing her friend for a little longer even if they don't make it concrete that they're in a relationship with each other.
Come on skinny love just last the year -----> Let's keep seeing each other for a little longer. Pour a little salt we were never here ---> we'll pour a little salt to heal the hurt this relationship is causing us. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer -----> even though is a little late to not be hurting.
I tell my love to wreck it all ----> I try to tell myself that it doesn't matter what the odds are, Cut out all the ropes and let me fall----> let's just give in and fall in love freely. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Right in the moment this order's tall ---> I know right now though it seems to be impossible . " the order is 'tall'", or 'large', difficult.
I told you to be patient ---> maybe she told him to be patient, maybe if they wait it out they can work things out. I told you to be fine ---> to keep himself collected. I told you to be balanced ---> and balanced; again, collected. I told you to be kind -----> to be nice to themselves and not feel guilty. In the morning I'll be with you -----> She'll always be there for him, regardless But it will be a different "kind" ----> but things will change and she'll try to see him as a friend. I'll be holding all the tickets - --> she knows she's going to regret that they never tried to work things out, so she will be left with all the regret 'tickets'. And you'll be owning all the fines ---> and he will own all the "fines".. while she's gonna be sad regretting everything that happened, he's gonna be moving on, maybe even forget their romance, or maybe even brag about one more number in his list of past lovers.
Come on skinny love what happened here ----> what happened to "our love" (this line is why I think he's moving on while she's still "holding all the tickets.") Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere----> she still had some hope they'd be together some day but he moved on faster than her. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Sullen load is full; so slow on the split - to slow down on the split, to slow down how distant he's getting and how fast he's forgetting her
I told you to be patient I told you to be fine I told you to be balanced I told you to be kind Now all your love is wasted? ---> That was it ? She thought his love for her was bigger. Then who the hell was I? ----> then what was she to him, really, all along? Now I'm breaking at the britches And at the end of all your lines
Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind? ---> I think these speak for themselves.
Come on skinny love My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
@funnygirl03 I totally agree with you! I have discovered the song for so long but did not get the meaning till I found your interpretation. You might not see my reply but still I just want to say thank you here for this. :) I also agree completely with other interpretation as I believe the meaning differ from the listener and situation. With that being said, I am exactly the same situation with your song interpretation. Not in a very good place now :(
@funnygirl03 you used the exact same comment on the original song too ... why post on both??
Bon Iver said: "It’s about that time in a relationship that I was going through; you’re in a relationship because you need help, but that’s not necessarily why you should be in a relationship. And that’s skinny. It doesn’t have weight. Skinny love doesn’t have a chance because it’s not nourished.”
So, my own interpretation of the songs words, keeping in mind Bon Iver's own explanation:
"Come on skinny love just last the year" --> Their love is spread thinly and fragile, but the singer wants it to last.
"Pour a little salt we were never here" --> Like pouring salt on the wound or on soil to kill plants. I take it to mean that it just takes a little to make it all disappear (the skinny love) because it is so fragile
"Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer" --> Veneer is a thin (protective) layer. In this imagery, the veneer is broken and alongside a sink of blood. It suggests to me that the singer is broken and/or has experienced pain when it comes to love.
"I tell my love to wreck it all, Cut out all the ropes and let me fall... Right in the moment this order's tall" --> The singer thinks it should end, but in this moment, the singer also doesn't want that to happen
"And I told you to be patient" etc. --> Seems to me the singer is suggesting that they warned their partner about the fragility of the relationship and that in order for it to work, they needed to be patient, balanced, kind, etc.
"In the morning I'll be with you but it will be a different kind" --> As in, right now they're not ending the relationship, but it's also not going to be the same.
"I'll be holding all the tickets, and you''ll be holding all the fines" --> This is evidence for the partner not being patient, kind, etc., since they seem to have issued "tickets" (like parking tickets but for bad behaviour in a relationship) for which the singer has to pay and make up for
"Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere" --> I take this to mean that the singer is holding on to hope (suckling on hope), even though there isn't much left (the bra is "light", as in, not much to suckle). This all ties in with the "skinny love" - there isn't much there to get love from
"sullen load is full, so slow on the split" --> Suggests that perhaps the singer is carrying resentment, but has still not split up with his partner. This ties in earlier with when the singer was telling his partner to "wreck it all" etc., because it should end
"And now all your love is wasted? And then who the hell was I?" --> The singer seems to be expressing irritation as their partner's love having been "wasted" on them, and wonders what they even meant to their partner
"And now I'm breaking at the britches. And at the end of all your lines" --> Like a puppet, the singer is going through the motions; the singer is being pulled by strings on their clothes by their partner. So it's like the singer's heart is not in it.
"Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind?" --> But if they end, who will they have?
My interpretation: You're in a relationship with someone you started to believe was really in love with you by their actions. Maybe they want to talk to you and see you every day. Maybe they are always going through the motions of being romantic and you're starting to believe this relationship may have real potential and you're starting to develop deep feelings for this person and then you realize one day that they are still in love with their ex and that's the real reason they seemed to rush into a relationship with you and be with you all the time, not because they love you, but because they need you to keep their mind off their ex. You realize that your relationship was just shallow. The other person always wanted you around to keep their mind off their ex but you realize they never really asked questions to learn more about you on a deeper level or really bond with you. It's because they never wanted to, you were just a fill in for their ex, who you are never mattered.
Come on skinny love just last the year Pour a little salt we were never here My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
You kind of wish they would have actually took the time to learn about you as an individual on a deeper level rather than using you as just a physical distraction. Like pouring salt on fields to kill everything as had been done in history, you figure you may as well erase the whole relationship as if it never happened because it was all a lie and they never let their self know you or get attached to you. It was just a waste of your time. They should at least try to know you so it wouldn't be a complete waste of your time. Sink of blood and crushed veneer- it was like being punched in the face, imagine spitting broken bloody veneer teeth fragments into the bathroom sink after being punched in the face.
I tell my love to wreck it all Cut out all the ropes and let me fall My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Right in the moment this order's tall
You tell them that now that you really realize they are just using you to not think of their ex and don't really want to love you, but you're already starting to become attached to them a little, they may as well cut those ties now and go ahead and hurt you already since they plan to drop you eventually. But it is hard because you have started to become attached to them and are afraid of losing someone who would be really good with you if they would just look at you and not in their past.
I told you to be patient I told you to be fine I told you to be balanced I told you to be kind
They seemed to rush into the relationship with you and you tried to make them slow down and get to know you because their method seemed pretty shallow and you felt like you should slow down and get to know each other better but they wouldn't listen.
In the morning I'll be with you But it will be a different kind 'Cause I'll be holding all the tickets And you'll be owning all the fines
Now that you have figured out the truth that they meant to use you as a shallow relationship to keep their mind off their ex, now you see the relationship for what it really is. You trusted them, have them the keys to your car, but they took advantage of your help and got a bunch of fines but the tickets were mailed to you because it was your vehicle, metaphorically. You'll wake up tomorrow seeing them and the relationship differently now that you realize you were just being used. You feel like an idiot standing there holding tickets and knowing you'll end up getting stuck paying for their careless handling of the relationship while they end up just walking away since they never became attached.
Come on skinny love what happened here Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my Sullen load is full, so slow on the split
A baby sucking what's left of the milk which isn't much left. They've taken all you've had left to give, you're feeling emotional and attached to parts of them but they didn't allow themselves to become attached to you so you feel like you're left carrying all the baggage and they leave without giving the relationship a real chance.
I told you to be patient I told you to be fine I told you to be balanced I told you to be kind Now all your love is wasted? Then who the hell was I? Now I'm breaking at the bridges And at the end of all your lines
You tried to get them to slow down and get to know you, they never did They never allowed themselves to really know or love you and wasted all their love on memories of an ex while with you. Who the hell was I? A stand in for the ghost of a memory? You're falling apart just thinking of all the lines of lies they fed you in order to keep you around without ever intending to love you. Their lines filled you up until you began to believe them.
Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind?
Who else is going to love someone who is still thinking of their ex all the time? Someone else? You think your ex will get back with you? Will you try getting back with your ex and just end up fighting? Will the next person you try to date fight to get you to take them seriously and fight against your ex's memory for you? Will you call behind and lose someone really good for you because you're falling behind and living in the past?
Come on skinny love My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
In my opinion it's about a love that is collapsing:
As for the title "Skinny Love" it could be an affectionate term he gave his petite girlfriend, or maybe the fact that their love is wasting away. The love wasting away is probably more likely.
"Come on skinny love just a year, pour a little salt, we were never here" Skinny love implies that the love they once shared is no long wholesome and full of joy and that it is wasting away. Salt has healing substances and was once used for wounds to help speed up the healing process. This suggests that he wants to pour salt on the relationship to keep it going, even just for one more year. The fact that the word 'veneer' is used is symbolic as veneer is the thin layers of wood glued together to form plywood - suggesting that apart they are nothing but together they are strong like plywood. The blood and crushed veneer in a sink is as if a vase was broken in a fit of rage.
'Tell my love to wreck it all, cut out all the ropes and let me fall' This basically is telling us that he wants her to end it as he isn’t strong enough and can’t bring himself to hurt her.
The third stanza is just showing that they blame each other for the deterioration of their relationship. 'I'll be holding all the tickets and you'll be holding all the fines' - this indicates that the one of them feel that they are always in the wrong (This could not be a problem it’s just a problem that can be fixed while the real problem may not be) Stanza four seems like a mixture of memories, stating why they have gone wrong when we once loved each other so much. Just generally questioning where they went wrong. Stanza Five: ‘And now all your love is wasted, and then who the hell was I?’ suggests that this love is wasted so what was the point of falling in love at all.
The last part gives us a glimpse as to WHY it went sour - it seems she led him on, that she wasn't that into him- when he really cared for her. It also seems like he is angry about it and asks ‘who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind’ is if asking, who will love you enough to fight for you? As if no one could fight for her as much as he did. He then states that it’s unlikely she'll find anyone worthwhile, no one will be able to love her for all the stuff she puts her partners through.