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"
Down to the well
Betty always knows
Betty always tells
She laughing desperately
She said it felt like a river inside her bones
When she went down to the well
Gonna be with her
She is gonna take me there
Lead me by my hand
Her body a rocking chair for my soul
I can hardly wait, baby
I can hardly wait
'Til we go down to the well
Down to the well
Been thinking to myself
And if a life's not long
What matter does it make
If there'll be favorite songs playing in my head
When we go down to the well
I can hardly wait, Betty
I can hardly wait
'Til we go down to the well
Down to the well
Betty always knows
Betty always tells
She laughing desperately
She said it felt like a river inside her bones
When she went down to the well
Gonna be with her
She is gonna take me there
Lead me by my hand
Her body a rocking chair for my soul
I can hardly wait, baby
I can hardly wait
'Til we go down to the well
Down to the well
Been thinking to myself
And if a life's not long
What matter does it make
If there'll be favorite songs playing in my head
When we go down to the well
I can hardly wait, Betty
I can hardly wait
'Til we go down to the well
Down to the well
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
I Can't Go To Sleep
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Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
People really think that the pixies ripped off these latter bands? What sense of r&r history do they have?
i once saw a nirvana freak saying how they invented that 4 chord thing on so many of their songs . What a nit - if it wasn't actually borrowed from the pixies then it was from the who originally ('i can't explain').
Dirty Women - Black Sabbath
I think he was saying Radiohead ripped off the Pixies, not the other way around. If he was saying it the other way around, than he was seriously mistaken. Not only did the Bossanova version come out two years before "Creep" and Pablo Honey, but this is one of the Pixies' earliest songs, recorded during their initial "Come On Pilgrim" sessions and performed live since the beginning.
Am I the only one who sees a connection between sex and religious experience in this song? Compare the idea phrase "down to the well" being used to refer to sexual experience to John 4's story of the woman at the well, wherein water from the well is used as a symbol of religious enlightenment. To me, it adds a layer of cheekiness to the song, since it makes it essentially sacrilegious.
It's about sex.
feinsteins probably right.
i dunno. i have to go with (linelineline)debaser(linelineline)'s opinion. It makes the most sense to me.
The drug thing makes the most sense, but I always thought the whole "Down to The Well" thing was kind of like Jack and Jill going to fetch a pail of water, but they end up having sex... I guess that doesn't make much sense though.
I am with sansmilk and feinsteins on this one. I believe "going down to the well" is synonymous with "having an orgasm." I think he is singing about conversing with a sexually experienced girlfriend figure, and he is curious about the actual feeling, being a virgin himself.
"what matter does it make, if there'll be favorite songs playing in my head" I think might be referring to a traditional desire to have your "first time" be special. Like maybe have some romantic music setting the mood, etc.
Incidentally, I don't think Charles Thompson sings about drugs much at all. And certainly not from some post addiction perspective. He mentions smoking pot, which he says he does occasionally, but, unlike those of so many "artists" whose lives are basically defined by self-imposed debauchery and addiction, I believe Charles' topics are rarely as uninteresting as "man, being addicted to ____ sucks."
LOL, fucking exactly! So who 'ripped off' who, eh?
Pixies - Sabbath - Dirty Women
definitely about sex between an experienced girl and a virgin guy. (kinda reminds of "i've been tired", eh?)
it seems to me the lyrics actually go "and if a LOVE's not long"... he sings "and if a love ain't long" on the BBC version. and this makes perfect sense with the sex interpretation. i might be wrong about the lyrics tho
oh, and "the well" is a metophor for the girl's vagina... (i think, the association is obvious. or, isn't it?) thus, the meaning of "going down to the well" becomes clear.
@dukepeter Yes its likely about sex, but no he says "And if a life's not long What matter does it make If there'll be favourite songs playing in my head" a life not lived. Never got a tattoo but if I did, I'd get that.