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"
This rock of ours is just some big mistake
And we will never know just where we go
Or where we have came from
These veins of mine are now some sort of fuse
And when they light up and my mind blows up
My heart is amused so
This heart of mine is just some sort of map
That doesn't care at all or worry about where the hell you're at
But you're right there
Well, I've been meaning to dismiss you
Yeah I have some plans to dismiss you
So stand by, by, by, by, bye-bye
Wave bye, sugar boats!
As soon as you paint every last grain of sand
As you soon as you paint every star
In the sky, sky, sky, sky, sky, sky
Wave bye, sugar boats!
Well, I'm swatting at mosquitoes as they're orbiting me
I'm orbiting the sun and this goes on and on and on, you see
This heart of mine is just some broke machine
And when it gets a-goin', and it often gets goin'
It starts blowin' steam
Here we go again!
This rock of ours is just some big mistake
And we will never know just where we go
Or where we have came from
This watch of mine is like some sort of void
Cause when I look in, and I shouldn't look in
I, I see it swallow my time
Oh no, there it goes!
I ain't getting on no fast plane
Hell, I ain't getting on no stuffy train
Sugar boats on the Atlantic are fine
The sugar boats, they're just fine
I'll stand on the deck so you could see
I'll stand on the deck you could wave bye, bye, bye, bye
Here's the ghost that goes and waves bye, bye, bye, bye
I'm the ghost that goes and waves bye, bye, bye
And we will never know just where we go
Or where we have came from
These veins of mine are now some sort of fuse
And when they light up and my mind blows up
My heart is amused so
This heart of mine is just some sort of map
That doesn't care at all or worry about where the hell you're at
But you're right there
Well, I've been meaning to dismiss you
Yeah I have some plans to dismiss you
So stand by, by, by, by, bye-bye
Wave bye, sugar boats!
As soon as you paint every last grain of sand
As you soon as you paint every star
In the sky, sky, sky, sky, sky, sky
Wave bye, sugar boats!
Well, I'm swatting at mosquitoes as they're orbiting me
I'm orbiting the sun and this goes on and on and on, you see
This heart of mine is just some broke machine
And when it gets a-goin', and it often gets goin'
It starts blowin' steam
Here we go again!
This rock of ours is just some big mistake
And we will never know just where we go
Or where we have came from
This watch of mine is like some sort of void
Cause when I look in, and I shouldn't look in
I, I see it swallow my time
Oh no, there it goes!
I ain't getting on no fast plane
Hell, I ain't getting on no stuffy train
Sugar boats on the Atlantic are fine
The sugar boats, they're just fine
I'll stand on the deck so you could see
I'll stand on the deck you could wave bye, bye, bye, bye
Here's the ghost that goes and waves bye, bye, bye, bye
I'm the ghost that goes and waves bye, bye, bye
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher, edited by ke1kun, Passenger146, McWeird007
Sugar Boats Lyrics as written by Eric Judy Isaac Brock
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Sentric Music
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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@joel101542 I agree, not trying to start any kind of war here. I appreciate the discussion and apologize ahead of time if I sound too argumentative. Just having a fun conversation about a band I love. Saw them twice this summer with my wife and both shows were amazing.
Also sorry about responding from a different username, couldn't remember my password last night :(
Anyway, yes, I agree, Modest Mouse lyrics are deep and I think that there is more to Sugar Boats than just drugs. However, one thing I've noticed about Brock is that he repeats concepts and metaphors across his different songs and albums. I struggle to think of a good example right now, but he does repeat himself. So when he says, "Sugar boats on the Atlantic," there's a VERY good chance that the Atlantic refers to his blood when you think about the song "3rd Planet."
And when your veins light up and your mind blows up and your heart is amused... that's pretty obvious what's going on to me. I'm not saying he's glorifying drug use, that's DEFINITELY not his way. But I do think he's making a comment about getting really high and temporarily dropping off the radar of all the bullshit that can be too much to deal with, the complicated relationships that he refers to when he mentions his heart being a map and a broke machine, the daily existential crises he alludes to when he talks about this rock of ours and this watch of his. Ride a Sugar Boat across the Atlantic and, in a ghostly manner, wave BYE BYE to ALL that shit.