I think this song is more complicated than just saying it's time to move on from older songs/relationships (depending on whether you think it's a love letter to an old girlfriend or to The '59 Sound) because of the last line.
The entire song he is saying "god help THE man who says if youd'a known me when, old haunts are for forgotten ghosts" until the end when he says "god help THIS man, old haunts are all WE'VE ever known."
He is succumbing to the reality that sometimes you can't move on. He is trying to convince someone (himself? I always thought it was a song talking to himself) that it's time to move on but by the end he knows that those old haunts aren't gone and neither is ready to leave them.
I think this song is more complicated than just saying it's time to move on from older songs/relationships (depending on whether you think it's a love letter to an old girlfriend or to The '59 Sound) because of the last line.
The entire song he is saying "god help THE man who says if youd'a known me when, old haunts are for forgotten ghosts" until the end when he says "god help THIS man, old haunts are all WE'VE ever known."
He is succumbing to the reality that sometimes you can't move on. He is trying to convince someone (himself? I always thought it was a song talking to himself) that it's time to move on but by the end he knows that those old haunts aren't gone and neither is ready to leave them.