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"
Now, Tommy's a good father
Two sons and a daughter
But he wakes up and he asks himself:
"Why even bother?"
If he cannot feed his family
The wage he's paid's insanity
Every day he's dealing with a new calamity
Lost his old occupation
But it wasn't immigration
It was a machine, automation that replaced him
Politicians left him, corruption since the recession
So he grabs his Smith and Wesson, says he'll teach 'em all the lesson like:
"Get down on the ground!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!"
Now first he'd lost his pension
Sunk into depression
Congress is defecting
It's been adding to the tension
Came back from war, and he's been post-traumatic stressing
Can't afford his medicine he took for his aggression
He needs help, relying on this system that rejects him
Took away his benefits, but left him with his weapon
Bought a one way ticket
He's entering the thicket
To do the only thing that he's thinking will make a difference like:
"Get down on the ground!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!"
There's a cold wind blowing
I'm just warning and preparing ya
There's a cold wind blowing
And it's coming for America
And it's coming for America
And it's coming for America
"Get down on the ground!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!"
Two sons and a daughter
But he wakes up and he asks himself:
"Why even bother?"
If he cannot feed his family
The wage he's paid's insanity
Every day he's dealing with a new calamity
Lost his old occupation
But it wasn't immigration
It was a machine, automation that replaced him
Politicians left him, corruption since the recession
So he grabs his Smith and Wesson, says he'll teach 'em all the lesson like:
"Get down on the ground!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!"
Now first he'd lost his pension
Sunk into depression
Congress is defecting
It's been adding to the tension
Came back from war, and he's been post-traumatic stressing
Can't afford his medicine he took for his aggression
He needs help, relying on this system that rejects him
Took away his benefits, but left him with his weapon
Bought a one way ticket
He's entering the thicket
To do the only thing that he's thinking will make a difference like:
"Get down on the ground!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!"
There's a cold wind blowing
I'm just warning and preparing ya
There's a cold wind blowing
And it's coming for America
And it's coming for America
And it's coming for America
"Get down on the ground!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!
It's a stick up! Nobody make a sound!
Don't even hiccup, or I'm emptying a round!
I'm done playing games, so I'm going down in flames!
Let it rain over Washington!"
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I feel like there is quite a clear cut meaning to this song, more than any theories because he paints a picture with the lyrics that is so easy to follow. A soldier returns home from combat, is heavily traumatised, placed on many medications and struggling to get by. While he has found work, he’s paid very little and something different seems to go wrong. The government play the biggest factor because Tommy should be getting financial aid from them but they keep deflecting and he has to dip into his retirement fund which he loses all of (first he lost his pension). The only way for Tommy to make his voice heard and leave an impression on the congresspeople, is by committing a mass shooting on a parliament building which will at the end, include himself (I’m done playing games, so I’m going down in flames, let it rain over Washington).