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"
And if it was just how you wanted
You'd be glued to his bones and his brain stem
And changing your image and attitudes
Won't bring you back into your bedroom
Amputating as he's waiting
He's unresponsive 'cause you're irresponsible
Little swinger your bottle is thinking too much
'Cause you're aiming to please way off target
And I'll tell you what you must already know
Of amputating that too slow
You'd be glued to his bones and his brain stem
And changing your image and attitudes
Won't bring you back into your bedroom
Amputating as he's waiting
He's unresponsive 'cause you're irresponsible
Little swinger your bottle is thinking too much
'Cause you're aiming to please way off target
And I'll tell you what you must already know
Of amputating that too slow
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by merckens
Amputations Lyrics as written by Benjamin Gibbard
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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ok i think i have it transcripted:
"i pray to god, that one day he'll give me power to reach out my hand [to all of you] and give you instant relief...but you dont have instant relief...you've been hooked, you've been croooked, you've been lied to so many times, you're suspicious, mind you, and when the right thing comes along you dont' know its there...when i'm here knocking on the front door, you're out the back door looking for four leaf clovers, and when you find it you think someone is playing you [for a] dirty fool...what's the angle?...you look for an excuse...in this modern day in age we have instant coffee, instant tea, and instant disbelief...that's the reason we never become anything, its because we'll never believe in ourselves, we'll always listen to the mass majority....when everybody's making fun of you and criticizing, you know you're on the right track, cos most of the people ain't got it....."
i'd love to know WHO is doing the talking there...for awhile i thought it was jimmy carter but after listening to his memoirs on tape (long car ride with mother...) i don't anymore. just a thought. i thought it was in the liner notes but my case is in storage...
a lot of the lyrics on this cd are sort of cryptic, and i know that ben usually/sometimes writes fiction for lyrics and also writes in a lot of metaphors...but i guess this song is a sort of "get over him" song (certainly pertains to my recent life) about this person going to some great lengths (glueing to bones and brainstem...classic) to try to win this guy back, and i think that the recorded sampleis being used by the "I" in this song to say to the "you" that he's really the right person for her, and he only wishes he could give her the confidence to see herself without this other person that she's trying to get back with... he wishes he could get the her to see this, stick up for herself, realize that becoming the what she thinks the "ex-type person" wants isnt going to get her anywhere, etc, and go with him...i think that fake frowns is an extension of this same relationship situation, where it all sort of falls apart (same three characters, he's now proposed to drive his point home, doesn't work, she flees, etc)...makes a creat crecendo for the album...i love these two songs, fake frowns sort of more, but the use of the recorded sample as a bridge is a pretty cool way of joining the songs together.
umm i guess that's it
Glenn Turner
But don't you see?!?!?! any love song or any song about God can easily be flip flopped, it is all what it means to YOU! what you hear when you hear it! When you listen to a song, you do not always have to listen to it and relate it to the same thing the writer did. When you look at a painting or some great work of art, and it makes you feel something, you don't care if that is not what the artist felt, because what you feel is what it means to YOU!
the motivational speach is for her, the girl/woman from the song. she doesn't believe in herself and she's doing all this because of her low self-esteem. why should she change for a guy? so gibbard is actually saying, believe in yourself, and the speach is just putting an emphasis on that.
that's how i see it.
"I pray to god, that one day he will grant me the power to reach out and hold my hand until the end, and give you instant belief, because you dont have instant belief. You've been hooked, you've been croooked, you've been lied to so many times that you're suspicious minded, and when the right thing comes along you don't believe it. When i'm giving a knock at the front door, you're at the back door looking for four leaf clovers, and when you find it you think somebody planted there to fool you. "What's the angle?" You look for an excuse. In this modern day in age we have instant coffee, instant tea, instant disbelief. That's the reason we will never become anything- it is because we will never believe in ourselves. We'll always listen to the mass majority. When everybody's making fun of you and criticizing, you know you're on the right track. Cuz' most of the people ain't got it." -Glenn W. Turner.
That's the speech at the end of the song.
great song and i will always think the you can play these songs with chords version is better haha although i love something about airplanes
query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html
Glenn Turner, the motivational speaker who can be heard giving his "You can better your best." speech was found guilty of running an illegal pyramid scheme to con people out of their money in the late 80s
I always find these types sketchy
"he's unresponsive cause you're irresponsible" I know they say this a lot in this song, but I think that's okay, because it's probably my favorite death cab line. It just sounds wonderful when he sings it with so much contempt. He might be talking to himself or to someone else, but either way someone did something careless and now someone else has suffered the consequence.
I take the song literally to be an accident, likely drunk driving or something of that nature.
Ok this is how i see it.
And if it was just how you wanted You'd be glued to his bones and his brainstem And changing your image and attitudes Won't bring him back into your bedroom
Girl acts aloof and uncaring. Boy can't stop thinking about her but starts distancing himself from her because it hurts too much from him.
Amputating as he's waiting Amputating He's unresponsive because you're irresponsible
The word 'amputating' was kind of confusing for awhile. But i think it kind of describes how it hurt for the boy. Kind of like slow and constant.
Or 'amputating' might refer to him slowly losing her love for her. Sort of like slowly severing his love for her.
He doesn't respond to her anymore because she's 'irresponsible' with her love.
Doesn't really link to the speech though.
But then again i think i read too much into it.
Anyone else got any other ideas as to what it means?
anyone know what the voice is saying in the background? i can't quite make it out...
I believe it is an exerpt from speech on why communism won't work-"If we seem nutty to you and if we seem funny to you, just remember the mighty oak tree was once a nut just like me" in the beginning and "I pray to god that one day he will grant me the power to reach out to people and give instant relief, cause you don't have instant relief. We been lied to so many times, that your suspicious mind, and when the right thing comes along, you don't believe in it. In this modern day and age we have instant coffee and instant tea--it is the reason we will never have communism in this country--it is because we will never believe in ourselves we will only listen to the mass majority. If anybodies making fun of you or criticizing you, you know you're on the right track" there's some pretty crazt sounding shit in their, but I basically agree with all of it. It's funny that I declared myself an atheist, found Death Cab, and declared myself pretty much a socialist closley after. I don't know if the band are any of these things, but maybe that's just another aspect that attracted me to this band.