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I did a sick, sick thing to my love
My lack of loyalty, it swallowed her up
And she cooked me food
She squirmed and turned
Like a skeleton key
She left her man and attended to me
And don't call me that
Don't claim you love me
Cause you know that ain't true
My dire affliction I'll attribute to you
And you're finally free
To twist and turn
Like a skeleton key
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
I did a horrible thing to that girl
I bread my misery and drowned it in her
And she got me high
And I hardly noticed there were tears in her eyes
And I miss you less and less everyday
This stream of whisky's helped to wash you away
And it's clear to see
You're nothing special
You're a skeleton key
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
My lack of loyalty, it swallowed her up
And she cooked me food
She squirmed and turned
Like a skeleton key
She left her man and attended to me
And don't call me that
Don't claim you love me
Cause you know that ain't true
My dire affliction I'll attribute to you
And you're finally free
To twist and turn
Like a skeleton key
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
I did a horrible thing to that girl
I bread my misery and drowned it in her
And she got me high
And I hardly noticed there were tears in her eyes
And I miss you less and less everyday
This stream of whisky's helped to wash you away
And it's clear to see
You're nothing special
You're a skeleton key
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
Lyrics submitted by amplifiedmouse
Track duration: 03:26
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"I did a sick, sick thing to my love
My lack of loyalty, it swallowed her up"
He was in a relationship with a girl, and cheated on her, and now she's sad and it's consuming her.
"And she cooked me food
She squirmed and turned
Like a skeleton key"
She did everything for him, but in a way he's saying she's just a girl, they'll all do that, she's not any different. The skeleton key term refers to her being a "female", she can open any door- as in get into any guy's head. Like a girl that toys with a guy's emotions.
"She left her man and attended to me"
She left her last boyfriend/husband to be with him. He says she's being a slut by jumping from another guy to him.
"And don't call me that
Don't claim you love me
Cause you know that ain't true"
She may have called him "baby", "sweetie", "darling" etc
He tells himself that she doesn't love him, maybe he feels no one could ever love him. Perhaps he thinks all girls are the same, they only want to use him.
"My dire affliction I'll attribute to you"
He blames her for him feeling guilty. He hurt her, and she ACTUALLY loved him. So he blamed her for loving him and getting so close to him. Saying it's her fault she got hurt.
"And you're finally free
To twist and turn
Like a skeleton key"
He broke up with her and now he says she's free to be kinda well..like a slut maybe? He thinks all girls "open your door" and hurt you and then move on to the next guy.
"You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know"
He's either telling her to prove to him, that she actually loves him; he wants to know if he actually messed up something that was probably the best thing he ever had. Or, he's wants her to lie and tell him she never really loved him and that he wasn't in the wrong for hurting her. The guilt of what he's done is eating him alive.
"I did a horrible thing to that girl
I bred my misery and drowned it in her"
The horrible thing he's referring to is that he used her. He caused his own problems, then ran to her looking for comfy or sympathy. Drowning his misery in her.
"And she got me high
And I hardly noticed there were tears in her eyes"
She got him high as in, she made him feel better. Maybe smothered him with affection trying to take his mind off his problems. The tears referring to how she ACTUALLY cried tears for him in his misery, she empathized with him, but he never really paid any attention to that.
"And I miss you less and less everyday
This stream of whisky's helped to wash you away"
He misses her, even though he tells himself she was only using him. So he's drinking to numb the pain he says she caused him, and by drinking it helps him to forget her.
"And it's clear to see
You're nothing special
You're a skeleton key"
He's trying to turn all his pain on her, because she's moved on and found someone who wouldn't hurt her the way he did. Like he's sitting back feeling sorry for what he did, then he sees her with someone else, and just basically says she's a slut for moving on. He's trying to reassure himself that she was nothing special, she was just a girl, and they all use you and move on to the next boy toy.
"You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know
You've gotta let me know"
He can't get her out of his head, the guilt of hurting her, someone who actually cared about him, is really beating him up. He's almost begging her to tell him how she really felt about him; hoping that he wasn't wrong for what he did to her, that she didn't really love him.
^ ^ This is only how I perceive the song myself.
(Sorry for any spelling errors)
I think the following verse shows that the author feels bad for taking her away. He feels pain and affliction because he doesn't actually love her.
He wants her to be free to open all the doors in life, or be with all the men. He isn't ready to commit to her because of his own poor emotional state.
He drowns his sorrows in her because she distracts him from his own pain and suffering. In this sense, she gets him "high." And as he uses her he becomes addicted to her ability to help him, but she doesn't realize how much he hurts her.
She leaves him, and it's then that he realizes he doesn't her. Alcohol takes her place to drown at his misery.
He once thought she was special, but now he realizes, she's just a "skeleton key," there are plenty like her in the world.
so the term, skeleton key away from this song means - a key that is capable of opening any lock regardless of make or type.
i think that in this song the term 'skeleton key' refers to a girl that is a slut basically, shes with many different guys - i don't agree with others, how they think it means a girl who makes herself fit perfectly to what the guys wants her to be.
so this is how i'm guessing the story would go, she is being herself; always with many different guys and then she meets this one guy, and so the lyrics go "she left her men and attended to me".
the next line "and don't call me that, don't claim you love me cause you know that ain't true", really like this line, i feel like the narrator is getting scared because he had no idea that this girl, would/ or could feel this way to just him, only to him.
i think she found this guy and finally wanted to be in a proper relationship with him and he is getting very confused and but at the same time he wants it too.
"and you're finally free to twist and turn like a skeleton key" he has broken it off with her and is saying that now she is free to be with whoever she wants, as many guys.
all this time, i feel he does love her, but he's too scared to stay with this girl as he feel that she thinks of him as just another guy.
coming toward the end, he continues to sing "you've got to let me know"
i think it is him trying to tell her to 'let him know' how she truly feels so that he can do the same.
"And it's clear to see
You're nothing special
You're a skeleton key"
Once again he repeats that she is nothing, perhaps showing that he is trying to convince himself that even though it was in fact his fault that it would have happened with anyone she was with. She would mold into anything for anyone.
And with the "You've gotta let me know" maybe he's wishing things could have gone differently. If only she hadn't taken it all in he would have noticed those tears in her eyes sooner. She could have gained a voice and therefore her own personality and would have become a person once again.
But she didn't let him know and he regrets the loss, but will move on regardless, with a "stream of whisky's" helping to "wash" her away.
The drinking also suggests a form of guilt and regret.
"This stream of whisky's helped to wash you away"
should be:
"And it's true the whiskey's helped to wash you away"
fix it.
"This stream of whisky's helped to wash you away"
should be:
"And it's true the whiskey's helped to wash you away"
fix it.
He clearly cheated on her and perhaps it was because he didn't believe that she truly loved him.
He regrets cheating, and he doesn't feel good about hurting her, but at the same time he is sure that this wasn't a special love. He blames himself, "I bread my misery and drowned it in her," for jading the relationship in the first place.
In the end, though, it seems that it was too impersonal and that she is, in fact, nothing more than someone that he could love, but someone that could never be the single person he'd be in love with. And, thus, he misses her less and less each day.
I thought some of the other comments were very interesting and creative. Music is nothing if the lyrics don't speak personally to the listener. I often find that I enjoy my original interpretations more than the thorough interpretations I make after studying the song more closely.
gay or rape theories? totally not what I thought. =\