Losing a whole year
I remember you and me used to spend the whole goddamned day in bed
Losing a whole year
Lying in your room we'd lay like dogs
The phone would ring like a joke that's left unsaid
Rich daddy left you with a parachute
Your voice sounds like money and your face is cute
But your daddy left you with no love
You touch everything with a velvet glove and
Now you want to try a life of sin
You want to be down with the down and in
Always copping my truths
I kind of get the feeling like I'm being used
And now I realize you never heard
One goddamned thing I ever said
Losing a whole year
Took your stuff and put it in the basement
When I found out what the smile on your face meant
I've seen you pop that check
Craning your neck at my car wreck
It always seems the juice used to flow
In the car, in the kitchen you were good to go
Now we're stuck with the tube
A sink full of dishes and some aqualube
I remember you and me used to spend the whole damned day in bed
Losing a whole year
And if it's not the defense then you're on the attack
When you start talking I hear the Prozac
Convinced you've found your place
With the pierced queer teens in Cyberspace
When you were yourself it tasted sweet
But it sours into a routine deceit
Well this drama is a bore
And I don't want to play no more
I remember you and me used to spend the whole damned day in bed
Losing a whole year



Lyrics submitted by DonutDH

Track duration: 03:21

"Losing a Whole Year" as written by Stephan/cadogan Jenkins

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, THE BICYCLE MUSIC COMPANY

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Losing a Whole Year song meanings
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  • 0
    Song Comparison:while i disagree this song was written about gatsby, i do see the resemblance.
    for the rest of you, why criticize one's ability to connect a great song with a great piece of literature? the connection of the two in itself is insightful, and lovely for the single reason being that in someone's mind the two were intertwined which makes the song more fluid for the reader to associate with.
    Flag hazel182on June 21, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:how can this NOT be based on the great gatsby? there are so many clues:

    "I remember you and me used to spend
    The whole goddamned day in bed" -- Gatsby and Daisy used to be intense lovers but then Gatsby went and made his fortune only to find that Daisy had already found another husband. This nostalgia is precisely the impossible that Gatsby wants to relive.

    "The phone would ring/Like a joke that's left unsaid" -- phones are a major motif/symbol in the Great Gatsby, which represent the superficiality that comes with technology. The irony is that phones are not the same as human beings, which makes sense with this song.

    "Your voice sounds like money/and your face is cute" -- precisely Daisy Buchanan

    "Rich daddy left you with a parachute...
    But your daddy left you with no love" -- I think the 'daddy' is Tom Buchanan, because he is rich but is not loving at all.

    "Now you want to try a life of sin
    You want to be down with the down and in" -- This is similar to Gatsby's and Daisy's affair. She is afraid to stand up to Tom, so she resorts to cheating on him.

    "Craning your neck at the car wreck" -- Daisy has a car accident near the end where she kills her husband's lover-- representing her destructiveness (of the relationship too)

    "And if it's not the defense then you're on the attack
    When you start talking
    I hear the Prozac
    Convinced you've found your place
    With the pierced queer teens in Cyberspace" -- Again, a reference to her voice, which is money but also Prozac. This can be extended to mean that the money and materialism that the girl in the song trades in for real love and a fake sense of belonging does not make her truly happy.

    Not to mention that I always thought "Forget Myself" was about Gatsby. That song also makes references to telephones and her voice. If 3eb referenced Great Gatsby in one song, I bet they did in multiple.



    Flag lvs49on January 13, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the instrumental breaks in 11/8 (alternating bars of 5 and 6) are REALLY cool. Third Eye Blind are such a great band-- on the surface they're catchy '90s alternative, but on the next level they've got some of the best lyrics i've ever seen, some of the most talented musicians i've ever heard, and some of the coolest musical concepts you could possibly work into the genre.
    Flag ashowofhandson July 30, 2010   Link
  • +2
    Song Meaning:such an emotional song video's pretty cool too.

    Its about how he was with this one girl for so long and things seemed so great; he was oblivious and so wrapped around her that things would be going on around him and he wouldnt care.

    when they broke up he finally realized how she used him for money, sex, etc, was never actually ever there for him, and he lost an entire year wasting it on this girl.

    and all those things he thought were cute and mysterious about that girl, he now realizes were just hiding the truth. she always hid things and would be quick to defend herself and kept her secret buried.
    it was fine in the beginning but after time and time of drama he's sick of it and is just done.
    Flag nicnic3on May 23, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:There is nothing else really to say beyond that this song is about Meth Addiction.

    From my knowledge (take it as you leave it) the song was drafted from the memory of drug use by Stephen Jenkins and a girlfriend that he had who along with he used Methamphetamine over a period of time that inspired this song. I know from personal experience how easy it is to fall within this kind of drug use and find yourself "losing a whole year." The song within itself is a sly cautionary tale about the dangers of finding yourself not only in the allure of drugs, but also the allure of love forlorn because it is love denied. Keep that in mind. Whenever you get the glint of love in your perspective, remember that there are always caveats.

    Flag timberwolveson May 22, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:So today we were watching the Great Gatsby in English when it comes to the part where Gatsby turns to Nick & says, "Her voice is full of money." Instantly, I thought of this song & thought I was brilliant & that I was the only one who noticed it. Though, it seems that everyone else caught on also (:
    Flag estrileckison May 04, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:So, yeah, this song isn't about the Great Gatsby. I don't really see Daisy finding her place "with the pierced queer teens in cyberspace." Whether the book was an inspiration for some of the lines, who knows, maybe. This song is about a rich trust-fund ("parachute") girl who's had a sheltered life and is rebelling. "Now you want to try a life of sin/you want to be down with the down and in." The "copping my truths" thing could be that she had adopted his outlook and is trying to join his scene while it is fun and convenient for her, but he realizes later she was just using him to piss of her Daddy. He is thinking about how great it was in the beginning, how much amazing sex they had and what a strong connection he'd thought they shared. He now realizes it was all fake, "And now I realize that you never heard/One goddamned word I ever said." He feels like he wasted the whole year they were together. The last part makes me think maybe she hasn't totally let go of the relationship and is still screwing with his head, and he has decided that he is done with her and all her drama "I don't want to play no more."
    Flag JAM4321on February 18, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:If people havent noticed TEB's songs are all about sex and drugs. this song is obviously about a relationship that lasted a year on sex and her rebeling from her father. They spent the whole damn day in bed lusting. They are realizing that its just sex it was great she was sweet when they first started but its been in a sour routine as in he doesn't like to do it anymore. "It always seems the juice used to flow
    In the car, in the kitchen you were good to go Now we're stuck with the tube" So he has waisted a year with a girl that only wanted sex and now that it has stopped he doesnt know what to do
    Flag PatricktheHumanJukeboxon January 15, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I love this song. I play it whenever it feels like life is getting in the way of intimacy with my husband.
    "I remember you and me used to spend
    The whole goddamned day in bed
    Losing a whole year
    Hiding in your room we'd lay like dogs
    The phone would ring
    Like a joke that's left unsaid"

    Before we were living together, we'd only have one night and day together a week, because of our work schedule, and because he lived so far away. So, we'd fit a week's worth of sex into 24 hours, only leaving the bed to go get snacks and drinks. He lived with a roommate, but we never saw him because we were "hiding in" his room. And we'd never answer our phones, because we were so focused on each other.

    "But your daddy left you with no love
    You touch everything with a velvet glove"

    I don't think my husband's parents are very demonstrative with affection or emotion (I don't really know, I've only met them a few times since they live out of state.) So, a lot of times, I feel starved for any kind of affection, because my husband kind of keeps his hands to himself, and if I want a hug, I have to go GET it.

    "It always seems the juice used to flow
    In the car, in the kitchen you were good to go
    Now we're stuck with the tube
    A sink full of dishes and some aqua lube"

    We use to have sex whereever, whenever, but with two kids, we just can't. But, this song is powerful to me, because I gave birth to our daughter a year ago, and we've had sex, I kid you not, 5 times this year, so it's like we lost an entire year.
    Sorry if it's TMI, but that's what this song makes ME think about.
    Flag nyssashouldbesufficienton January 09, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:sorry to burst the bubble of all you gatsby fans here, but it seems as though stephan isn't writing about the great gatsby so much as he is simply referring (or alluding, as most on here have posted) to some thematic elements of the book. in fact, i think any connection to the overall plot of the story is ridiculous. yes, he mentions her voice sounds like money--which is very similar to what gatsby relates to nick as a description of daisy's voice. he also describes this girl as having money, touching everything with her "velvet gloves" etc. i get why you see gatsby in these lines. however, what i'd argue is that stephan is a well-read, extremely creative and intelligent person (he was, after all, valedictorian of uc berkeley--graduating with a b.a. in english literature) so i'm sure he's at least familiar with, if not a fan of, the great gatsby. stephan tends to ruminate on and write about very similar topics that fitzgerald was concerned with during his short but brilliant writing career: fame, the upper class, money, sex, alcohol, chaos, dissipation, etc. stephan, like gatsby, was not born rich, but fell for (at least according to the lyrics) a girl who was very much out of his reach in terms of social status and economic status. so maybe he identifies with gatsby's struggle to corral and control a girl who comes from a very different background and upbringing--and consider this: the title of the song is "losing a whole year"; when talking about the great gatsby one cannot ignore that gatsby's greatest concern in the novel is not getting daisy to fall in love with him again. no, what he desires most is to turn back time and recreate the love he shared with daisy before he left for the first world war. he's concerned with buying back time--and as we all know, no amount of money (whether it's inherited, stolen, or earned through bootlegging) will be the correct currency to buy back time. in the song, stephan seems to understand this quite clearly. he's lamenting the time he spent with this girl, realizing he's lost a year of his life, and he'll never get it back. and if you read enough fitzgerald, you'll start to see that his writing is filled with apprehension about objects disappearing, or "dissipating" as he puts it in "babylon revisited". i think stephan is sitting back and thinking about how this relationship had such promise, and then it all fell apart--and all he's left with are his memories. after all, the focus of the song, the most powerful line that repeats the most, starts with: i remember...
    Flag fitzhemingwayon December 05, 2009   Link

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