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"
Your ritual everyday
A mild shower soak in aftershave
Best clothes do your best
Look in the mirror go on
Belittle yourself yourself yourself
Belittle yourself yourself yourself
You go on day after day
Dreaming on a lie
That you keep locked inside
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
Can you sleep tonight
Cast aside for some pouting young pup
Sink into a slurred veneer
Alcoholic haze so now
Least you can like yourself yourself
Least you can like yourself yourself
You go on day after day
Reservoirs of guilt
That your fixed grin always hides
And yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
And yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
Yourself
You look at ads all day
Everyone is perfect and you're so lame
Free scent burns your skin
But no smell can really cover sin
Too many teenage holes to fill
Too many teenage holes to fill
You go on day after day
Speak to your despised
Blanking your loved ones
And yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
And yourself, yourself
A mild shower soak in aftershave
Best clothes do your best
Look in the mirror go on
Belittle yourself yourself yourself
Belittle yourself yourself yourself
You go on day after day
Dreaming on a lie
That you keep locked inside
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
Can you sleep tonight
Cast aside for some pouting young pup
Sink into a slurred veneer
Alcoholic haze so now
Least you can like yourself yourself
Least you can like yourself yourself
You go on day after day
Reservoirs of guilt
That your fixed grin always hides
And yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
And yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
Yourself
You look at ads all day
Everyone is perfect and you're so lame
Free scent burns your skin
But no smell can really cover sin
Too many teenage holes to fill
Too many teenage holes to fill
You go on day after day
Speak to your despised
Blanking your loved ones
And yourself, yourself, yourself
Of yourself, yourself, yourself
And yourself, yourself
Lyrics submitted by ShiverForMe
Yourself Lyrics as written by Marshal Kent Dutton Jeremy F Coan
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
On the Manics 'Everything Live' VHS tape from the mid 90s, in the closing bars of Motown Junk, James Dean Bradfield rants 'we live in urban hell, with new fragrances of Paco Raban aftershave every weekend.' Although Richey and Nicky write the lyrics, the band's durability lies in the strength of their shared beliefs. Otherwise JDB wouldn't be a band with two guys who could hardly play their instruments (in the early days at least). Modern capitalism is a meaningless empty and degrading ritual that preys on people's deepest insecurities, hence 'free scent burns your skin' - exploding the advertising myth that aftershave enhances your attractiveness to the opposite sex, when all you're actually doing is degrading yourself- 'everyone is perfect and you're so lame.' One of the greatest things about the Manics is that they gain relevance over time unlike most bands which fade with the zeitgeist. I stand in Boots thinking 'which man moisturiser should I buy' and hating myself for attaching any importance to such things. Wherever Richey is now, thank god he gave us these lyrics before he went.
"Wherever Richey is now, thank god he gave us these lyrics before he went."<br /> <br /> I agree. Good interpretation.
It's mainly about self disgust. it depends how u look at it whether ur singing about yourself or to someone else. But is still about disgust. Altho from what the manics have said it is about self disgust. Looking in the mirror every day trying to convince yourself you look ok just so you can get throught the day. When deep inside you know your just a flabby piece of shit.
On the Manics 'Everything Live' VHS tape from the mid 90s, in the closing bars of Motown Junk, James Dean Bradfield rants 'we live in urban hell, with new fragrances of Paco Raban aftershave every weekend.' Although Richey and Nicky write the lyrics, the band's durability lies in the strength of their shared beliefs. Otherwise JDB wouldn't be a band with two guys who could hardly play their instruments (in the early days at least). Modern capitalism is a meaningless empty and degrading ritual that preys on people's deepest insecurities, hence 'free scent burns your skin' - exploding the advertising myth that aftershave enhances your attractiveness to the opposite sex, when all you're actually doing is degrading yourself- 'everyone is perfect and you're so lame.' One of the greatest things about the Manics is that they gain relevance over time unlike most bands which fade with the zeitgeist. I stand in Boots thinking 'which man moisturiser should I buy' and hating myself for attaching any importance to such things. Wherever Richey is now, thank god he gave us these lyrics before he went.
Pretty straightforward, I think. This song is one of my favorites, I wish that MSP still wrote songs of this style.
I think it's about the desire to conform, and to be accepted. The line about rituals depresses the hell out of me - get up, fit in, same old routine, routine, routine.
Sort of. I think its saying that there's all these rituals and routines, everyone does them, and we all hate it, but because it's what everyone else does, we think we have no choice but to do the same. The fact that we're subjecting ourselves to all this crap and not enjoying it, that makes us feel bad about ourselves, because we feel that this should be the sort of thing we aspire to, only when we acchieve it, it doesn't feel all that good.
It can be interprated as vanity. How you're never satisfied with your own appearence and personality so try harder and harder to fit in. Leading to depression and ignorance.
Been there
Well I think everyone can relate to this song. It's pretty straightforward - sounds definitely like a Richey lyric.
The Manics are just all geniuses. The lyrics are all pure political poetry, and the music in this track is one of my very favourites :)
This song actually scares me because its just so true and i love the "of yourself" part,such powerful lyrics and music! Hail the manics for best songs ever!