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"
There was a little boy once upon a time
Who in spite of his young age and small size knew his mind
For every copper penny and clover he would find
Make a wish for better days the end of hard times
For no more cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
His clothes were always clean
His face was always scrubbed
There was food on the table enough to fill him up
His house was full of life - His house was full of love
But when winter days arrived
There was never money enough to shod his cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He grew up to be a worker determined to succeed
He made a life for himself, free from worldly wants or needs
But with nobody to share the life he'd made
No body to keep him warm at night
When he'd go to sleep he'd sleep alone with his cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
One night he walked the street looking to the heaven's above
Searching for a shooting star a benevolent God
When a woman passing by brushed his arm
He turned and found love
He then wished for the courage to ask this stranger
Who she was to not have cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He thought she'd like the party life and want the finer things
So he promised more than he could buy
And he promised her the sun and moon to not have cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He worked day and night his fingers to the bone
Hi worried mind guilty conscience drive him on
He can't give her what she needs
He wants to give her what he thinks she wants
Her sad-eyed face, his empty pockets drive him on and his cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He'd struggled all his life to be an honest man
Proud that the dirt on his palms was the soil of the land
But some guys he knew from high school days
Said they had a plan to get rich quick
And they could count him in if he don't have cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He thought about their offer accepted it without qualms
Dreamt about the life he'd buy
The comfort that would come without cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He decided to tell his wife things would soon turn around
He said the little boy is dead
A man stands with you now without cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
Without cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He thought he'd set his clock right, He though he'd read his watch
He left in such a hurry he didn't think to wish for luck
Makes no difference if you're early, No difference if you're late
When you're out of time, The flowers have been laid
You're six feet underground
With cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
Who in spite of his young age and small size knew his mind
For every copper penny and clover he would find
Make a wish for better days the end of hard times
For no more cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
His clothes were always clean
His face was always scrubbed
There was food on the table enough to fill him up
His house was full of life - His house was full of love
But when winter days arrived
There was never money enough to shod his cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He grew up to be a worker determined to succeed
He made a life for himself, free from worldly wants or needs
But with nobody to share the life he'd made
No body to keep him warm at night
When he'd go to sleep he'd sleep alone with his cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
One night he walked the street looking to the heaven's above
Searching for a shooting star a benevolent God
When a woman passing by brushed his arm
He turned and found love
He then wished for the courage to ask this stranger
Who she was to not have cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He thought she'd like the party life and want the finer things
So he promised more than he could buy
And he promised her the sun and moon to not have cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He worked day and night his fingers to the bone
Hi worried mind guilty conscience drive him on
He can't give her what she needs
He wants to give her what he thinks she wants
Her sad-eyed face, his empty pockets drive him on and his cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He'd struggled all his life to be an honest man
Proud that the dirt on his palms was the soil of the land
But some guys he knew from high school days
Said they had a plan to get rich quick
And they could count him in if he don't have cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He thought about their offer accepted it without qualms
Dreamt about the life he'd buy
The comfort that would come without cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He decided to tell his wife things would soon turn around
He said the little boy is dead
A man stands with you now without cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
Without cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
He thought he'd set his clock right, He though he'd read his watch
He left in such a hurry he didn't think to wish for luck
Makes no difference if you're early, No difference if you're late
When you're out of time, The flowers have been laid
You're six feet underground
With cold feet
Cold cold cold cold feet
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A guy grows up in a loving household, yet there was never quite as much money as the family needed. He grows up to be a honest and hard worker. He meets a woman, but doesn't think he is good enough for her. He wants to buy her the "best things in life." He falls into a dangerous "get rich quick" lifestyle (of crime?) and winds up dead. Yet another great warning by Tracy Chapman.
word. great song.
This is such an amazing song. I have just learnt how ot play it on guitar it is just so much better when you can play along urself. my favourite part of the song is: "He said the little boy is dead A man stands with you now without cold feet" just hte way it is sung so powerful
Unfortunately, the lyrics aren't complete on this song. Which is what I think threw Chungik off a bit.
The complete lyrics to the section regarding him telling his wife that things would get better is:
"He decided to drive the car, he decided to carry the gun To take the biggest risk of all to prove his loyalty to his friends He decided to tell his wife things would soon turn around..."
It's a beautiful song, like all of Chapman's songs. This man had everything. He grew up with everything he needed. Love, a roof over his head, a loving wife. But naturally, like any loving person, he wanted to give his wife more. He wanted to be the provider, and to show that he COULD provide. But in the end, the superficial things that weren't the things that made him the loving, hard-working man he was, would become his undoing.