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"
I had one friend in high school,
Recently he hung himself with string.
His note said, 'If living is the problem,
Well, that's just baffling.'
And at the wake I waited around
To see my ex first love,
And I barely recognized her,
But I knew exactly what she was thinking of.
We sat quietly in the corner,
Whispering close about loss.
And I remembered why I loved her,
And I asked her why I drove her off.
She said, "The slow fade of love,
Its soft edge might cut you
And our poor friend Jim, well, he just lived within
The slow fade of love."
A woman calls my house once a week,
She's always selling things.
Some charity, a phone plan,
Or subscription to a magazine.
And as I turned her down (I always do),
There was something trembling in her voice.
I said, 'Hey, what troubles you?'
She said, "I'm surprised you noticed.
Well, my husband, he's leaving,
And I can't convince him to stay.
And he'll take our daughter with him,
She wants to go with him anyway.
I'm sorry I'm hard to live with,
Living is the problem for me.
I'm selling people things they don't want,
When I don't know what she needs.
He said, 'The slow fade of love,
And its mist might choke you.
It's my gradual descent into a life I never meant.
It's the slow fade of love."
I was driving south from Melrose.
I happened upon my old lover's old house.
I found myself staring at the closed up door
Like the day she threw me out.
"Diana, Diana. Diana, I would die for you.
I'm in love with you completely,
I'm afraid that's all I can do."
She said, "You can sleep upon my doorstep,
You can promise me indifference, Jim.
But my mind is made up,
And I'll never let you in again.
For the slow fade of love.
It might hit you from below.
It's your gradual descent into a life you never meant.
It's the slow fade of love."
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
Baby, It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
Slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
Recently he hung himself with string.
His note said, 'If living is the problem,
Well, that's just baffling.'
And at the wake I waited around
To see my ex first love,
And I barely recognized her,
But I knew exactly what she was thinking of.
We sat quietly in the corner,
Whispering close about loss.
And I remembered why I loved her,
And I asked her why I drove her off.
She said, "The slow fade of love,
Its soft edge might cut you
And our poor friend Jim, well, he just lived within
The slow fade of love."
A woman calls my house once a week,
She's always selling things.
Some charity, a phone plan,
Or subscription to a magazine.
And as I turned her down (I always do),
There was something trembling in her voice.
I said, 'Hey, what troubles you?'
She said, "I'm surprised you noticed.
Well, my husband, he's leaving,
And I can't convince him to stay.
And he'll take our daughter with him,
She wants to go with him anyway.
I'm sorry I'm hard to live with,
Living is the problem for me.
I'm selling people things they don't want,
When I don't know what she needs.
He said, 'The slow fade of love,
And its mist might choke you.
It's my gradual descent into a life I never meant.
It's the slow fade of love."
I was driving south from Melrose.
I happened upon my old lover's old house.
I found myself staring at the closed up door
Like the day she threw me out.
"Diana, Diana. Diana, I would die for you.
I'm in love with you completely,
I'm afraid that's all I can do."
She said, "You can sleep upon my doorstep,
You can promise me indifference, Jim.
But my mind is made up,
And I'll never let you in again.
For the slow fade of love.
It might hit you from below.
It's your gradual descent into a life you never meant.
It's the slow fade of love."
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
Baby, It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
Slow fade of love.
It's the slow fade of love.
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Okay so, here is how I personally took it...
The woman on the phone is married to jim, we know this because she says to "me" on the phone, "I'm sorry I'm hard to live with, LIVING IS THE PROBLEM FOR ME." And then in the first verse at Jim's funeral, it says, "His note said, 'IF LIVING IS THE PROBLEM, well thats just baffling.'" This referring to his wife claiming "living was the problem," so Jim is being sort of sarcastic towards her by putting that in the suicide note. Kinda of like, 'well if living is the problem, why continue living.. thanks for the advice.'
And then I think the whole, going to diana's old house was just sort of confirming his unhappiness, knowing how much love really does fade, pushing him farther toward his suicide. Or maybe it was his way to sort of say goodbye to things he once loved, even though she did not live there anymore.
Mmm I just love this song, and it's cool seeing all the different ways people see it!
this song is really gorgeous. i really love "you can sleep upon my doorstep, you can promise me a difference, Jim. but my mind's made up and i'll never let you in again." i feel like that line sums up the slow fade of love. sometimes people are just in different places in their lives.
Personally, I think the song tells the story of Jim's faded love and death in backwords order from the perspective of three different narrators (A Man/Me/Then Jim). Each verse reveals a new part of the story...
The first verse is an example of faded love between a man and his old girlfriend who reunite at Jim's funeral. The Man tells us exactly what the suicide note said and his "ex-first love" explains that Jim "just lived within the slow-fade of love," or that he had some sort of a failed relationship in his life that probably led him to his end.
Next comes the second verse as told by "Me." I interpret that "Me" is the Man's ex-first love from the funeral and that this verse explains how she knew that Jim "just lived within the slow fade of love." She spoke on the phone with Jim's wife who makes a "living is the problem" comment, parralleling Jim's suicide note. This line obviously connects the woman on the phone to Jim. I guess, according to the verse, their marriage was unhappy, so Jim left and took their daughter.
The 3rd verse, as told by Jim, also sort of mirrors the first verse in the sense that both men in the song attempt to rekindle their relationships with their old loves. The way I take it, Jim goes desperately back to Diana, but she totally rebuffs his advances and is completely indifferent. As someone mentioned earlier, she has moved on from that "old house." Then all Jim can do is die, which he does, making a sarcastic comment in his suicide note to his wife, Diana, and thus we return to the beginning of the song, Jim's funeral.
Hope that makes a little sense...
-Kiley
I love how the slow fade of love has a "soft edge" and a "mist." These things seem so calm and harmless, yet they whittle away at love and before you know it they "cut you" or "choke you." People don't even realize their love is fading because it's so "gradual" and comes in slowly like mist or a soft cut, but before they know it they are transformed into a completely different person. It takes out your life from underneath you without you even realizing it, leaving you stranded in a "life you never meant." I LOVE this song.
i wish i was this song
Just a thought: I think the Me is Diana, but Diana and Jenny are the same person. After one of the shows, I waited around to get Jenny's autograph and my name is Diane. When I told her my name, she said "Oh that's my middle name!" So I think possibly Jenny is the Diana Jim was in love with. Of course we can't be sure, but it's a nice thought.
This is what I think the song is about:
The "man" is talking to Diana about Jim. She says he lived within the slow fade of love. In the last verse Jim says "Diana, Diana, Diana I would die for you". And that's what he did. When Jim wrote the note "If living is the problem well, that's just baffling" he was hinting towards his wife.
"Me" I think is Jenny or whomever wrote the song. Jenny is talking to Jim's wife. For whatever reason Jim doesn't love his wife anymore, something the wife has done because even their daughter doesn't want to stay with her. She says "living is the problem for me."
And "Jim" is in first person. Diana doesn't love him or won't allow herself to let him in anymore. Probably because he's married (IDK). This wrecks him. Both because love has faded with his wife, love is fading with Diana.
I just love how the story intertwines with all the people involved. You can take a lot from the song.
also, something i've always thought was obvious was that the things diana and jim said to each other outside the house happened way, way before jim drove came back to the house. i've noticed a lot of comments here that suggest that's not the case.
i'm pretty sure diana is the roman equivalent of artemis, the goddess of chasteness and the hunt (making her wild, or unable to be 'conquered'). i think it's just another hint that he can never have her.
Why does everyone think the conversation in the second verse is on the telephone?
It's very clear:
"A woman COMES TO my house once a week"
She's selling, amongst other things, phone plans, but she's there in person.
When you listen to the actual song, it sounds like she's "a woman calls my house" and the lyrics as transcribed here are wrong.
It's plainly "calls". There's even a snippet of the verse edited to sound like a phone conversation.