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"
(It starts with one)
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To explain, in due time
All I know; time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away, it's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watched the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
I wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so (far)
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me in the end
You kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To explain, in due time
All I know; time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away, it's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watched the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
I wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so (far)
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me in the end
You kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
Lyrics submitted by Matt, edited by RidwanRais, sokorny
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This song taps into a universal concern: hyper-awareness of time and the inculcated need to do something 'constructive' with it. Most of us spend most of our lives in a dilemma just trying to decide what course of action to take from the debilitating infinity of possibilities supposedly within our grasp. Remember that time didn't exist for most people even 100 years ago, at least not in terms of the seconds ticking by with the 'pendulum swinging'. Time is a modern invention, and along with the atomisation of human 'society' and the dehumanising effects of technology, accounts for the anxiety of the post-war generations. If you do the maths, the population has expanded massively while opportunities have only increased slightly, despite the big lie that there are opportunities for all if you just try hard enough. This song is about the realisation of this lie, and the unquenchable anger that is directed towards the self in this individualistic age. This is the greatest achievement of the neo-liberal capitalist democracy - we are supposedly free and unbounded so when we fail we beat ourselves up instead of having social revolutions. For me, this song is the greatest emotional evocation of this dire mental situation, and is best served up with a dose of early Manic Street Preachers for the intellectual and political side of things.
Profound, sir.
Just a small comment, Time as we know it is older then a 100 years ago,<br /> The first sundial was made in 3500 BC The first mechanical clock in 1092 AD, the first modern clock in 1368, and the first watch in 1510.<br /> It was around the 1540's (when Big Ben was made) that people truly begin to become slaves to time. I still agree with your point I was just sayo g.
Thank you
@Liminal2 <br /> You sure think you're smart, don't you. At least you knew what it was you were saying. However, bringing in unrelated topics like the effects of technology was amateurish. Trying to craft this musical masterpiece into a dissertation of society's perception of the concept of time is absurd. It utterly ignores the blatant interpersonal descriptions concerning the soured relationship the second verse deals with. The song is not a repetition of the first verse, the first verse merely sets the stage for the story Mike is telling, as it should. Clearly many were fooled into trusting your formidable vocabulary, but I am afraid that spouting educated interpretations with no basis in reality will only win over the undiscerning.
@Shadowtalons17, yes you're right there is a whole interpersonal relationship angle in the second verse - I read it as a son rejecting a father's controlling influence. The father acts like the son is 'part of his property' and an extension of his own ego. But the great thing about this song is that the personal level (father putting pressure on son to conform and achieve) is intertwined with the wider societal pressure I talked about in my first comment (pressure to achieve with the clock ticking away your youth, and the internalisation of failure). So the bridge lyrics 'I put my trust in you' could mean trusting the father's egocentric plans for him, or it could mean 'you' the societal system which he rebels against by joining a metal band. It's like when Rage Against the Machine say 'fuck you I won't do what you tell me' - is 'you' a person, or an entire system of control and conformism? Complex ideas need complex words and sentence structures, and I think it's rather patronizing to say that everyone who voted my original comment up was just blinded by vocabulary. Perhaps they found it refreshing to read a comment on here that doesn't just say 'it's about a relationship'?
@Liminal2 it is not fcking love song ffs wtf
@Liminal2 <br /> Read the uni bomber manifesto, (hint: Its not about bombing people). What you say is correct, what shadowtalons17 says disregards our current world. In all of world history never has there been a time like the last 150 years (since the industrial revolution). Time is a valuable thing, these days, for survival
@Liminal2
@Liminal2 I have just joined with this site to decipher the meaning of this song especially as it plays in the background of my dreams and what you have said is everything I agree with
@Liminal2 A very erudite and thoughtful critique,nice job....and thanks for using the term MATHS-the Correct way to use it,you must be here in the UK....Well done.
@Liminal2 Friendly reminded that communism doesn't work and never will