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"
I had wrists donning slits
Flowing constantly
My broken body in a wreck
I wrapped around a tree
A crosswalk hit and run
The finish line for me
People clutter in the gutter
Take a look and see
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
My blood flows through the streets
Deluge from the wounds
Empty jars of sleeping pills
On the dresser in my room
My wet brain neighbor cranes
His neck to see
In time, the white lights, a train
Bearing down on me
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
I won't feel the hurt
I'm not trash any longer
That that doesn't kill me
Only makes me stronger
I need a ride to the morgue
That's what 911 is for
So, tag my toe and don't forget
Ooh, to close the drawer
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
Flowing constantly
My broken body in a wreck
I wrapped around a tree
A crosswalk hit and run
The finish line for me
People clutter in the gutter
Take a look and see
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
My blood flows through the streets
Deluge from the wounds
Empty jars of sleeping pills
On the dresser in my room
My wet brain neighbor cranes
His neck to see
In time, the white lights, a train
Bearing down on me
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
I won't feel the hurt
I'm not trash any longer
That that doesn't kill me
Only makes me stronger
I need a ride to the morgue
That's what 911 is for
So, tag my toe and don't forget
Ooh, to close the drawer
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
No escaping pain
You belong to me
Clingin' on to life
By the skin o' my teeth
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MTV flipped when they saw the lyrics to 'Skin O'My Teeth' because they thought I was promoting committing suicide. It has taken us a long enough time to get our relationship politically correct with MTV. So I don't want to go out and film a video about a song that they are going to look at and say, 'You're nuts.' and if they say, 'Hey Dave, we're going to play your song, as radical as it is, but you have to go on there and say the song is not about suicide,' I'll say it. 'Hey, this song is not about suicide'. –Dave Mustaine, 1992
That's about people who want to end it and just can't get it together. You know, they cut their wrist; it's just not deep enough. Or they decide to get hit by a car and it just breaks their leg or something. –Mustaine, 1992
so happy
well gumdamjunkie, ur one weird person, but i am here to tell yous all that this song is sbout Dave trying to kill himself but never sucseeding in doing.
Well then, looks like you two have something in common then :)
This is about SongMeanings not to express your fantasies. Get a life.
And it does seem like an attempted suicide song hence he's hanging on by the "skin o' my teeth"
Faust your a fukin dickheads, not everybody loves what you love
Yeah, It's hard to kill yourself when you're high.
The riff reminds me of 2 Minutes to Midnight, partially because it uses the same penatonic minor riffing.
on the video for this at the start he say something like "this is about how times i tried to kill myself but just couldnt get the fuckin' job done, skin o' my teeth!"
FUCKING UNDERRATED!!! This song is easily the best song off of Countdown To Extinction. The solos rule, and it has a kickass riff. It's about Mustaine's numerous failed attempts at suicide.
Mustaine's failed suicide attempts ? Fact checker - OD'd yes but blatant suicide ? Had not heard that
The riff is pretty similar to one of the riffs from The Prince by Diamondhead.
Sorry I meant to post this on Crown of Worms.