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'm on my time with everyone
I have very bad posture
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty
Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld
So I can sigh eternally
I'm so tired I can't sleep
I'm a liar and a thief
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty
I'm on warm milk and laxatives
Cherry-flavored antacids
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty
I have very bad posture
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty
Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld
So I can sigh eternally
I'm so tired I can't sleep
I'm a liar and a thief
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty
I'm on warm milk and laxatives
Cherry-flavored antacids
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
Distill the life that's inside of me
Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea
I'm anemic royalty
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I think it's a very clever play on words. Its references to his recurring stomach problems are obvious, but there are deeper meanings.
The line "Distill the life that's inside of me" can mean a LOT of different things. If you understand the word distill, it means to purify and strenghten (such as distilled water, or wine distilled into brandy). That line CAN signify that he is becoming more purely and clearly himself - a depressing notion, because he obviously doesn't like who he is becoming.
Then there's the abortion aspect. Personally, I don't take this one literally either. He is referring to suicide, as if foretelling it, a theme occurring in many of his songs and inferred from his contact with the press. He is not aborting a fetus; he is little more than a fetus, and feels helpless to control his environment, emotions, even his actions.
"I'm anemic royalty" probably refers to an insecurity or deep-rooted belief that he is much less than his Holy Icon in the public mind makes him out to be. And the wordplay on the antiquated term "penny royalty" seems to reinforce this - he is a worthless figurehead, more powerful as a symbol than as a man.
This is just my take on the song, and maybe a little over-analyzed, but I can't believe this is simply a song about stomach pains.
@HighPrisstess I agree with a lot of what your saying but its worth noting that this song was written in 1990 before kurt was famous so he couldn't have seen himself then as an icon
@HighPrisstess -<br /> <br /> The song, purification, the abortion angle, etc:<br /> <br /> You're on the nail with most of your insights. I wonder if since 2003 you've come to put all your observations together.<br /> "Sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea<br /> Distill the life that's inside of me"<br /> By now- that is if your affection for Nirvana perpetuated- you know that Kurt had scoliosis as a child, hence his bad posture. The life he was trying to distill was not only all he had become but all he had ever been. By performing some sort of magical thinking self-abortion he yearns to start all over again, no more pain, no more guilt, no more mistakes, just a clean slate and a fresh start.<br /> It's deceptively simple to the ear, even kind of clumsy sounding at time, but in my opinion "Pennyroyal Tea" represents one of Kurt's finest set of lyrics.<br />
@HighPrisstess That is a really good overall perspective. I believe this was written before he was in a relationship with Courtney Love, however. The tea part makes sense. You really put that in perspective. It is hard for me to find favorite songs for Nirvana - I like so many, but this one is one of those certain songs. Heart-shaped Box as well. Those two.
@HighPrisstess Again he was a great song writter, it means a lot of things, not all dark, far from it. A lot of jokes and making fun of fame....Very Punk!!<br />