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"
My true love drowned in a dirty old pan of oil
That had run from the block
Of a Falcon sedan 1969
The paper said '75
There were no survivors
None found alive
Trees break the sidewalk
And the sidewalk skins my knee.
There's glass in my thermos and blood on my jeans
Nickels and dimes of the 4th of July
Growing off in a crooked line to the chain link lots where the red tails dive
Oh how I'd forgot what it's like
Hey when she sings when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey pretty baby get high with me
We can go to my sister's if we say we'll watch the baby
The look on your face yanks my neck on the chain
And I would do anything to see you again
So I've fallen behind
Hey when she sings when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Go on go on and scream and cry
You're miles from where anyone will find you
This is nothing new, no television crew
They don't even put on the siren
And right down the street the pavement bleeds
Don't let 'em die
Oh, how I'd forgot
That had run from the block
Of a Falcon sedan 1969
The paper said '75
There were no survivors
None found alive
Trees break the sidewalk
And the sidewalk skins my knee.
There's glass in my thermos and blood on my jeans
Nickels and dimes of the 4th of July
Growing off in a crooked line to the chain link lots where the red tails dive
Oh how I'd forgot what it's like
Hey when she sings when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey pretty baby get high with me
We can go to my sister's if we say we'll watch the baby
The look on your face yanks my neck on the chain
And I would do anything to see you again
So I've fallen behind
Hey when she sings when she sings when she sings like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey when she moves when she moves when she moves like she runs
Moves like she runs
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Hey there there's such tender wolves 'round town tonight
Round the town tonight
Go on go on and scream and cry
You're miles from where anyone will find you
This is nothing new, no television crew
They don't even put on the siren
And right down the street the pavement bleeds
Don't let 'em die
Oh, how I'd forgot
Lyrics submitted by delial, edited by InthekeyofFaith, TomWaitsIsGod
Star Witness Lyrics as written by Paul Rigby Neko Case
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Neko Case spoke about this song in an interview on pitch fork media here: pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/c/case_neko-06/
Pitchfork: From Fox Confessor, on a song like "Star Witness", I'm guessing there's a car accident involved but the details are sketchy.
Case: I spent a while on that song. It's about an actual event that occurred in front of me. It wasn't actually a car accident but someone being shot to death. That was a real event that happened in Chicago.
Pitchfork: What happened?
Case: It was one of those things where there's gang violence and somebody gets shot right in front of you, and you live it and it's horrible. And, of course, it doesn't make the news because the kid is black. Nobody gives a shit except for his family, and you see how much nobody gives a shit and it's fucking heartbreaking. He wasn't even the kid they were looking to shoot. He was just some kid who they mistook for somebody else and they shot him. I saw it happen. I didn't make the song about me either. The song is pieces of different people but the event is in there.
in all honesty, neko case has one of the most gorgeous voices of any female vocalist that is out there now. the first time i heard this song, it was a shock because i had only been used to her vocal styles as far as new pornographers. i knew she had it in her, but this song is extremely haunting. it's just about the most beautiful song i have ever heard in my entire life. and that's a fact. "the look on your face yanks my neck on the chain, and i would do anything to see you again" breaks my heart every time. her tone and emotion all throughout this track are phenomenal. this is the song i would use to introduce a newbie to neko case. still get chills even after hearing it so many, many times.
this song could be about lots of things. a love love, a murder, a car accident? who knows.
this song is just lovely. j'adore neko.
So which parts are which people, you reckon?
Last verse is the mother, most probably - I'm not all too sure about the rest of it though.
just a detail. this is the only video that I have found of her playing this song. youtube.com/watch Does anyone knows if there is something else about this song. Cheers.
It seems to me that this song deals with the vastness of life, the good side of it and the bad. At first she describes a series of events, but then she delves into emotions like love and sadness. I think the song is simply an instrospective look at life. We live day by day and often forget to stop and think about the events that unfold around us and their possible meaning.
Weirdly, I saw a kid shot in Chicago, as well. It was really awful. I waited up to hear the news report, and it turned out that the shooter (it was a murder - the kid was shot in the back) was an off-duty police officer. The kid was black, and sadly, the cop got off scot-free. It was a similar thing, in that you could tell the sadness of the people around the kid by the memorials left where he was killed, but aside from that, it seemed like nobody gave a damn
really tragic
Ever since reading about the story which inspired it, this song gives me chills. My favourite line is probably, "My nightgown sweeps the pavement; please, don't let him die," because it creates such a strong image of a woman standing, with her gown blowing, while the child is rushed away.
absolutely love it.
This song's chorus is similar to "The Way that He Sings" by My Morning Jacket, a song that definitely fits in with the mood of this...