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"
Straight from twelfth grade into junior college
Buddy buddy buddy I passed my exam
Makin' me a law enforcement person
Got me a gun and a badge, I'm a man
Radar gun
Radar gun
Forty three from where I was sitting
Thirty miles an hour is the law of our land
Please remove your license, find your registration
And what is the name of your insurance plan?
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
You know our sheriff, William Buchberger
Says our mayor's got a master plan
A new pulse gun means a cost o' livin'
And one of them stop lights down on grand
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
Schedule 19 on a special election
Got our money problems right in hand
Droppin' them limits like a hot potato
Fifty down to thirty oh, man, oh, man!
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
Brand new shiny Simmons radar gun
Me and my partner go patrol car cruisin'
On the parking lots at the shopping malls
Scanning those dashes, those mirrors and visors
The little detectors that ruin it all
Johnny caught one on an '86 t-bird
Pull up slow just as close as I can
Milliwatt-seconds on maximum output
We'll dust that puppy with one small blast of my
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
Buddy buddy buddy I passed my exam
Makin' me a law enforcement person
Got me a gun and a badge, I'm a man
Radar gun
Radar gun
Forty three from where I was sitting
Thirty miles an hour is the law of our land
Please remove your license, find your registration
And what is the name of your insurance plan?
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
You know our sheriff, William Buchberger
Says our mayor's got a master plan
A new pulse gun means a cost o' livin'
And one of them stop lights down on grand
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
Schedule 19 on a special election
Got our money problems right in hand
Droppin' them limits like a hot potato
Fifty down to thirty oh, man, oh, man!
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
Brand new shiny Simmons radar gun
Me and my partner go patrol car cruisin'
On the parking lots at the shopping malls
Scanning those dashes, those mirrors and visors
The little detectors that ruin it all
Johnny caught one on an '86 t-bird
Pull up slow just as close as I can
Milliwatt-seconds on maximum output
We'll dust that puppy with one small blast of my
Radar gun
Radar gun
I'm making money and I'm havin' fun
With my radar gun
Radar gun
With my brand new radar gun
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Radar Gun Lyrics as written by R. Parr
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.