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"
Princess cards she sends me with her regards
Oh, barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile, I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted
Oh, but you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
Honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
You said, here's your mirror and your ball and jacks
But they're not what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me
And my electric surges free
Oh, crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Oh, reveal yourself all now to me, girl
While you've got the strength to speak
'Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you now, if only you could ask
Oh, and don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me my money, honey, I don't want it back
You and your pony face and your Union Jack
Well, take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way, even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew
That you were born with the power of a locomotive
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and cry in a single sound
Oh, right
And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the God?
You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band, they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
Yeah, that ragged, jagged melody, she still clings to me like a leech
But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
Like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhikers but you had your ears tuned to the roar
Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
And it's not that nursery mouth that I came back for
It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
'Cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know that's true
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me
And my electric surges free
Ooh
Ooh
Oh, barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile, I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted
Oh, but you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
Honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
You said, here's your mirror and your ball and jacks
But they're not what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me
And my electric surges free
Oh, crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Oh, reveal yourself all now to me, girl
While you've got the strength to speak
'Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you now, if only you could ask
Oh, and don't call for your surgeon, even he says it's too late
It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me my money, honey, I don't want it back
You and your pony face and your Union Jack
Well, take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way, even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew
That you were born with the power of a locomotive
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and cry in a single sound
Oh, right
And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the God?
You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band, they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
Yeah, that ragged, jagged melody, she still clings to me like a leech
But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
Like a little girl with a trophy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhikers but you had your ears tuned to the roar
Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
And it's not that nursery mouth that I came back for
It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
'Cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores?
And you should know that's true
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you
But your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me
And my electric surges free
Ooh
Ooh
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Sorry to disillusion all you theorists but I know the true source of these lyrics...It's all about a young lady called Pauline with whom Mr Springsteen was living with in the 1970's...Despite living in the US for almost 60 years she has retained her British citizenship hence the references to England...Union Jack...Cheshire smile and so on...Pauline moved up to NYC for a while and got in some bad company and ended up in Belle Vue with a bad reaction to the substances she was partaking in. Mr Springsteen jumped in his car and brought her back to Long Branch....He makes a reference to Pauline on page 157 of his autobiography...Pauline is my sister.
@Safeway56 How is Pauline now?
"For You" is an incredible song. You have to hear the live version - "Live from Hammerstein, England." In concert, he does a solo on the piano, and it is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, and it's quite a contrast to the original.
Yes, it's a song about a girl committing suicide. Maybe about a girl who couldn't be contained or a wild child.
Hammersmith
@tpwaller I was listening to my old time gospel Pandora station and damn if they didn't play this! I fell in love. (Maybe their algorithms are on to something.)<br />
Oops - I do apologise tpwaller - it did look like a very petty thing to say. I tickled myself with the thought of a piano resurrected!! I did not mean to offend, as your comment on the song is suberb Sorry
This song is about oral sex and lost love.
Really good song. Heartbreaking and hopeful.
I think this song is about a girl that is unhappy with her life...or wants to leave town or kill herself...and he is singing about trying to save her or something....i dont know
i'm surprised there are only two comments for this song. i love it.
Meh I was thinking of breakuing up with my boyfreind of one year but he told me to download this song and well, yeah I'll go back. I've never liked bruce springsteen before, now I'm a fan.
I agree, definitely one of Bruce's best. I don't understand the line "And your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free."
CAUSE I'VE BROKEN ALL YOUR WINDOWS AND I'VE RAMMED THROUGH ALL YOUR DOORS AND WHO AM I TO ASK YOU TO LICK MY SORES? who can help but shout along!? I think that this song is about a girl killing herself, but i also think its more like theyre going to break up and he is explaining to her that she can't survive without him...