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Broke into the old apartment
This is where we used to live
Broken glass, broke and hungry
Broken hearts and broken bones
This is where we used to live
Why did you paint the walls?
Why did you clean the floor?
Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door?
This is where we used to live
Why did you keep the mousetrap?
Why did you keep the dishrack?
These things used to be mine
I guess they still are, I want them back
Broke into the old apartment
Forty-two stairs from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord
Narrow laneway filled with crooks
This is where we used to live
Why did they pave the lawn?
Why did they change the locks?
Why did I have to break it, I only came here to talk
This is where we used to live
How is the neighbor downstairs?
How is her temper this year?
I turned up your TV and stomped on the floor just for fun
I know we don't live here anymore
We bought an old house on the Danforth
She loves me and her body keeps me warm
I'm happy there
But this is where we used to live
Broke into the old apartment
Tore the phone out of the wall
Only memories, fading memories
Blending into dull tableaux
I want them back
This is where we used to live
Broken glass, broke and hungry
Broken hearts and broken bones
This is where we used to live
Why did you paint the walls?
Why did you clean the floor?
Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door?
This is where we used to live
Why did you keep the mousetrap?
Why did you keep the dishrack?
These things used to be mine
I guess they still are, I want them back
Broke into the old apartment
Forty-two stairs from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord
Narrow laneway filled with crooks
This is where we used to live
Why did they pave the lawn?
Why did they change the locks?
Why did I have to break it, I only came here to talk
This is where we used to live
How is the neighbor downstairs?
How is her temper this year?
I turned up your TV and stomped on the floor just for fun
I know we don't live here anymore
We bought an old house on the Danforth
She loves me and her body keeps me warm
I'm happy there
But this is where we used to live
Broke into the old apartment
Tore the phone out of the wall
Only memories, fading memories
Blending into dull tableaux
I want them back
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"Steven Page has said that the song was partly inspired by "Back to the Old House" by The Smiths.[citation needed] While some[weasel words] have misinterpreted the lyrics to mean that the man in the song is stalking an ex-girlfriend and breaks into her apartment to terrorize her, Page has said that this is definitely not the case.[citation needed] The person in the song and his girlfriend are still together and happy, having "bought an old house on the Danforth" (Danforth Avenue in Toronto). However, he goes back to visit "the old apartment" "where we used to live," and winds up breaking in to reminisce. Although recalling "broken glass," the "crooked landing, crooked landlord," and other disadvantages, he nonetheless feels nostalgia for "fading memories / blending into dull tableaux."
As a story…
A man breaks into the apartment he and a former lover shared, a place where she still resides. Infuriated by a mixture of longing and anger, he directs his frustration towards trivial changes made to the apartment, misplacing blame that would appropriately be directed at his dissatisfaction. Yes, he and his current partner have a house on the Danforth - he no longer worries about his fussy neighbour, the shady landlord, or the myriad of trivial issues that accompanied his old apartment (or old relationship), but it doesn't bring him satisfaction, because you really do need someone who does more than just keep you warm at night.
Also, in the last part of the song, "I know we don't live here anymore, we bought an old house on the Danforth", I think the first 'we' refers to him and his previous lover, and the second 'we' refers to his current partner and himself.
I also think a few detailed bits are indicative of a separation between himself and the person he is venting towards - "your TV", "she loves me" (she being his current partner) instead of *you* love me, "I only came here to talk"… If the person he lived with on the Danforth was the same partner he lived with in the old apartment, why would he go to a previous address to talk to someone he currently lives with, then call her 'she'? I do think he refers to two separate relationships.
It's a great song.
The couple has moved on from there. They're more financially secure. They now have the dream house and possibly a car and a couple of kids too. The singer is happy with his life in general but with the new stage of life comes new challenges, possibly more complicated challenges like workplace politics, determining how to teach his children to do the right thing, drawing up a will, looking after aging in laws.
He goes back to the apartment because part of him misses the simplicity of those early days when it was just the two of them living on love.
He is angry that the place has changed because we're all a little narcissistic and deep down we tend to feel that we can change but other things should stay the way we left them. Deep down he felt like that old apartment would always be his.
I also feel this way when I go back to my high school. When I see they've changed the lockers and painting and classroom layout I can't help but tell people what it was like when I was there; it always seems like it was better back then just because it was mine.
And while I do see the domestic violence thing, I don't really think that's what they're referring to. I think the song is actually pretty funny, referring to dish rack, pissing off the neighbor downstairs, etc.
The part that gets to me is when he says "tore the phone out of the wall..." To me, the song is about returning to their old apt, and reflecting back on all the trials, tribulations and triumphs, the successes and failures ("broken hearts"), from the time he got so mad he punched a hole in the door to when they couldn't afford heat, all experienced in this apartment, were now just memories that were fading in much the same way you can only piece together parts of a dream in a tableau. He realizes all the memories and hardships that made their relationship strong and built personal character happened right here in the apartment, and realizing he'll never get those back, he rips the phone out of the wall. That's what it means to me.
I like 42... It's the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. :-)