I wrote a letter on a nothing day
I asked somebody "Could you send my letter away?"
"You are too young to put all of your hopes in just one envelope"
I said goodbye to someone that I love
It's not just me, I tell you it's the both of us
And it was hard
Like coming off the pills that you take to stay happy

Someone above has seen me do alright
Someone above is looking with a tender eye
Upon her face, you may think you're alone
but you may think again

If I could do just one near perfect thing I'd be happy
They'd write it on my grave, or when they scattered my ashes
On second thoughts I'd rather hang about
and be there with my best friend
If she wants me

And far away somebody read the letter
He condescends to read the words I wrote about him
And if he smiles, it's no more than a genius deserves
For all his curious nerve and his passion

I'm going deaf, you're growing melancholy
Things fall apart, I don't know why we bother at all
But life is good
and "It's always worth living, at least for a while"

If I could do just one near perfect thing I'd be happy
They'd write it on my grave, or when they scattered my ashes
On second thoughts I'd rather hang about
and be there with my best friend
If she wants me

If you think to yourself "What should I do now?"
Then take the baton, girl, you better run with it
There is no point in standing in the past
'cause it's over and done with

I took a book and went into the forest
I climbed the hill
I wanted to look down on you
But all I saw was twenty miles of wilderness
so I went home



Lyrics submitted by ReActor

Track duration: 05:05


If She Wants Me song meanings
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37 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Sounds like being a 20-something year old who thinks
    Flag minuetteon September 28, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I always kind of assumed that "If I could do just one near perfect thing, I'd be happy" is like.... being happy is the one near perfect thing he could do.
    Flag NataliePerkinson February 13, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Awesome song, but the opening guitar riff is stolen from "Bertha" by The Grateful Dead (especially from the version on their S/T live album from '71, aka Skull & Roses).
    Flag DanzaSlapon November 03, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the beginning of this song sounds EXACTLY like sukie in the graveyard.. (the live version if anyone's ever heard it)
    Flag pinkbullets26on June 09, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The line
    "There is no point in standing in the past cause it's over and done with "

    Should actually say:
    "There is no point in standing in the past cause it's over and done"


    Still AMAZING song - one of my favourites by them =D
    Flag UltraFairy666on April 11, 2009   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:My favorite part of this song is "I climbed the hill, I wanted to look down on you / But all I saw was twenty miles of wilderness so I went home." To me, it means that you keep looking for something in a person and cannot find it, perhaps because they don't have it in the first place or maybe they don't want to show it to you. But then at some point it doesn't matter anymore and you just give up.
    Flag plain_janeon March 17, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:*he'll be remembered for
    Flag brilliantdayson July 24, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:When I started thinking about this song, I wondered why he couldn't have both done the "near perfect thing" and been with her, and I think this is about Stuart and Isobel. I don't know the details about their breakup & her leaving the band, but the band could have come between them - he's contemplating that he could do something great he'll be remember, or he could hang around with her. This is possible a choice that's too late for him to make, as Isobel had left the band already at this time.
    "I said goodbye to someone that I loved"

    IDK who the "he" that the letter was sent to is, though.
    Flag brilliantdayson July 24, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the first two lines don't sound right at all ... it doesn't sound anywhere near "on a nothing day..." maybe it's the accent but i just don't hear it.
    Flag yoshimi_09on July 01, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Just an interesting tidbit to this song, when Stuart was younger this semi-famous radio show in Scotland had a contest. They asked their fans to write them a letter, with the best letter getting a prize. Stuart decided to interpret it his own way, and wrote a song called "A Letter," and sent it off. So when he sings "I wrote a letter on a nothing day," he means a song called "a letter," though of course the meaning goes past the literal. And his hopes were in the one envelope he sent it away in, hence the next line.

    He never heard back from the radio people. I read these details in the band's biography "Just a Modern Rock Story."
    Flag kylesseyon May 29, 2008   Link

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