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"
Trouble loves me
Trouble needs me
Two things
More than you do
Or would attempt to
So, console me
Otherwise, hold me
Just when it seems like
Everything's evened out
And the balance
Seems serene
Trouble loves me
Walks beside me
To chide me
Not to guide me
It's still much more
Than you'll do
So, console me
Otherwise, hold me
Just when it seems like
Everything's evened out
And the balance seems serene
See the fool I'll be
Still running 'round
On the flesh rampage
Still running 'round
Ready with ready-wit
Still running 'round
On the flesh rampage
- At your age !
Go to Soho, oh
Go to waste in
The wrong arms
Still running 'round
Trouble loves me
Seeks and finds me
To charlatanize me
Which is only
As it should be
Oh, please fulfill me
Otherwise, kill me
Show me a barrel and watch me scrape it
Faced with the music, as always I'll face it
In the half-light
So English, frowning
Then at midnight I
Can't get you out of my head
A disenchanted taste
Still running 'round
A disenchanted taste
Still running 'round
Trouble needs me
Two things
More than you do
Or would attempt to
So, console me
Otherwise, hold me
Just when it seems like
Everything's evened out
And the balance
Seems serene
Trouble loves me
Walks beside me
To chide me
Not to guide me
It's still much more
Than you'll do
So, console me
Otherwise, hold me
Just when it seems like
Everything's evened out
And the balance seems serene
See the fool I'll be
Still running 'round
On the flesh rampage
Still running 'round
Ready with ready-wit
Still running 'round
On the flesh rampage
- At your age !
Go to Soho, oh
Go to waste in
The wrong arms
Still running 'round
Trouble loves me
Seeks and finds me
To charlatanize me
Which is only
As it should be
Oh, please fulfill me
Otherwise, kill me
Show me a barrel and watch me scrape it
Faced with the music, as always I'll face it
In the half-light
So English, frowning
Then at midnight I
Can't get you out of my head
A disenchanted taste
Still running 'round
A disenchanted taste
Still running 'round
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
I think this song is about being alone, being content with that...when "the balance seems serene"...and then being a "fool"...and going out and falling in lust/love with some again "flesh rampage"...charming them with your "ready wit"....even though you'd promised yourself you wouldn't do that ...you know it's going to be a waste of time they're going to be "the wrong arms"...you know the relationship is just going to be trouble...
xdvr's right - Soho isn't just a gay area, but it is a very sordid part of town - sex shops, strip clubs, prositutes (17 and a model? I doubt it love!) The 'Can't get you out of my head'part is very emotionally conveyed though - A song def directed at someone...
Yeah I do think its a relationship that has ended. Maybe its his old self hatred coming through a touch too. Could be that he's blaming himself, that when he had everything he wanted hes fucked it up and lost it all and is an empty shell unable to think about anybody else other than the person who he loves more than anything else in the world ever, or that could just be me :(
@Electric-blue* are you good? your interpretation makes me a little worried for u. I don\'t mean this cruelly or sarcastically. I mean it genuinely. Wherever you are, I hope you\'re doing well right now.
I believe he is singing about an ex partner who no longer loves him, guessing they still see each other as friends, but the other person is playing games with him. I love the ending where he sings "Then at midnight I can't get you out of my head" you can tell he really means it. Also note "Go to soho, go to waste in the wrong arms" all sound far to close to being a gay man to me.
Soho is not an exclusive gay area and really what does that matter?
Sounds like someone who's worn out and fed up with people. The opening lines say it all.
Seems to me about a relationship that never really started, but that the narrator is very much in love with the subject, while the subject doesn't return it (Trouble loves me, Trouble needs me, Two things more than you do, Or would attempt to).
The line "On the flesh rampage - At your age!" tells that it's, in fact, the subject who's on the rampage, while the narrator is "Faced with the music, as always, I face it," because he's always the one stuck with the short end of the stick.
Still, as much as he tries to be apathetic, he can't deny that "at midnight I can't get you out of my head."
Quite sad, really! But so many of us have been there.
I don't think this song has anything to do with an ex-partner or a relationship. As in many of his songs, elements of it refer to "someone" not wanting to be with him, but this isn't necessarily about any particular person. The "two things more than you do" is just a clever way of using the figure of speech "trouble loves me" and isn't aimed at any specific person.<br /> <br /> I think that the song is more about Morrissey's constant struggle with an unhealthy desire: his disenchanted taste. When it looks like he is finally happy along comes something to destroy this happiness - lust, longing, desperation - all troubling emotions which also often lead to trouble.<br /> <br /> He makes fun of himself making a fool of himself when trying to attract someone. This "flesh rampage" illustrates an insatiable appetite for affection, running from person to person. Despite his intelligence and ability to be funny on demand, there is still something pathetic about his need to seduce younger people and spend time with people who are no good for him but who he seeks out in seedy places (Soho).<br /> <br /> The last verse continues the self deprecation with his admission that he's always writing about the same themes (scraping the barrel) but he is unapologetic about doing so and feels it is his duty to do so. The line "In the half-light, so English, frowning", refers to his common perception and how he has been photographed over the years; the front cover of Viva Hate springs to mind. Yet despite the legions of fans fawning over his image, there he is, alone at night, filled with the throbbing pain of desire for someone - a fan? A familiar face from his daily life who he can't approach? Anyone? And off he goes again, running after this elusive person who will never quench his emotional thirst. The irony of success. <br /> <br /> Well, just my two cents.
Rated 0 I don't think this song has anything to do with an ex-partner or a relationship. As in many of his songs, elements of it refer to "someone" not wanting to be with him, but this isn't necessarily about any particular person. The "two things more than you do" is just a clever way of using the figure of speech "trouble loves me" and isn't aimed at any specific person.
I think that the song is more about Morrissey's constant struggle with an unhealthy desire: his disenchanted taste. When it looks like he is finally happy along comes something to destroy this happiness - lust, longing, desperation - all troubling emotions which also often lead to trouble.
He makes fun of himself making a fool of himself when trying to attract someone. This "flesh rampage" illustrates an insatiable appetite for affection, running from person to person. Despite his intelligence and ability to be funny on demand, there is still something pathetic about his need to seduce younger people and spend time with people who are no good for him but who he seeks out in seedy places (Soho).
The last verse continues the self deprecation with his admission that he's always writing about the same themes (scraping the barrel) but he is unapologetic about doing so and feels it is his duty to do so. The line "In the half-light, so English, frowning", refers to his common perception and how he has been photographed over the years; the front cover of Viva Hate springs to mind. Yet despite the legions of fans fawning over his image, there he is, alone at night, filled with the throbbing pain of desire for someone - a fan? A familiar face from his daily life who he can't approach? Anyone? And off he goes again, running after this elusive person who will never quench his emotional thirst. The irony of success.
Well, just my two cents.
"So English" most likely refers to English photographer Jake Walters, with whom Morrissey was in a short-term romantic relationship in the 1990s. This song is from 1997, so it probably is about how Morrissey dealt with the break-up. I do not think we can say for certain that everything mentioned in this song is exactly what Morrissey experienced himself. Perhaps he did run "into the wrong arms" on the "flesh rampage", aka slept with random people, or perhaps it is rather something his fictional self would have done. But it seems like Morrissey did feel haunted by his memories with Jake Walters, and this is how he got over it – by turning the pain into art.
@SisOfNight That's definitely reaching lol. I think it's a sarcastic reference to the unemotional british "keep a stiff upper lip" type of attitude. The same thing as "We may be cold / We may even be the most depressing people you've ever known / We are the last truly British people you will ever know"<br /> <br /> Morrissey seems to have a problem with that lack of emotion english men are allowed to display even though he follows the custom himself. In his autobiography he writes about seeing a childhood friend on the street but because they're english men they can't be open to each other and reconnect. <br /> <br /> "Ten years later we pass one another in the street, and we nod as we pass, because that’s what northern males do, and can only do"
@SisOfNight Interesting.