Fools leave too soon
Built to fill roles and fall
Standing alone again
Distant and dissatisfied

These four years
And how we say goodbye to these four years
A long goodbye with mixed emotions
Just fragments of another life

I'm not dead yet
But the regrets are killing me


Lyrics submitted by lay entwined, edited by c0smic

But the Regrets Are Killing Me Lyrics as written by Stephen Michael Holmes Michael Thomas Kinsella

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

But the Regrets Are Killing Me song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

15 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    i dont know why i like this song so much.. when i read the lyrics it reminds me too much of him singing of getting out of highschool or some shit. but just hearing the regrets are killing me can be so diverse to many situations making this song an anthem for any regret ever felt. its great.

    intoyoulikeatrainon June 12, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is another amazing piece of music american foot ball never fails

    Staywhatyouareon March 17, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    That's really quite unfortunate, UnderTheseLights, because I'm sure that he was just hanging on your being convinced that he has emotional ties to this song. Live and let live, man, it's a testament as it is that any of us care enough to actually come here and post a comment. We each display our affections in a different manner. And yeah, I can see the highschool connotations, being on the brink of graduation, myself. I'd think, rather, that it has something to due with interaction he had with a female...as much as I hate to derive my synopsis from a tired "EMO" subject such as that. Great song, nonetheless. Owen is sufficiently capable of filling the void now, though.

    WhiteTideon April 07, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    im pretty sure it is about getting out of high school. and the regrets that are killing him are the ones that he has made over the past 4 years.

    T0nyinTrans1Ton May 07, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    hmmm, that would work really well, but i think it's a long relationship. every song is about relation ships. sad song.

    emocoreisdeadon June 18, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is really sad .. im gunna be leaving high school soon and i had a realitionship all during those years with someone so this song is soo signifacant to me for both reaasons .. and it makes me sad ... sad to say good bye but this song like helps me get through it .. i really love this band one of my all time favs for sure they are awesome.

    emoladyon June 24, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i love the way the vocals draw out "mixed emotions". gives me chills. there is some great guitar work in this one as well.

    jays212on October 03, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Wow just busted this album out again recently, and this track really hit home. Four years ago, back in high school I ended up being great friends with this girl, and I never told her how I felt about her. I've regretted it ever since...

    BlindingStar416on October 23, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    that life died when i we grew up, it took four years... we're not dead... but it did kill a part of us, and could i have done something to avoid this fate? something? anything? regrets (of you and me) which isn't written up there, are killing me. they killed a part of both of us.

    triciaagogoon August 03, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    live american football cd at the fireside bowl

    yousend.net/files/AmericanFootball-_Fireside_Bowl36-zip.shtml

    modernrockoon October 20, 2006   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song: Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.” That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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"
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it. “I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.