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"
When I walk beside her
I am the better man
When I look to leave her
I always stagger back again
Once I built an ivory tower
So I could worship from above
And when I climbed down
To be set free, she took me in again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When she comes to greet me
She is mercy at my feet
When I see her pin her charm
She just throws it back again
Once I sought an early grave
To find a better land
She just smiled and laughed at me
And took her blues back again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When I go to cross that river
She is comfort by my side
When I try to understand
She just opens up her eyes
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
Once I stood to lose her
When I saw what I had done
Bound down and flew away the hours
Of her garden and her sun
So I tried to warn her
I'll turn to see her weep
40 days and 40 nights
And it's still coming down on me
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
I am the better man
When I look to leave her
I always stagger back again
Once I built an ivory tower
So I could worship from above
And when I climbed down
To be set free, she took me in again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When she comes to greet me
She is mercy at my feet
When I see her pin her charm
She just throws it back again
Once I sought an early grave
To find a better land
She just smiled and laughed at me
And took her blues back again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When I go to cross that river
She is comfort by my side
When I try to understand
She just opens up her eyes
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
Once I stood to lose her
When I saw what I had done
Bound down and flew away the hours
Of her garden and her sun
So I tried to warn her
I'll turn to see her weep
40 days and 40 nights
And it's still coming down on me
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
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FUCK PEOPLE! This song is CLEARLY about mother nature
@Helpbot ABSOLUTELY!!<br /> <br />
Its about the world and being the better man. Even though you feel like you're above someone and someone else is richer and someone else is a famous its all insignificant because we're just people being beaten down by a big hard sun. If you really want to appreciate this song do something for someone else, like Chris McCandless said, happiness is only real when shared.
Great comment, I just finished reading Into the Wild. Nice interpretation as well.
To me this song bares some resemblance to Pink Floyd's "Take it Back." A song about mother nature and how she should be respected. You rip apart the Earth over and over again. And she forgives and forgives but one day she calls your bluff and it's too late to fix what you've done.
great song..can relate to what me and my girl share right now...esp the first part...
the song is about him trying to get over a girl but he cant no matter how hard he tries because when it says: when I look to leave her I always stagger back again
@annamcgibbon not even close
the song is about him trying to get over a girl but he cant no matter how hard he tries because when it says: when I look to leave her I always stagger back again
its about the big people who could build the modern society as they want and change the world, not the wild anymore. we could get out from this modern society, its joyful but will be hard life. i think he is enjoy the journey but not for good.
i hate people who judge and insult others based on their impressions of a song. yes, i'm sure songwriters, the majority of the time, have a clear, constructed idea for the message they're tryting to convey in their lyrics, but maybe it's not all about being right. all that matters is that the listener FEELS something from the song, whether or not it was what the writer intended.
i believe this song is about man and nature and a society blind to the beauty that surrounds it.
I'm curious how many people thought this song was about Mother Nature before the movie 'Into the Wild' came out? :) Unfortunately it's not obvious what 'her' is referring to, and could be interpreted as multiple things, women or mother nature, or maybe computers and the Internet!? LOL
since the original was released in 1989, I doubt it had much to do with computers or the internet, I think to interpret this song one would have to listen to the entire album
@music1994 the movie ain't got nothin to do with it. This song goes straight to an undefinable place in our psyche, our soul. This song isn't about a circumstance, a situation, a simple relationship between lovers. It's about Mother Earth. It's about Mother Nature. It's about the Mother of Life, the Mother of God. Many names for this element of life, but it is definitely Female...nurturing, welcoming, life giving. Oh, but that Big Hard Sun, beating on the big people in a big hard world. Another analogy there, huh?
The fact of the matter is that is song is more blatantly about the earth/mother nature, though it could be used by Indio as a metaphor for a woman. First off I must correct some places where the lyrics are wrong. The second verse says "When she comes to greet me, she is mercy at my feet, When I stay to pillage her, she just throws it back at me. The fourth verse says "Once I stood to lose here, and I saw what I had done, I burned down and threw away the hours, of her garden and here sun. So I tried to warn here, and turned to see her weep, Forty days and forty nights and it's still coming down on me."