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"
Jimmy Sparks went into bars and opened up his mouth
Said some things to wounded men they could not allow
When it came to talking, he was always on the run
Everyone knew what the man had done
Ooh he'll take you for a ride
Jimmy believed in the American way
A prison guard, he worked hard and made the minimum wage
He found his freedom like a man in a cage ooh
Jimmy loved Bonnie and he fathered a kid
A baby boy but the mother had other reasons to live
She left the baby with a note on the bed ooh
It was a struggle just to cover the rent
His jail cut hours and hours little baby was sick
He needed money and he needed it quick, it was 3AM
Oh my love, oh my love
Could you spare my blood, spare my blood
Jim woke his son and buckled him in the car
They drove an hour from town and found a gambling hall
The waitress babysat the boy at the bar, oh no
After an hour Jimmy doubled his cash
He took his kid and his winnings as the dealer just laughed
He said they leave and then they always come back that's a fact
Out on the road they caught a stranger in the lights
His thumb was up and his son asked if the man was alright
Jim said you never give a hitcher a ride 'cause its us or them
It was 3AM
Oh my love, oh my love
Could you spare my blood, spare my blood
Twenty years gone and now the boy is a man
Broke Jimmy's habits got in mountains and mountains of debt
And now the sharks are coming back to collect oh oh
They stripped his jewelry and the boots of Jim's feet
They kick him out the car and said we'll give you a week
8 miles from home and only 18 degrees it was 3AM
Oh my love, oh my love
Could you spare my blood, damn my blood
Now Jimmy's son is trying to make his way home
His graveyard shift ended and it was starting to snow
He sees an old man walking barefoot alone, it was 3AM
His old man waved his hands with tears in his eyes
But Jimmy's son just sped up and remembered daddy's advice
No you don't ever give a hitcher a ride
'Cause it's us or them
'Cause it's me or him
It was 3AM
3AM
Said some things to wounded men they could not allow
When it came to talking, he was always on the run
Everyone knew what the man had done
Ooh he'll take you for a ride
Jimmy believed in the American way
A prison guard, he worked hard and made the minimum wage
He found his freedom like a man in a cage ooh
Jimmy loved Bonnie and he fathered a kid
A baby boy but the mother had other reasons to live
She left the baby with a note on the bed ooh
It was a struggle just to cover the rent
His jail cut hours and hours little baby was sick
He needed money and he needed it quick, it was 3AM
Oh my love, oh my love
Could you spare my blood, spare my blood
Jim woke his son and buckled him in the car
They drove an hour from town and found a gambling hall
The waitress babysat the boy at the bar, oh no
After an hour Jimmy doubled his cash
He took his kid and his winnings as the dealer just laughed
He said they leave and then they always come back that's a fact
Out on the road they caught a stranger in the lights
His thumb was up and his son asked if the man was alright
Jim said you never give a hitcher a ride 'cause its us or them
It was 3AM
Oh my love, oh my love
Could you spare my blood, spare my blood
Twenty years gone and now the boy is a man
Broke Jimmy's habits got in mountains and mountains of debt
And now the sharks are coming back to collect oh oh
They stripped his jewelry and the boots of Jim's feet
They kick him out the car and said we'll give you a week
8 miles from home and only 18 degrees it was 3AM
Oh my love, oh my love
Could you spare my blood, damn my blood
Now Jimmy's son is trying to make his way home
His graveyard shift ended and it was starting to snow
He sees an old man walking barefoot alone, it was 3AM
His old man waved his hands with tears in his eyes
But Jimmy's son just sped up and remembered daddy's advice
No you don't ever give a hitcher a ride
'Cause it's us or them
'Cause it's me or him
It was 3AM
3AM
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
Jimmy Sparks Lyrics as written by Jeremiah Fraites Wesley Schultz
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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My question is this:
Does he recognize his father at the end and choose to not help him, or does he just see this dishevelled stranger as just another hitcher?