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"
Read about your band in some local page
Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name
The sweet Georgia breezes, safe, cool and warm
I headed up north, you headed north
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
Weary voice that's laughin', on the radio once
We sounded drunk, never made it on
Passin' through and it's late, the station started to fade
Picked another one up in the very next state
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
On and on and on and on and
Pretty girl keep growin' up, playin' make-up, wearin' guitar
Growin' old in a bar, ya grow old in a bar
Headed out to San Francisco, definitely not L.A.
Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name
And if I don't see ya, in a long, long while
I'll try to find you
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name
The sweet Georgia breezes, safe, cool and warm
I headed up north, you headed north
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
Weary voice that's laughin', on the radio once
We sounded drunk, never made it on
Passin' through and it's late, the station started to fade
Picked another one up in the very next state
On and on and on and on
What side are you on?
On and on and on and on and
Pretty girl keep growin' up, playin' make-up, wearin' guitar
Growin' old in a bar, ya grow old in a bar
Headed out to San Francisco, definitely not L.A.
Didn't mention your name, didn't mention your name
And if I don't see ya, in a long, long while
I'll try to find you
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
Left of the dial
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Lynn Blakey was Paul's girlfriend, muse & my roommate in Athens, Ga in early 80's. She played guitar, touring with her friends Mitch Easter, Faye Hunter & Sarah Romweber in Let's Active. She came to Athens to play w/ Oh OK (Linda Hopper, Lynda Stipe & David Pierce). Paul stayed at our house when The Replacements played Athens. Sometimes nuts, always interesting. I wrote for a music mag, Tasty World. Never made a dime, but had tons of fun & have some great stories from those crazy, magical years in Athens.
paul fell in love with some girl in a band who was touring at the same time the replacements were. and hes saying his only contact with her is left of the dial which is college radio. thats the only place he knows shell be. cuz her song gets played on there. hes just talking about the different states where the college radio plays her music
"Left of the Dial" is a reference to college radio at the time if any of you don't get the reference. On the old radio format the stations on the left side of stations were normally the college radio stations and so forth.
the chorus is on and on and on and on, which side are you on - referring to how low frequency stations (like college stations) play the best music and are on the left side of the dial
I read that he wrote this song after he heard an interview on college radio with said girl.
Yeah, it was one of the girls from Let's Active, which explains the line about the "sweet Georgia breezes."
I agree that the source of the song is as it is said above. To me this would be a great song to put on during a road trip. Just listening to it driving past farms, through cities, etc.
I thought Let's Active was based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I had interpreted in the Georgia reference to identify REM as the band. The the pretty girl reference never made sense to me until I read the other comments.
I think Let's Active had some connections to REM, as did the Replacements. Westerberg may have met the girl in Georgia or something.
i remember someone telling me that the girl in the song was in the band "Oh Ok" an Athens, GA band.