In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Changing strings,
And banging on things
A couple of girls from the school
Would listen to KISS
(With rockets for fists)
Acting like saturdays fool
Learned how to smoke,
Told dirty jokes
Talked about loose girls from Rome
I made out with most of them
So I raised a toast to them
Especially now that I'm (old)
And they're 45 with husbands who don't like their wives
3 or 4 kids, make enough to survive
In their paper mill jobs
While their teen heartthrobs
Are playing in bands
Or they're dead
Can I go back to when
I was the winner
Way before the rain came
And washed away the sinners
Everyone was something and
Nothing was done right or wrong
Smothering the cover of a '69 summer
Played through a speaker of fuzz
Nobody knew Bryan Adams wasn't cool
The TV just told me he was
Always heard the sound get me out of this town
Resonating clear on my head
Chuck ran away with our gear and the drugs
I'm pretty sure that he's dead
Or he's 46 and alone,
Cast the heaviest stone,
Suburban cover band playing bad to the bone
In a bath tub of meth
You can smell your own death
you know when you can't look the past in the eye
Can I just go back to when
I was the winner
Way before the rain came
And washed away the sinners
Everyone was something
(And I could never do any wrong)
Went back to the woods
Where I hid all my goods
In a rusted out cadillac door
we all get nostalgic
And fall for the hat trick
Of thinking it'll be like before
Like the football jocks
Trying to please their pops
And the stoners aping everything their bad uncles taught
And the teachers who cared
More than I ever knew,
And knew I played clubs
Let me sleep through school
And my day job boss
Who wrote it up as a loss
But let me leave when i wanted and I never got caught
Sleeping out on the field
In the back of my truck
Breaking into the bars
Steal the beer and getting fucked
By a girl twice my age, making minimum wage
But the tan lines were good
And she had a good face
Is this what I've become
Is this all I've become
When do I become,
I want to go back to when
I was the winner
Way before the rain came
And washed away the sinners
Everyone was someone and
And I could never do any wrong
And banging on things
A couple of girls from the school
Would listen to KISS
(With rockets for fists)
Acting like saturdays fool
Learned how to smoke,
Told dirty jokes
Talked about loose girls from Rome
I made out with most of them
So I raised a toast to them
Especially now that I'm (old)
And they're 45 with husbands who don't like their wives
3 or 4 kids, make enough to survive
In their paper mill jobs
While their teen heartthrobs
Are playing in bands
Or they're dead
Can I go back to when
I was the winner
Way before the rain came
And washed away the sinners
Everyone was something and
Nothing was done right or wrong
Smothering the cover of a '69 summer
Played through a speaker of fuzz
Nobody knew Bryan Adams wasn't cool
The TV just told me he was
Always heard the sound get me out of this town
Resonating clear on my head
Chuck ran away with our gear and the drugs
I'm pretty sure that he's dead
Or he's 46 and alone,
Cast the heaviest stone,
Suburban cover band playing bad to the bone
In a bath tub of meth
You can smell your own death
you know when you can't look the past in the eye
Can I just go back to when
I was the winner
Way before the rain came
And washed away the sinners
Everyone was something
(And I could never do any wrong)
Went back to the woods
Where I hid all my goods
In a rusted out cadillac door
we all get nostalgic
And fall for the hat trick
Of thinking it'll be like before
Like the football jocks
Trying to please their pops
And the stoners aping everything their bad uncles taught
And the teachers who cared
More than I ever knew,
And knew I played clubs
Let me sleep through school
And my day job boss
Who wrote it up as a loss
But let me leave when i wanted and I never got caught
Sleeping out on the field
In the back of my truck
Breaking into the bars
Steal the beer and getting fucked
By a girl twice my age, making minimum wage
But the tan lines were good
And she had a good face
Is this what I've become
Is this all I've become
When do I become,
I want to go back to when
I was the winner
Way before the rain came
And washed away the sinners
Everyone was someone and
And I could never do any wrong
Lyrics submitted by theblackdove
Summer of '89 Lyrics as written by Butch Walker
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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