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"
He played the game but he failed the test
but he remembers the way of her hair and the shape of her breast
he'll tell the world about it now in a traveling show
like some kind of circus
like some kind of circus
like a monkey in a zoo
more dead than alive
Total abandon - that far away look
where nothing seems to matter and nothing seems to cook
but you know her, you love her; you gotta live without her
he said I can't live without her
she said too bad about that and left with the undertaker
now he just sits at the piano
singing I'll never grow up
I'll never grow up
more dead than alive
He said what a babe
you oughta see her
I got a picture
and he whipped out his wallet
he got a pathetic collage photo of himself in a fashion mall
really sad - really sad
more dead than alive
Well I climbed up a mountain and I dug myself a grave
don't you ever get tired telling me to behave
and the wild wind well it's my slave
takes me wherever I'd wanna go
but it always blows me back again
well the wild wind it's my friend
it always blows me back again
it was if my skull was bare
and naked without a thought to share
till blew one night this wild wind
and knocked me back alive again
and if I told you this was for real
that I had been living against my will
would you laugh and laugh and say
he's not being real that way
more dead than alive
pulled up a coffin and I stepped in
I turned on the radio and the record on the radio kept skippin, skippin
I said I pulled up a coffin
I pulled up a coffin
I pulled up a coffin
I walked up to this psychological man
I said I got this problem about this coffin
he said here's some cough drops
I said please don't make such dumb jokes
this is art - or is it art or is it smart
or is it just my heart
more dead than alive
Little girl when all my tears have dried
little girl when everything was going great
time to call up the in-crowd
undead white zombie
more dead than alive
Well he played that game but he failed the test
be he remembers he remembers the way of her hair and the shape of her breast
and he'll tell the world about it now in a traveling show
like some kind of circus
like some kind of circus
like some kind of circus
more dead than alive
but he remembers the way of her hair and the shape of her breast
he'll tell the world about it now in a traveling show
like some kind of circus
like some kind of circus
like a monkey in a zoo
more dead than alive
Total abandon - that far away look
where nothing seems to matter and nothing seems to cook
but you know her, you love her; you gotta live without her
he said I can't live without her
she said too bad about that and left with the undertaker
now he just sits at the piano
singing I'll never grow up
I'll never grow up
more dead than alive
He said what a babe
you oughta see her
I got a picture
and he whipped out his wallet
he got a pathetic collage photo of himself in a fashion mall
really sad - really sad
more dead than alive
Well I climbed up a mountain and I dug myself a grave
don't you ever get tired telling me to behave
and the wild wind well it's my slave
takes me wherever I'd wanna go
but it always blows me back again
well the wild wind it's my friend
it always blows me back again
it was if my skull was bare
and naked without a thought to share
till blew one night this wild wind
and knocked me back alive again
and if I told you this was for real
that I had been living against my will
would you laugh and laugh and say
he's not being real that way
more dead than alive
pulled up a coffin and I stepped in
I turned on the radio and the record on the radio kept skippin, skippin
I said I pulled up a coffin
I pulled up a coffin
I pulled up a coffin
I walked up to this psychological man
I said I got this problem about this coffin
he said here's some cough drops
I said please don't make such dumb jokes
this is art - or is it art or is it smart
or is it just my heart
more dead than alive
Little girl when all my tears have dried
little girl when everything was going great
time to call up the in-crowd
undead white zombie
more dead than alive
Well he played that game but he failed the test
be he remembers he remembers the way of her hair and the shape of her breast
and he'll tell the world about it now in a traveling show
like some kind of circus
like some kind of circus
like some kind of circus
more dead than alive
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
More Dead Than Alive Lyrics as written by Daniel Johnston
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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