You Don't Like Me

My take on this song:

The narrator is a guy with low self esteem, he sees/kind-of-knows a woman. He may only know her from social media/Facebook, yet he is intrigued anyway. She is his "crush".

His self-esteem is so low that he never bothers speaking to her, because he figures she will never like him.

The laundry list of her "likes" fits in beautifully with Facebook.

The following can be gleaned from Facebook: Bollywood, snow machines, daguerreotypes, Beauty contests, Terminator II, and William Tell, Woody Harrelson, and Nirvana

The following can be gleaned from observation/interaction: cigarettes, swimming laps, potato chips, cruise control, booster rockets, cutting with a fork, the morning, William Tell, shadow puppets, Reading in the bath, baseball caps.

It's a weird, beautiful song, and this is why I'm a Super Fan of TMBG. So beautiful.

I find this song very relatable as someone with social anxiety. The narrator wishes they could reach out and form a connection with someone (not necessarily a romantic one -- I read "friend" as being literal here), but they've already convinced themselves that it's impossible.

"I know what you're thinking / I can read your mind" There's no point trying to talk to you, I can already tell you're not gonna like me.

"I can see the future / Like it's in the past / You will never be my friend / You don't like me" I already know how it'll end if I try talking to you, so why bother?

"You can hear me talking / Right up till I stop / When I do I'm gone to you / But you are always there" I'm just a background character in your life; you surely don't even notice I'm there when I'm not speaking. But you're always there from my point of view.

"I can hear the friendly words of advice that I'd be offered / If I had a friend to offer me advice" I don't have any friends to ask for advice, but that really doesn't matter. I already know what they'd tell me, I don't need to hear it from somebody else, and it wouldn't be any help anyway.