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"
I bombed Korea every night.
My engine sang into the salty sky.
I didn't know if I would live or die.
I bombed Korea every night.
I bombed Korea every night.
I bombed Korea every night.
Red flowers bursting down below us.
Those people didn't even know us.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
We didn't know if it was wrong or right.
I bombed Korea every night.
And so I sit here at this bar.
I'm not a hero.
I'm not a movie star.
I've got my beer.
I've got my stories to tell,
But they won't tell you what it's like in hell.
Red flowers bursting down below us.
Those people didn't even know us.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
We didn't know if it was wrong or right.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
I bombed Korea every night.
My engine sang into the salty sky.
I didn't know if I would live or die.
I bombed Korea every night.
I bombed Korea every night.
I bombed Korea every night.
Red flowers bursting down below us.
Those people didn't even know us.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
We didn't know if it was wrong or right.
I bombed Korea every night.
And so I sit here at this bar.
I'm not a hero.
I'm not a movie star.
I've got my beer.
I've got my stories to tell,
But they won't tell you what it's like in hell.
Red flowers bursting down below us.
Those people didn't even know us.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
We didn't know if it was wrong or right.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
I bombed Korea every night.
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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No Surprises
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It's also about the emotional aspect, both before and after the war. This vet did some of the most heinous things in the name of duty. But it's not like he was infantry- this vet was in the air force- "red flowers bursting down below us". Bombing people he'd never seen and who had never seen him. It was terrible because of what it actually was, but the voice of the song can live with that. Villages blown up and whatnot, just red flowers. The vet doesn't live with the regret, he's sitting in a bar with stories to tell. Not a hero, not a movie star. Just a guy. And fundamentally, all of us can relate to that perspective- things happen around us, even terrible things, but we turn away from it just because it would change the person we are.
@outbackwaiter its been a while since you wrote this but its still significantly relavent.
Obviously, since nobody in Cake is even old enough to be in the Korean war, it's a metaphor for something else he use to do on a regular basis and now regrets and feels guilty about. It doesn't actually mean he's a war veteran.
You guys are all on the right track. The song is actually about a guy John McCrea met in a bar. He was talking about the Korean which he fought it. From the sounds of the song he was probably drunk. But it makes sense, if you think of yourself sitting in a bar, and a drunk Korean War vet singing about his experience."And so I sit here at this bar, i'm not a hero i'm not a movie star"
@sungod916 I'm curious what this person was referencing 13 years ago, to tell others that they were "on the right track."
I agree with J.J., except that I don't think he gets more recognition than he wants; he probably doesn't get enough, shown by the way he tells his story.
And another note that reinforces my opinion- there is no description of the ground, the country, the other soldiers, or anything. It's all from the perspective of the plane, forcing us to look from only one direction, and the isolation that allows the vet to think of what he's done in such limited and ultimately guiltless terms.
Is anyone else strongly reminded of Joseph Heller's Catch-22? The pilots bomb villages and are forced to ignore the morality of the war to a certain extent. It's not that they don't care -- well maybe it is -- but they don't have a choice. "We didn't know if it was wrong or right / I bombed Korea every night."
I think it is definitely an interpretive song about being in the shoes of the war veteran who let the war define his life. He never got past the war. It's that guy that's by himself in the bar who, if he catches someone's ear that will listen, will try to tell his story. I don't see any protest about war in the song, just the sad truth of the veterans who are now loners who frequent the bar and maybe don't have any real close family or friends. (I refuse to use the "a" word, haha, since I frequent the bars and will listen to what these people have to say... I know it makes them feel better...) If you've ever been to the local bar, you've met the guy they sing about... it is a prefectly vivid depiction of those veterans! Best of all, there is a genuine neutral stance taken in this song. It is more reflective than anything. Rock on Cake!
war vet or song about regretful hollow lust? Probably a woman in my op. Cake uses metaphors to say almost everything. . Most of this album seems to be concerned with relationships-the machismo, so it wouldn't surprise me that it's about a woman. The juxtaposition is classic cake. Have loved and will always love their mojo.I just like the attitude their songs illicit The guitars in this album are a throwback and makes this album my favorite. This album should start with Jolene and then all the rest should be a response. I feel like the album is about saying f the b that I gave all to and was a crash test- the fem fatal, and the rest is about...
This is a song about a guy who fought in the Korean War, and is somewhat "shell-shocked" about the ordeal.
He seems to regret bombing the civilians, but he admits that at the time, he wasn't thinking about whether it was "wrong or right", probably because he was quite young.
Now, as a veteran, he gets more recognition than he wants. He is not proud of his days in the war.
I agree, also the line "I bombed Korea every night" seems to say that he dreams about it a lot
Other people look at me funny when I say this is one of my favorite CAKE songs. It is quite simple, but catchy and quirky. I think it's not quite an anti-war song, but it's obvious that the man the song is about has some serious regrets about what he did in the war.