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"
Raised unright
So uptight
But why blame you
You wouldn't be
If you could choose
Most of the time
It's out of site
it hit me today
Who gave who the right
Who took mine away
What a site
What a sound
What a way to bring people down
What a way to bring me down
I know that you'll get yours
When you get empty
It's so close
I'm sure that you
Would rather do that
Than be in your clothes
You must have waited a long time
Bet you were disappointed
I waited longer than that
Just goes to prove
(Illogical) proving's illogical
But it's sometimes necessary
Proving's illogical
But it's a cinch
Fa-la-la (Illogical)
but why blame you
You wouldn't be
If you could choose
most of the time
It's out of site
It hit me today
Who gave who the right
Who took mine away
What a sight
What a sound
What a way to bring people down
What a way to bring me down
It goes on and on
And on and on and on .....
So uptight
But why blame you
You wouldn't be
If you could choose
Most of the time
It's out of site
it hit me today
Who gave who the right
Who took mine away
What a site
What a sound
What a way to bring people down
What a way to bring me down
I know that you'll get yours
When you get empty
It's so close
I'm sure that you
Would rather do that
Than be in your clothes
You must have waited a long time
Bet you were disappointed
I waited longer than that
Just goes to prove
(Illogical) proving's illogical
But it's sometimes necessary
Proving's illogical
But it's a cinch
Fa-la-la (Illogical)
but why blame you
You wouldn't be
If you could choose
most of the time
It's out of site
It hit me today
Who gave who the right
Who took mine away
What a sight
What a sound
What a way to bring people down
What a way to bring me down
It goes on and on
And on and on and on .....
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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Yo La Tengo
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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,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
When it comes to Nature vs. Nurture, I've always felt that Nurture holds more weight, and I feel this song kinda goes along with that idea. The first passage is key-
"Raised unright So uptight But why blame you You wouldn't be if you could choose"
I use thinking like this to not blame people for ignorant, stuck up behavior.
am i the only one who likes this song?
I do, it's one of my favourite Built to Spill songs.
best song on the album.
"out of site" is probably the best song on "perfect from now on" - but "perfect from now on" is the best bts album. anybody else think so?
@slartibartfass it gets fairly dark and weird and awesome but I don't get why so many people think it's their best. Ancient Melodies and Keep it Like a Secret are better if you ask me.
oh and can't forget Nothing Wrong w/ Love.
Definitely, their best album so far.
I actually prefer Keep It Like a Secret but there is no denying Perfect From Now On has no equal in Built To Spill's catalog. For me, it does not get as much play time as Keep It Like a Secret or There's Nothing Wrong With Love but in terms of the sheer elegance and texture and beauty of the instrumentation and just the album in general, I would say it's their most impressive "achievement".
I think the fact that the initial recordings burned up in the back of Phil Elk's car and caused them to have to re-record all those guitar parts was actually beneficial to the albums sound (all that painstaking work aside) as it just allowed for another facet of the musicality to unfold; in other words, having to rerecord meant they had another chance to do it all over again, just with the added knowledge and experience of having done all of it already before. I cannot say if the guitars sound the way they do as a direct result of the first set of tapes igniting into flame but there is something so entrancing about the guitar on this album; like a deeply complex myriad of overlapping sound and the texture of those sounds coalescing together. Maybe it sounded just as it does now on the first go around but there seems to be something timeless about the instrumentation on this album that I think may have come about as a result of all that guitar playing and all the hours devoted to recording the guitars that it just culminated onto/into eight songs in such a perfect way; a PERFECT way.
perfect from now on = perfect.
zen Buddhism
My favorite song from the album as well.
I think Uncle Bengi and I have the same interpretation. The opening verses point to someone whose experiences have caused them to be the person they are. The final line makes me wonder if the song is concluding that people don't really change.
"It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on..."
Will the subject of the song who "brings people down" ever stop doing so? And if so, can we really blame them?