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"
To cheat
On Maine islands
Days of laughter,
Nights of sighing.
To love
Without ceasing
Flowering orchards,
Salty sea-things.
To say
Without shyness
"unreal city,
You have killed me."
When you walked
Out on her love
Was it easy?
When I left
Him while sleeping
Was I dreaming?
We take
Each night's journey
To the hotel
In a hurry,
Where we love
Without worry
On a bed that's
Five days dirty.
And we read
Without irony
From a book my
Husband bought for me.
When I fell
On the concrete
It was lovely,
Because you could see
What's been running
So hot in me.
But when I fell
On the concrete,
You went white as
A sheet
And wished that nothing
In this world
Would ever hurt me.
Well, keep wishing.
Because when I look
In my future,
I don't see you
And don't wish to.
Idle talk made
When I'm lying
By your side on
Some Maine island
Is too funny
To me, honey,
So let's drop it.
If you really
Want to love me,
Well, then do it.
On Maine islands
Days of laughter,
Nights of sighing.
To love
Without ceasing
Flowering orchards,
Salty sea-things.
To say
Without shyness
"unreal city,
You have killed me."
When you walked
Out on her love
Was it easy?
When I left
Him while sleeping
Was I dreaming?
We take
Each night's journey
To the hotel
In a hurry,
Where we love
Without worry
On a bed that's
Five days dirty.
And we read
Without irony
From a book my
Husband bought for me.
When I fell
On the concrete
It was lovely,
Because you could see
What's been running
So hot in me.
But when I fell
On the concrete,
You went white as
A sheet
And wished that nothing
In this world
Would ever hurt me.
Well, keep wishing.
Because when I look
In my future,
I don't see you
And don't wish to.
Idle talk made
When I'm lying
By your side on
Some Maine island
Is too funny
To me, honey,
So let's drop it.
If you really
Want to love me,
Well, then do it.
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
"This a song about two people from new york city, living in new york city, leaving their respective spouses and they go to an island off the coast of maine and they stay in a hotel and have a lost weekend there....but....umm...it's not going to last... and one of them is aware of this and the other one is not." -Will Sheff in a live recording
This song literally tears me up inside whenever I hear it. I want to cry, tear myself, but I can't help but be taken back to a beautiful place by the slow and consistent sweet melody to this song.
My immediate interpretation was that of Will's. Not claiming mine as right but just commenting, I think there's a little more to it. They realize it's going to end and you can hear the ignorance in the song. The fact that actually acknowledging it is painful because it means conceding that you were never good enough.
Though both lovers have their own respective spouses to come home to, it's not enough. This line is particularly beautiful when you can hear the anger, betrayed, and pained feeling:
"you went white as / a sheet / and wished that nothing /in this world / would ever hurt me. / Well, keep wishing."
This reminds me of myself and something I long to yell.
"If you really want to love me, well, then do it."
This has to be the most beautiful song that I have ever heard.
this song is just. lovely.
"when i fell on the concrete, you went white as a sheet and wished that nothing in this world would ever hurt me-
well, keep wishing."
amazing.
Agreed.
I saw Will play song solo at a special one off show last summer. It was pretty much amazing.
This song is much better live than on the album, and, really, that's saying something since it's great on the album, too.
Since the meaning has already been covered, all I can say is that this song is amazing... then again, this band is phenomenal.
if you really want to love, well then do it...the final say of every rocky relationship. fucking genious.
When I fell on the concrete it was lovely, because you could see what’s been running so hot in me.
I think this is my favorite verse...I love the imagery.