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 can hear them
Speakin' in the next room
As they drink and start losin' control and get louder
They lose control and get louder
They wonder about me
I can hear her twirling the ice with her fingers
She's got that half-dead look in her eyes by now
She worries about me
He's not like the
The other boys around here
He's says nothing and sits in his room
And he's afraid to
And he's afraid to drive a car
So sad he is
And he's afraid to drive a car
So sad he is
It's our duty as we're respected
It's our duty as Californians
To show a new life
To show a new life
Ever since my staying I
I've been having bad dreams
So stop eating cabbage
And stop talking to that girl
What are the winters like here?
Hush up and play the piano
But have I told you how I love her?
Yes, but you are Aquarius and she is Capricorn
Come come now
And meet your cousins from L.A.
Shut up and leave me alone
We know who you are
I read your palm while you were sleeping
And I read though your diary
And the secrets you've been keeping
We're already aware of
And I pretended [Incomprehensible]
Have a drink and talk this over
And in the meantime, please
Think of the good things that we've done for you
It's our duty and we're expected
It's our duty as Californians
To show a new life
To show a new life
It's our duty and we're expected
It's our duty as Californians
To show a new life
To show a new life
Speakin' in the next room
As they drink and start losin' control and get louder
They lose control and get louder
They wonder about me
I can hear her twirling the ice with her fingers
She's got that half-dead look in her eyes by now
She worries about me
He's not like the
The other boys around here
He's says nothing and sits in his room
And he's afraid to
And he's afraid to drive a car
So sad he is
And he's afraid to drive a car
So sad he is
It's our duty as we're respected
It's our duty as Californians
To show a new life
To show a new life
Ever since my staying I
I've been having bad dreams
So stop eating cabbage
And stop talking to that girl
What are the winters like here?
Hush up and play the piano
But have I told you how I love her?
Yes, but you are Aquarius and she is Capricorn
Come come now
And meet your cousins from L.A.
Shut up and leave me alone
We know who you are
I read your palm while you were sleeping
And I read though your diary
And the secrets you've been keeping
We're already aware of
And I pretended [Incomprehensible]
Have a drink and talk this over
And in the meantime, please
Think of the good things that we've done for you
It's our duty and we're expected
It's our duty as Californians
To show a new life
To show a new life
It's our duty and we're expected
It's our duty as Californians
To show a new life
To show a new life
Lyrics submitted by ThreeMilesDown
Strawberry Hill Lyrics as written by Mark Edward Kozelek
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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What pilot said is right, but I thought I would add that it is based around the time that Kozelek moved from Georgia to California to stay with relatives. I believe he had just completed rehab as a teenager and was still somewhat of a "misfit" so he went there for a change of scenery, a new life. We can infer from the song that his relatives worried about his insular nature and felt it was their duty as Californians to make him happy about life.
A fascinating song. I have a hard time saying anything by Kozelek is my "favorite," as the man has written too many amazing songs to pick. But yet I've gotta say this is at least ONE of my favorites of his.
it's a very personal song by Kozelek. He describes what happpens to him when he was younger, the hypocrisy of the people around him, they don't understand why he is different and they don't respect him at all.
my favorite song :]