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"
The middle of the road is trying to find me
I'm standing in the middle of life with my plans behind me
Well I got a smile for everyone I meet
As long as you don't try dragging my bay
Or dropping the bomb on my street
Now come on baby
Get in the road
Oh come on now
In the middle of the road, yeah
In the middle of the road you see the darnedest things
Like fat guys driving 'round in jeeps through the city
Wearing big diamond rings and silk suits
Past corrugated tin shacks full up with kids
Oh man I don't mean a Hampstead nursery
When you own a big chunk of the bloody third world
The babies just come with the scenery
Oh come on baby
Get in the road
Oh come on now
In the middle of the road, yeah
The middle of the road is no private cul-de-sac
I can't get from the cab to the curb
Without some little jerk on my back
Don't harass me, can't you tell
I'm going home, I'm tired as hell
I'm not the cat I used to be
I got a kid, I'm thirty-three
Baby, get in the road
Come on now
In the middle of the road
Yeah
I'm standing in the middle of life with my plans behind me
Well I got a smile for everyone I meet
As long as you don't try dragging my bay
Or dropping the bomb on my street
Now come on baby
Get in the road
Oh come on now
In the middle of the road, yeah
In the middle of the road you see the darnedest things
Like fat guys driving 'round in jeeps through the city
Wearing big diamond rings and silk suits
Past corrugated tin shacks full up with kids
Oh man I don't mean a Hampstead nursery
When you own a big chunk of the bloody third world
The babies just come with the scenery
Oh come on baby
Get in the road
Oh come on now
In the middle of the road, yeah
The middle of the road is no private cul-de-sac
I can't get from the cab to the curb
Without some little jerk on my back
Don't harass me, can't you tell
I'm going home, I'm tired as hell
I'm not the cat I used to be
I got a kid, I'm thirty-three
Baby, get in the road
Come on now
In the middle of the road
Yeah
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Middle of the Road Lyrics as written by Chrissie Hynde
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"I can't get from the cab to the curb without some little jerk on my back". Not too many lines in any rock songs that are better than that.
This song is great. There is 8 beats in all from the guitar solo to her picking it up- She counts and you can hear her up til about 5. :) I know that "I'm too old for this shit" feeling. Classic.
It's a song about aproaching middle age.
i never knew that and i had listened to this song a thousand times. my favorite band during my trade school days. good stuff.
@kfe2 It's not about approaching middle age. It's about jumping into the middle what's going on in the world with gusto and full steam ahead. "Oh come on baby. Get in the road!"
It's about being famous and also having a private life. She wants people to leave her alone.
I agree this song is about middle age and coming to terms with life and maybe recognizing the world for what it is despite youthful ideals. Middle of the road seems like a phrase to mean living in balance and even keel.
The section about rich guys driving through the slums seems like she's saying this is how the world is and what can you do. A biblical phrase comes to mind - The poor you will always have with you and that is true today as it was 2000 years ago.
She also said she has a smile for everyone as long as they don't mistreat her. It seems a sentiment of live and let live or maybe live and let die. She has her hands full with her job, her kid, her life and she's just trying to do her best and will treat you well if you treat her well.
It’s about her not getting pregnant again after having a kid at 33. But she still want to have fun. But there a lot of guys that want to hit it. So get in the middle of the road (her vagina) but don’t drop a bomb in my street (get me pregnant).