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"
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Wrap me up in Chanel inside my coffin
Might go to Hell and there ain't no stopping
Might be a sinner and I might be a saint
I'd like to be proud, but somehow I'm ashamed
Sweet little baby in a world full of pain
I gotta be honest, I don't know if I could take it
Everybody's talking, but what's anybody saying?
Mama said if I really want it, then I can change it, yeah
R.I.P. to my youth
If you really listen, then this is to you
Mama, there is only so much I can do
Tough for you to witness but it was for me too
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me (front of me)
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth, yeah
You can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me dream with the stars
Throw me in a box with the oxygen off
You gave me the key then you locked every lock
When I can't breathe, I won't ask you to stop
When I can't breathe, don't call for a cop
I was naive and hopeful and lost
Now I'm aware and driving my thoughts, oh
What do I do? What do I do?
I don't believe it if I don't keep proof
I don't believe it if I don't know you
I don't believe it if it's on the news or on the internet
I need a cigarette
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me
I'm using white lighters to see
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me be with the stars
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Wrap me up in Chanel inside my coffin
Might go to Hell and there ain't no stopping
Might be a sinner and I might be a saint
I'd like to be proud, but somehow I'm ashamed
Sweet little baby in a world full of pain
I gotta be honest, I don't know if I could take it
Everybody's talking, but what's anybody saying?
Mama said if I really want it, then I can change it, yeah
R.I.P. to my youth
If you really listen, then this is to you
Mama, there is only so much I can do
Tough for you to witness but it was for me too
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me (front of me)
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth, yeah
You can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me dream with the stars
Throw me in a box with the oxygen off
You gave me the key then you locked every lock
When I can't breathe, I won't ask you to stop
When I can't breathe, don't call for a cop
I was naive and hopeful and lost
Now I'm aware and driving my thoughts, oh
What do I do? What do I do?
I don't believe it if I don't keep proof
I don't believe it if I don't know you
I don't believe it if it's on the news or on the internet
I need a cigarette
I'm using white lighters to see what's in front of me
I'm using white lighters to see
R.I.P. to my youth
And you could call this the funeral
I'm just telling the truth
And you can play this at my funeral
Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad
I'm in paradise with dad
Close my eyes and then cross my arms
Put me in the dirt, let me be with the stars
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
(Using white lighters to see what's in front of me)
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I have trouble deciding if this song is really about the death of youth as the song title would dictate or if it's about the loss of innocence causing actual suicidal tendencies. I think it might be a combination. He has lost his youth, and this song is the funeral for the loss. With the loss of youth/innocence he has decided that he wants to die.
It starts here: "When I can't breathe, I won't ask you to stop When I can't breathe, don't call for a cop" where you see that he really does want to die.
and then you see: "I was naive and hopeful and lost Now I'm aware and driving my thoughts" where it becomes pretty clear that he has lost his naivete and that has caused him to want to die.
The reason I really don't think it's just a metaphor for the loss of youth/innocence is in the lines: "And you can play this at my funeral Tell my sister don't cry and don't be sad I'm in Paradise with Dad Close my eyes and then cross my arms Put me in the dirt, let me dream with the stars" which clearly dictates a funeral, joining his (presumably) dead father and then being buried.
The other part of this song that I find extremely interesting is the Kurt Cobain references in the video - He goes to pretty great lengths to look like Kurt growing out and dying his hair to his exact shade, the facial hair, even the sunglasses. Some people maintain a myth of many of the major members of the 27 club having white bic lighters with them at their deaths. While this can't be true, the myth is still alive enough that the using white lighters to see could either be just a general wish for bad luck/death to great him or it could be a reference to the idea of wanting to join the club combined with the Cobain references.
There are some parts of the song - like his mother needing to worship him and him not believing if he doesn't keep proof that don't have an obvious correlation with this interpretation but I think that the rest of the song really explains it all.
I think this is about teenage/unwanted pregnancy and how it can " kill your youth"
"I'd like to be proud, but somehow I'm ashamed Sweet little baby in a world full of pain"
He'll like to be proud but he just cant because it wasnt planed and he didnt want it Sweet little baby about to be born
Could be about a young person Dying out of lack of love. Directed towards the mother . Lot of anger in the song. I might as well be dead who cares anyway:(( . People do die of lack of love .