Varsity

Love this song! I used to only really hone in on the chorus. What is it - obviously a guy who's alone, or two separated lovers, either way - alone, and it's hard.

But then I really started to get the verse. The guy is lonely and looking for someone or something to fill that hole. He's interested in the superficial - slow down, stranger, there are two kinds of good. He's more interested in conquering the girl for his own purposes, rather than actually loving the girl for who she is. Stranger she calls him, they don't even really know each other! One good - superficial pleasure/puppy love; the other good, the Supreme good, unconditional Love. Slow down, stranger - this second kind of love requires patience!

I always had to win. Or I wasn't anything. It's not enough just to be with a person and appreciate him or her for who he or she is. I have to win. I have to conquer this person, be with this person. Otherwise I'm nothing. If she doesn't love me as a lover, it must be that I'm worth nothing. Throw friendship and anything else aside. That's not valuable to me.

Guess it's a point of view? He has doubts, maybe it's not really that way, maybe this is just the portrait I'm painting in mind. In fact I think he knows this.

Then the chorus. I think the guy gets it - he's barking up the wrong tree looking for Love. Supreme Love. The second kind of good. But that doesn't change the fact that he's lonely. Everybody wants somebody. Everybody needs somebody. Everybody deserves somebody. Yes unconditional Love is what we're after, we know that, but I still long for somebody to hold and to be held, right here, right now. Count the days, count the nights, but don't get by.

And I ain't hangin on to you. Hmm. Never understood what he was saying til I read this. In one sense, perhaps he means it - I'd love somebody to hold, but I'm not hanging on to you, I'm going to live my life and get on with it. But also in the ironic sense - he pours his heart out, but then claims he ain't hangin on to you. Seems like a contradiction. Take it which way you want. :)

This is my interpretation, as it very much relates to my life right now. Beautiful song with a wonderful mix of emotions. Captures the essence of life in a way. Ha!

Take care all.

I think it's about a guy finally getting into the dating life for the first time, also a couple of the lyrics are wrong here. The actual first lyric is "Thought I was a loner, til I went out on my own" which implies that he really felt okay being by himself for some time. The girl doesn't literally tell him to slow down but rather her presence is what changes his outlook.

"Thought I always had to win, or I wasn't anything" This part is talking about how he never tried to find anything because failure at any stage would make him feel like he wasn't worth anything. And he follows up by saying it was just a point of view and didn't really mean anything.

"Born in December but there's nothing 'bout her cold"- Nice descriptive line about how she makes him feel "Gave it something more than anger, in my heart to hold"- Admits that his lack of a love life made him bitter and now she's replacing that with something else

The chorus is pretty self explanatory, he's just stating that he felt extremely lonely when he was alone.

"Safety came in numbers, but all I needed was just one, You're a four-leaf clover, You're an only kind of one"- He's talking about how all of these other people are just going around fucking as many people as they can like it's a numbers game and implying that that's "safe" because there's no emotional attachment for that, but how he prefers the one that he has and how her uniqueness makes her worth it.

The bridge and chorus play again and the final line is actually "And are you hanging onto me?" like the song is his confession about his feeling the girl he's speaking of and he's asking her if she feels the same about him.

I don't know, maybe I'm projecting a bit with the interpretation but I am 100% sure about the changed lyrics in this one. Very clear if you listen to the song.