This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
Big dog bites the bone
Life's too short to take all this
Not true when what's more:
Life's too short to mind
Just keep on with
The Sweet Up and Down
Unturning her cheek
Inside-out, her neat little pose
Dirty, little girl
Climbs out of the hole in her own
In this Sweet up and Down
I believe in love
But believe it's my heart that keeps turning me down
I believe in love
I think it's just fine
Oh, the Sweet up and Down
Big pig turns to me
Pig he needs to eat like us all
Not far from the beast
Man sits down to feast on this part
Of the Sweet up and down
I believe in love
And believe it's my heart that keeps turning me down
I believe in love
I think it's just fine
On the Sweet up and Down
BT...
Up and down, inside out
Outside in some you lose some
You win for us all
Up and down we go
Bad times choke us all once or twice
On this Sweet up and Down
I believe in love
But think nothing about it when you're not around
I believe in love
I think you're just fine
On the Sweet up and Down
I believe in love
But believe in my heart that keeps turning me down
I believe in love
I think you're just fine
On the Sweet up and Down...
Life's too short to take all this
Not true when what's more:
Life's too short to mind
Just keep on with
The Sweet Up and Down
Unturning her cheek
Inside-out, her neat little pose
Dirty, little girl
Climbs out of the hole in her own
In this Sweet up and Down
I believe in love
But believe it's my heart that keeps turning me down
I believe in love
I think it's just fine
Oh, the Sweet up and Down
Big pig turns to me
Pig he needs to eat like us all
Not far from the beast
Man sits down to feast on this part
Of the Sweet up and down
I believe in love
And believe it's my heart that keeps turning me down
I believe in love
I think it's just fine
On the Sweet up and Down
BT...
Up and down, inside out
Outside in some you lose some
You win for us all
Up and down we go
Bad times choke us all once or twice
On this Sweet up and Down
I believe in love
But think nothing about it when you're not around
I believe in love
I think you're just fine
On the Sweet up and Down
I believe in love
But believe in my heart that keeps turning me down
I believe in love
I think you're just fine
On the Sweet up and Down...
Lyrics submitted by Nelly, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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Sweet Up & Down.. what can i say? This is one of his best songs live. I have a 3 cd set of the concert on 12/23/03 and sweet up and down is on it... I've played it back many times, and to me it sounds like the guy's about to "get busy" with a girl he's very attracted to, but then he thinks about the girl he actually Loves and can't go through with the deed. Sweet up and down is most definately about sex.
"Inside-out, her neat little pose Dirty, little girl Climbs out of the hole in her own"
He's describing the girl getting herself off in front of him while he's thinking the song in his head.
"I believe in love But believe it's my heart that keeps turning me down."
He believes in the physical act of making love... but it's his relationship with another girl (his heart) that prevents him from making love /w this new girl.
"I believe in love But think nothing about it when you're not around "
He's saying here that he has no love for this new girl.
"Pig he needs to eat like us all Not far from the beast Man sits down to feast on this part "
He like every other man has certain sexual cravings that must be satisfied, a pig must eat, a man must make love. The last line of the quote he relates to the previous two; he says that men use this excuse of everyone having certain desires all too often to justify it.
I apologize for the long post, but i don't think the song was getting the attention it deserved.