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"
Rat in a drain ditch, caught on a limb, you know better but I know him
Like I told you, what I said, steal your face right off your head
Now he's gone, now he's gone, Lord he's gone, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Nine mile skid on a ten mile ride, hot as a pistol but cool inside
Cat on a tin roof, dogs in a pile
Nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile
Now he's gone, now he's gone, Lord he's gone, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Goin' where the wind don't blow so strange
Maybe off on some high cold mountain chain
Lost one round but the price wasn't anything
A knife in the back and more of the same
Same old, rat in a drain ditch, caught on a limb
You know better but I know him
Like I told you, what I said
Steal your face right off your head
He's gone, now he's gone, Lord he's gone, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back (he's gone for good)
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Like I told you, what I said, steal your face right off your head
Now he's gone, now he's gone, Lord he's gone, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Nine mile skid on a ten mile ride, hot as a pistol but cool inside
Cat on a tin roof, dogs in a pile
Nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile
Now he's gone, now he's gone, Lord he's gone, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Goin' where the wind don't blow so strange
Maybe off on some high cold mountain chain
Lost one round but the price wasn't anything
A knife in the back and more of the same
Same old, rat in a drain ditch, caught on a limb
You know better but I know him
Like I told you, what I said
Steal your face right off your head
He's gone, now he's gone, Lord he's gone, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Like a steam locomotive, rollin' down the track
He's gone, he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back, he's gone
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back (he's gone for good)
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Ooh, nothin's gonna bring him back
Lyrics submitted by itsmyownmind, edited by GoAskAlice1963
He's Gone (Live in Veneta, OR, 8/27/72) Lyrics as written by Robert C. Hunter Jerome J. Garcia
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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deffinetly not about jerry, he was still alive. maybe pigpen, but the story about mickey's dad is interesting. id like to assume that someone's wrong about the money thing and this song is more about wantin someone back just to have them back, not just to get money. but that's just cause thats what i think of the song, not cause it could ever be true.
steal your face right off your head....ever think about that in correlation to one of the grateful dead's main logos, the skull? its a faceless head, thats for sure. also, if the story above is true, then it'd be typical for the dead to turn something shitty into something so kool and longlasting. you see those dead head skulls everywhere
yeah it is called the steal your face logo for a reason haha