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"
When Liberty Valance rode to town
The women folk would hide, they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around
The men would step aside
Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good
From out of the East a stranger came,
A law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the west would need
To tame a troubled land;
Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good
Many a man would face his gun
And many a man would fall,
The man who shot Liberty Valance,
He shot Liberty Valance,
He was the bravest of them all
The love of a girl can make a man
Stay on when he should go, stay on
Just tryin' to build a peaceful live
Where love is free to grow;
But the point of a fun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last
A law book was no good
Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd
Return that fateful night, that night.
When nothing she said could keep her man
From going out to fight
From the moment a girl gets to be full grown
The very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other,
only one returns
Everyone heard two shots ring out,
One shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance,
He shot Liberty Valance,
He was the bravest of them all
The women folk would hide, they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around
The men would step aside
Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good
From out of the East a stranger came,
A law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the west would need
To tame a troubled land;
Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good
Many a man would face his gun
And many a man would fall,
The man who shot Liberty Valance,
He shot Liberty Valance,
He was the bravest of them all
The love of a girl can make a man
Stay on when he should go, stay on
Just tryin' to build a peaceful live
Where love is free to grow;
But the point of a fun was the only law
That Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last
A law book was no good
Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd
Return that fateful night, that night.
When nothing she said could keep her man
From going out to fight
From the moment a girl gets to be full grown
The very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other,
only one returns
Everyone heard two shots ring out,
One shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance,
He shot Liberty Valance,
He was the bravest of them all
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance Lyrics as written by Hal David Burt Bacharach
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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