Like others have said, I've always thought this song was pure nostalgia. Most of us have that first miserable apartment we lived in where it was crowded and nothing worked and there were bugs or creeps in the alley and all we could do was imagine getting out of there and the hardships we have in that stage of life where we're just starting out and money is a struggle.
The couple has moved on from there. They're more financially secure. They now have the dream house and possibly a car and a couple of kids too. The singer is happy with his life in general but with the new stage of life comes new challenges, possibly more complicated challenges like workplace politics, determining how to teach his children to do the right thing, drawing up a will, looking after aging in laws.
He goes back to the apartment because part of him misses the simplicity of those early days when it was just the two of them living on love.
He is angry that the place has changed because we're all a little narcissistic and deep down we tend to feel that we can change but other things should stay the way we left them. Deep down he felt like that old apartment would always be his.
@Sylvied - this is exactly it. It's a nostalgic longing for a simpler time in one's life. In that time, in spite of all of the downsides of the crappy apartment, it was home, and the singer was young and full of passion, and life was full of possibility and undetermined outcomes. It's a recognition that as much as you may want to, you can never actually go back to that life, or that apartment - at least not without breaking in.
@Sylvied - this is exactly it. It's a nostalgic longing for a simpler time in one's life. In that time, in spite of all of the downsides of the crappy apartment, it was home, and the singer was young and full of passion, and life was full of possibility and undetermined outcomes. It's a recognition that as much as you may want to, you can never actually go back to that life, or that apartment - at least not without breaking in.
Like others have said, I've always thought this song was pure nostalgia. Most of us have that first miserable apartment we lived in where it was crowded and nothing worked and there were bugs or creeps in the alley and all we could do was imagine getting out of there and the hardships we have in that stage of life where we're just starting out and money is a struggle.
The couple has moved on from there. They're more financially secure. They now have the dream house and possibly a car and a couple of kids too. The singer is happy with his life in general but with the new stage of life comes new challenges, possibly more complicated challenges like workplace politics, determining how to teach his children to do the right thing, drawing up a will, looking after aging in laws.
He goes back to the apartment because part of him misses the simplicity of those early days when it was just the two of them living on love.
He is angry that the place has changed because we're all a little narcissistic and deep down we tend to feel that we can change but other things should stay the way we left them. Deep down he felt like that old apartment would always be his.
@Sylvied - this is exactly it. It's a nostalgic longing for a simpler time in one's life. In that time, in spite of all of the downsides of the crappy apartment, it was home, and the singer was young and full of passion, and life was full of possibility and undetermined outcomes. It's a recognition that as much as you may want to, you can never actually go back to that life, or that apartment - at least not without breaking in.
@Sylvied - this is exactly it. It's a nostalgic longing for a simpler time in one's life. In that time, in spite of all of the downsides of the crappy apartment, it was home, and the singer was young and full of passion, and life was full of possibility and undetermined outcomes. It's a recognition that as much as you may want to, you can never actually go back to that life, or that apartment - at least not without breaking in.