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"
Watch it separate in two
Whatever the day wants it to
Finding out that the worst is true
Finding out that it can escape you
Slings and arrows completes the score
Always leaving, wanting more
And I try to throw it away
Silver spikes and mace
Displayed in your eyes
Fearlessness, cannot fathom;
What's on your mind?
Been there, no luck at all
Nothing left to lose
Been there, no luck at all
Nothing left to lose
I've been there
"Danger/Slow" says the sign ahead
Exhaust fumes, Thin Lizzy instead
Left all pressing cares along the road
Fifteen keys, but where do they go?
Slings and arrows completes the score
Always leaving, wanting more
And I try to throw it away
Strings that pull, strings that bend
This song and dance never ends
Whatever the day wants it to
Finding out that the worst is true
Finding out that it can escape you
Slings and arrows completes the score
Always leaving, wanting more
And I try to throw it away
Silver spikes and mace
Displayed in your eyes
Fearlessness, cannot fathom;
What's on your mind?
Been there, no luck at all
Nothing left to lose
Been there, no luck at all
Nothing left to lose
I've been there
"Danger/Slow" says the sign ahead
Exhaust fumes, Thin Lizzy instead
Left all pressing cares along the road
Fifteen keys, but where do they go?
Slings and arrows completes the score
Always leaving, wanting more
And I try to throw it away
Strings that pull, strings that bend
This song and dance never ends
Lyrics submitted by myeyesareopen
Fifteen Keys Lyrics as written by Jay Farrar
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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My best guess is that this song is about an on again off again relationship that someone prone to depression is having. I'm sure that there is more that I'm not thinking about. my favorite line is:
""Danger/Slow" says the sign ahead Exhaust fumes, Thin Lizzy instead Left all pressing cares along the road Fifteen keys, but where do they go? "
definitely a song about leaving or escaping a failed relationship, a similar theme explored in Son Volt's song "Windfall", just tired of it all and looking for a way out, someone who feels they are not really in control of anything(Slings and Arrows of outrageous fortune?)except the wheels and where they go next, and how fast they get there.
definitely a song about leaving or escaping a failed relationship, a similar theme explored in Son Volt's song "Windfall", just tired of it all and looking for a way out, someone who feels they are not really in control of anything(Slings and Arrows of outrageous fortune?)except the wheels and where they go next, and how fast they get there.
Only three comments? Jay did some amazing writing here. Very powerful stuff about accepting everything that's happened to you, no matter how bad, and just moving on. The inspiration for this song was probably Jay having made up his mind already to leave the band and him being ok with that (or him trying to convince himself he was ok with it), but the message is universal: Come to terms with your past troubles and move on, even if you have no idea where you're going next. So it goes...