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"
Bolt-lock your doors
Alarm your cars
And still we move in closer
Every day
Top of the list
Is your smiling kids
But we'll be smiling too
So that's OK
Oh, and by the way
Thank you, because you're
Giving, giving, giving
And we're receiving
No, no, we're taking
Keeping the population down
Your taxes paid, but
Police waylaid
And we knows
When the school bus
Comes and goes
We're on your street, but
You don't see us
Or, if you do
You smile and say Hello
But don't underestimate us
When you are
Giving, giving, giving
And we're receiving
No, no, we're taking
Just keeping
The population down
You're giving, giving, giving
Well, it's your own fault
For reproducing
We're just keeping
The population down
Alarm your cars
And still we move in closer
Every day
Top of the list
Is your smiling kids
But we'll be smiling too
So that's OK
Oh, and by the way
Thank you, because you're
Giving, giving, giving
And we're receiving
No, no, we're taking
Keeping the population down
Your taxes paid, but
Police waylaid
And we knows
When the school bus
Comes and goes
We're on your street, but
You don't see us
Or, if you do
You smile and say Hello
But don't underestimate us
When you are
Giving, giving, giving
And we're receiving
No, no, we're taking
Just keeping
The population down
You're giving, giving, giving
Well, it's your own fault
For reproducing
We're just keeping
The population down
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery
Ambitious Outsiders Lyrics as written by Whyte Morrissey
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Great version of a great song,
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This sone in NOT about homosexuality. This song is about the Government in China. Where you can only have 1 or 2 kids, anymore and the Government takes you child and gets rid of it. Thats why he says "Top of the list is your smiling kids" and "Keeping the population down" China is over populated and this is a way to keep the population down.
@AFTERTHEWAR wow amazing how thirteen years later someone here is replying to you comment. Lol. Anyway, that's an interesting take considering the background music hhas a Chinese sound to it. Could be.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia_and_child_sexual_abuse_in_songs says:
He almost seems to be putting himself in the position of some kind of murderer here. Thought - provoking stuff.
i think its about the ignerant fear that homosexuality is contagious and that gay men are child molesters (most molesters are heterosexual, and most child murders are comited by parents) keeping the population down isnt killing its just not procreating
It's interesting the way he describes it, especially the line "We're on your street, but You don't see us/Or, if you do/You smile and say Hello" Like they make all this fuss of being afraid of gays molesting their children, hearing and seeing signs that "they're moving in closer every day!", but really the people they're making out to be terrible monsters are the perfectly normal, kind neighbours they smile at and greet every day on the street, and it's really very ridiculous. Morrissey also makes it spiteful and sarcastic, like they've finally given up fighting it, the hate, and trying to convince them: Whatever, it's your own fault for having children!
Hm. Let's try sharing that link again... It should be: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia_and_child_sexual_abuse_in_songs
I fail. Oh, well.
LycanthropicLion: Remember Wikipedia is not gospel - interesting as it may be, that's just one person's interpretation they've posted.
Great song, anyway; I always assumed it was about the public being afraid of gay chaps, treating them like murderers.
i think this song is another in the form of "the kind of person that..." you know
upper middle class homophobic,xenophobic,racist, suburban paranoia. but i don't think the other discussed meanings are excluded
thanks
This is about immigrants who tend to commit a disproportionate number of crimes and constantly complain about their living conditions when they have more children than they can feed and raise.