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When they call your name
Will you walk right up?
With a smile on your face?
Will you cower in fear?
In your favorite sweater
With an old love letter
I wish you would
I wish you would
Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends
They're all full of shit
With a smile on your face
And then do it again
I wish you would
When you walking down town
Do you wish I was there
Do you wish it was me
With the windows clear
And the mannequins eyes
Do they all look like mine
You know you could
I wish you would
Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends
Behind my back
With a smile on your face
And then do it again
I wish you would
I wish you'd make my bed
So I could make up my mind
Try it for sleeping instead
Maybe you'll rest sometime
I wish I could
I wish I could
I wish I could
Will you walk right up?
With a smile on your face?
Will you cower in fear?
In your favorite sweater
With an old love letter
I wish you would
I wish you would
Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends
They're all full of shit
With a smile on your face
And then do it again
I wish you would
When you walking down town
Do you wish I was there
Do you wish it was me
With the windows clear
And the mannequins eyes
Do they all look like mine
You know you could
I wish you would
Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends
Behind my back
With a smile on your face
And then do it again
I wish you would
I wish you'd make my bed
So I could make up my mind
Try it for sleeping instead
Maybe you'll rest sometime
I wish I could
I wish I could
I wish I could
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In keeping with Ryan Adam's self-distructive tendencies (which is why we can all relate to him), I believe this song is likely a weak/drunk/wishful moment thinking about a past love that was unhealthy, but he still can't shake.
The beginning of the song is him wondering if perhaps, on judgement day, she would regret her treatment of him (and others).
"Will you cower in fear?"
This seems to suggest she might fear consequences for her actions.
Then, he seems to start out wishing he could see her, craving what used to be toxic about her, but with some irrational romanticism about it being better this time around:
Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends
They're all full of shit
With a smile on your face
And then do it again
I wish you would
The fact that he says "And then do it again," seems to echo that this all happened the last time, but looking back, he still would rather be with her, and go through it all again. In this early part of the song, the line "Screw all my friends" indicates that his friends warn him that she's bad news, and will hurt him again, but in the next line he says "They're all full of sh**," suggesting he doesn't care about they're opinion, and wants her back anyway.
In his masterful way, he uses this same line later, when his musings/memories about her grow darker, the same exact line means something different - "Screw all my friends," is no longer a declaration that he won't listen to warnings about her, but now is a continuation of a list of her actual actions, right along with "Steal all my records." We know this with certainty, because this time, the next line after "Screw all my friends" is, "Behind my back."
"
His internal struggle makes him idealize reconnecting with her in the beginning, but by the end, he can't help but recall the darker elements that ruined them the first time. The references to the bed, and "try it for sleeping sometime" suggest they're relationship was likely too focused on the physical, which allowed them to ignore thier obvious issues for too long.
He goes on to end the song with:
"Maybe you'll rest sometime
I wish I could"
Suggesting he can't sleep, because he's still pining over her. You could even stretch the interpretation dangerously farther, and put the pieces to gether, to wonder if she had an addiction -- If you string all the images of her together, it sounds like an addict's behaviour - "F** me up, steal my records, Srew all my friends, maybe you'll rest sometime...
The theme of missing someone who's known to be harmful to him is common in his songs... "English Girls, approximately," has a similar tone. In another song, his wishing he had a "Sylvia Plath" to "get me pretty loaded on gin," and then "maybe she'll give me a bath" hints of Plath's many suicide attempts, some rumored to have taken place in the bathtub.
Ultimately, he seems to write about looking for someone to mother him (take me out, f me up, get me loaded on gin, give me a bath). These are all about things they'd do TO him, as a passive participant... Unfortunately, it appears to be mostly "party girls" he ends up with over and over, who ultimately use his vulnerability to crush him in one way or another.
Sounds really sad, but makes for some GREAT songs!
As for the rest of the song, my interpretation is that the girl is probably some what of a player. He knows she cheating on him, using him, and doesn't really care. He loves her madly and puts up with it because he thinks that eventually she will choose him. He'd rather be treated terribly by her than be without her. It's a song about an unhealthy obsession with someone.
They're all full of shit" this means either she likes one of his friends and she dont that there only out for onething. or theyr tellin him she isnt worth it and they dont know see how perfect she is to him so he thinks theyr feeding him this bullshit so he'll move on."When you're walking downtown
Do you wish I was there
Do you wish it was me
With the windows clear and the mannequins eyes
Do they all look like mine "he wants her wish it was him she was with and wants every little thing to remind her of him. " i wish you would Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records. he wants her to wanna come be with him.if u kno anything about ryan adams u know his collection of vinyl records mean more to him than anything. so steal my records is a metaphore basiclly saying take everything from me long as were together i dont care.
wish you would
If you search for the song title and "Original Live Version" on YouTube, you might find an EARLY release of this song. (It kills me that the crowd might laugh at what I consider one of the greatest songs ever written...)
"Break my heart, and then do it again"... You write that for someone you YEARN for.
"I wish you would make up your mind, so I could make up my bed;
Try it for sleeping sometime, maybe you'd get some rest..."
I believe this song is about a NEW love that he doesn't have. (In his case, yet. In most of our cases, ever.)
steal my records.
screw all my friends
behind my back
with a smile on your face
and then do it again..
i wish you would."
this song puts me in a state of mind where i'm about a bottle and a half of red wine deep in my sorrows, swimming around in my own lonely thoughts and really letting them break me down inside. sometimes it hurts TOO good, but it feels so very real.
the idea of wishing a lover would do something to really push you away so as to free yourself from the harmful relationship is interesting, but then the line "and then do it again" conjures up an eternal-sunshine-esque feeling of unavoidable patterns and relationships that we attempt to wipe out of our minds to no avail. you want them to push you away because holding on hurts so bad, but once they push you away you want to hold on tighter so they'll push harder 'til you let loose-- but then you want them back even if it's gonna be like that all over again.
that line is followed by another "i wish you would" which makes it seem like a painfully hopeless longing.
when they call your name
will you walk right up
with a smile on your face
will you cower in fear
in your favorite sweater
with an old love letter?
To me he is talking about at the end of her life, will she regret it.. when they call her name, will she be leaving this world with a smile on her face, knowing she fought for their love, or will she cower in fear.. clutching an old memory..
I think he is singing about how he wants her to fight for their love or she will miss out. Stand up to the friends, etc.. but in the end he knows she wont do it...
i wish you'd make up my bed
so i could make up my mind
try it for sleeping instead
maybe you'll rest sometimes
i wish i could
He knows she wont fight for it so he wishes he could just get over her, but he cant..
"I wish I could..."
Thats my interpretation of it. Love this song.
Miami- Counting Crows
Anyone but You- Counting Crows
youtube.com/…
then there's another video that someone posted with really pretty harmonies over swauzzie's version of this song. it's really good aswell!
youtube.com/…
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