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"
Motorcycle's in the parking lot
Revving their engines and it just wont stop
Matches the noise screaming in my head
Houston I think we got a problem
Where does everybody go when they go
The go so fast I don't think they know
We hate so fast
And we love too slow
London I think we got a problem
And when I think about it
I just can't think about it
I try to drink about it
I keep spinning
Ave Mary A
Where did you go
Where did you go
How did you know
To get out of a world gone mad
Help me let go
Of the chaos around me
The devil that hounds me
I need you to tell me
Child be still
Child be still
Broken hearts all around the spot
I can't help thinking that we lost the plot
Suicide bomber and a student shot
Tokyo I think we got a problem
But for that they have got a pill
If that don't kill you then the side effects will
If we don't kill each other then the side effects will
Cape Town I think we got a problem
Ave Mary A
Where did you go
Where did you go
How did you know
To get out of a world gone mad
Help me let go
Of the chaos around me
The devil that hounds me
I need you to tell me
Child be still
If the darkest hour comes
Before the light
Where is the light
Where is the light
If the darkest hour comes
Before the light
Where is the light
Where is the light
Where is the light, yeah
Ave Mary A
Where did you go
Where did you go
How did you know
To get out of a world gone mad
Help me let go
Of the chaos around me
The devil that hounds me
I need you to tell me
Child be still
Child be still
Child be still
Revving their engines and it just wont stop
Matches the noise screaming in my head
Houston I think we got a problem
Where does everybody go when they go
The go so fast I don't think they know
We hate so fast
And we love too slow
London I think we got a problem
And when I think about it
I just can't think about it
I try to drink about it
I keep spinning
Ave Mary A
Where did you go
Where did you go
How did you know
To get out of a world gone mad
Help me let go
Of the chaos around me
The devil that hounds me
I need you to tell me
Child be still
Child be still
Broken hearts all around the spot
I can't help thinking that we lost the plot
Suicide bomber and a student shot
Tokyo I think we got a problem
But for that they have got a pill
If that don't kill you then the side effects will
If we don't kill each other then the side effects will
Cape Town I think we got a problem
Ave Mary A
Where did you go
Where did you go
How did you know
To get out of a world gone mad
Help me let go
Of the chaos around me
The devil that hounds me
I need you to tell me
Child be still
If the darkest hour comes
Before the light
Where is the light
Where is the light
If the darkest hour comes
Before the light
Where is the light
Where is the light
Where is the light, yeah
Ave Mary A
Where did you go
Where did you go
How did you know
To get out of a world gone mad
Help me let go
Of the chaos around me
The devil that hounds me
I need you to tell me
Child be still
Child be still
Child be still
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No Surprises
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Page
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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.
Well first of all, Ave Maria is hail Mary, as in praying, so that's the first obvious connection. It's just, she's worried because the whole world is going crazy, and she doesn't know how to deal with it. And she thinks the world is already at its worst and is wondering if and when things will get better. She wants to be above the false treasures that the rest of the world holds dear. She needs her fears to be put at rest.
On a random note, I love "If we don't kill each other, then the side effects will." It's perfect. =)
i love this song. i never heard it until i actually bought the funhouse cd, but its my fav song by her now. its so true..... in this day & age, there is real chaos, and sometimes you get really confused. i love the chorus.... the chaos around me, the devil that hounds me, i need u to tell me... child be still. its so sweet simple and true. im catholic, so of course the 1st thing i thought of was ave maria, and in a way, it IS a sort of prayer, like, help me out, im gonna get lost in this madness, plz help. i get that feeling a lot. thats what i love about her songs, they're so true and... HUMAN. like a real person actually wrote them, whereas other songs don't feel as authentic. it makes me feel better that others actually have felt the same feelings that i have. it feels real and personalized, just for you.
This song is very catchy, I can listen to it over and over again. To me it seems she compares the fears she had for Carey when he raced his motorcycle, with the fear she has now because she is alone again. I'm not sure though.
After listening to it a lot more, I realized the song has a bigger meaning, like xLadYofSorrowZx said. I think I thought every song was going to about their breakup and read what I wanted to read :) Great song.
I agree with xLadYofSorrowZx. I think it's about a crisis of faith. The ending of her marriage, all these other examples of problems in the world (school shootings, war, terrorism), cause her to consider the possibility that God has abandoned us. She's praying to Mary to return her faith ("I need you to tell me/Child be still"). That's my take on it. And how I feel a lot of the time. My fave song on "Funhouse".
I think this song definitely deals with feeling abandoned by god,and faith in a crazy time like JayC614 said, "Where did you go? where did you go? How did you know to get out of a world gone mad?" seem to point that she feels like Maira has abandoned her. Also the "I need you to tell me Child be still child be still" part is like her saying basically "Yo god i need some proof you didn't leave us in this bull-shit world".
This song gives me chills.
I'm reading everybody's responses and interpretations, but I have a ques? Isn't there some type significance to the way its spelled? [Ave Mary A] The original way is "Ave Maria" Why did she specifically spell it like that?
Not sureee, but maybe because of the way she sings it in the song. Like 'ave maria' is dragged out and it sounds lik e'ave mary a'. not sure, just an idea. =]
I mostly agree with everything that's been said. It's about this mad world we're living in that doesn't seem to get any less mad as the years go on.. As for the spelling "Ave Mary A", I think it's kind of a way to make it a "modern" Maria. Maybe someone she feels she can relate more to than the religious, traditional Maria. Or it might also be an expression of this chaotic world where religion and faith, sadly, is getting less room in people's lives. And therefore she doesn't even remember Virgin Maria's "real" name... Nah, I think I'm going with my first theory! :)
Lol thx!
child be still. such a simple line.