I Can't Answer You Anymore

When I hear this I think of a girl repeatedly leaving or breaking up with him when a guy is in love with her and treating her right (I did everything right for somebody that does everything wrong). He keeps taking her back because he's deeply in love with her. And finally, she leaves him, and stays away for a while (Absence makes the heart grow fond, staying away from people). He gets his head together, and she comes back to him again. But this time it's different, and he can't answer her anymore.

i think this could about when youre in a relationship with someone, and you take a break.. but during that break, you become more and more disconnected with the other person that you have nothing left to say to them.

A few months back i posted for "Talking to Mary" about how that song makes me think of Mary in the bible and having faith and how this song was sort of like the "other side" of that- like about doubting. I still feel that way when i hear "Talking to Mary" but i don't think of doubting anymore for this song, although i really like it. Maybe it is about doing your own thing and how space in relationships can be for the best sometimes, whether it is a temporary space to sort of clear your mind and get some point of view or a more permanent space in the case of a toxic relationship.

too ambiguous for me to guess. perhaps about his relationship with his mom, a (ex)girlfriend, addiction, or a combination of the three.

this song again uses the term 'coast to coast'.. he really liked that expression i think.. he also used the moon and roses a lot in his songs.. he did live coast to coast a lot.. always back and forth from one extreme to the other.. (portand, mass, portand, ny, cali).

portland*

for the middle part, its:

stepped to the scene where we'd meet and wrote a song i did everything right for somebody that does everything wrong

...beautiful imagery, kind of like everything means nothing to me

i think this song is about a relationship that fails

This is about the despair that you feel when people who you thought were friends turn their back on you or act as if they like you....its like there teasing him always asking him questions that they already know the answer to ' I cant answer you anymore ' its like nothing he could say would satisfy them. Its like hes being toyed with.

I see the "one [he] adores" in a different light:

I seriously think this is song is about suicide from the perspective of the deceased.

For some reason I never noticed the inherent ambiguity of the line "Over the Hawthorn Bridge" (the "coast to coast" imagery perhaps?). The way "bridge" is dragged out definitely, for me, evokes a sense of falling.

It would certainly clarify why he "can't answer you anymore."

I don't mean to suggest that there is no "romantic" element to the situation being described in the lyrics, but that self-murder was at least a hidden subtext.