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"
Mama she has taught me well
Told me when I was young
Son your life's an open book
Don't close it 'fore its done
The brightest flame burns quickest
That's what I heard her say
A son's heart's owed to mother
But I must find my way
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still
Yeah, still
Rebel, my new last name
Wild blood in my veins
Apron strings around my neck
The mark that still remains
Left home at an early age
Of what I heard was wrong
I never asked forgiveness
But what is said is done
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
So let this heart be still
Mama, now I'm coming home
I'm not all you wished of me
A mother's love for her son
Unspoken, and maybe
Yeah, I took your love for granted
And all the things you said to me
I need your arms to welcome me
But, a cold stone's all I see
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still
Let my heart go
Mama, let my heart go
You never let my heart go
So let this heart be still
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
So let this heart be still
Told me when I was young
Son your life's an open book
Don't close it 'fore its done
The brightest flame burns quickest
That's what I heard her say
A son's heart's owed to mother
But I must find my way
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still
Yeah, still
Rebel, my new last name
Wild blood in my veins
Apron strings around my neck
The mark that still remains
Left home at an early age
Of what I heard was wrong
I never asked forgiveness
But what is said is done
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
So let this heart be still
Mama, now I'm coming home
I'm not all you wished of me
A mother's love for her son
Unspoken, and maybe
Yeah, I took your love for granted
And all the things you said to me
I need your arms to welcome me
But, a cold stone's all I see
Let my heart go
Let your son grow
Mama, let my heart go
Or let this heart be still
Let my heart go
Mama, let my heart go
You never let my heart go
So let this heart be still
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
Never I ask of you
But never I gave
But you gave me your emptiness that I'll take to my grave
So let this heart be still
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
To me, personally, this song respresents a meaningful interpretation of a son who is trying to leave home because his mother is just not giving him the kind of love and understanding he needs and he is torn, because he loves his mother even though he never showed it to her but neither did she to him. She is trying to cause him guilt for leaving and is trying to use her so-called love (apron strings around his neck), which she was empty of in the first place, to keep him home. And now that he has finally decided to leave, he is heartbroken because, even though he knows its for his own good, his mother wouldnt let him go for her own selfish need of trying to fulfill her emotional emptyness through him, which she was never satisfied with in the first place even when he showed his love to her.
Whoa, I took this to a whole new level didnt I, lol.
<br /> Sure did, but no one else actually explained themselves properly/consistently. ; )<br /> <br /> Psychology major ?<br /> <br /> This song sounds incredibly good like other classics, fade to black, nothing else matters. Deep down these Metal gods are softies/human, very in touch with their emotions, nothing wrong with that. This song is so country though...<br /> could have done without the slide guitar, country signature sound.<br /> <br /> Very brave man James is for writing something so honest. That the love he didn't receive from his mother caused the rebellion in him.
I kind agree with you a I had a different interpretation as well
Nice one :D<br /> <br /> I've heard it called "covert incest"<br /> <br /> Often occurs with marital breakdown -the parent looks to the child to fulfil the parent's needs (that they aren't getting from their partner).<br /> <br /> Favourite line:<br /> <br /> "I need your arms to welcome me<br /> but a cold stone's all I see."