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"
Yeah, we're on
I would like to leave this city
This old town don't smell too pretty
And I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
And when I leave this island
I'll book myself into a soul asylum
'Cause I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
So here I go
I'm still scratchin' around in the same old hole
My body feels young but my mind is very old
So what do you say?
You can't give me the dreams that are mine anyway
You're half the world away
Half the world away
Half the world away
I've been lost, I've been found
But I don't feel down
And when I leave this planet
You know I'd stay but I just can't stand it
And I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
And if I could leave this spirit
I'll find me a hole and I'll live in it
And I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
Here I go
I'm still scratchin' around in the same old hole
My body feels young but my mind is very old
So what do you say?
You can't give me the dreams that are mine anyway
You're half the world away
Half the world away
Half the world away
I've been lost, I've been found
But I don't feel down
No, I don't feel down
No, I don't feel down
I don't feel down
I don't feel down
Don't feel down
I don't feel down
I would like to leave this city
This old town don't smell too pretty
And I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
And when I leave this island
I'll book myself into a soul asylum
'Cause I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
So here I go
I'm still scratchin' around in the same old hole
My body feels young but my mind is very old
So what do you say?
You can't give me the dreams that are mine anyway
You're half the world away
Half the world away
Half the world away
I've been lost, I've been found
But I don't feel down
And when I leave this planet
You know I'd stay but I just can't stand it
And I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
And if I could leave this spirit
I'll find me a hole and I'll live in it
And I can feel the warnin' signs
Runnin' around my mind
Here I go
I'm still scratchin' around in the same old hole
My body feels young but my mind is very old
So what do you say?
You can't give me the dreams that are mine anyway
You're half the world away
Half the world away
Half the world away
I've been lost, I've been found
But I don't feel down
No, I don't feel down
No, I don't feel down
I don't feel down
I don't feel down
Don't feel down
I don't feel down
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I think it's a song about getting stuck in a rut, feeling trapped in a town that no longer holds any promise, and realizing that things won't change unless you do something about it. In this case, leave.
This song is also featured at the beginning of the last episode in the "Spaced" series that ran in the UK. Very poignant! I think it's a great song.
The Masterplan has some absolutely great songs on it to say it's all B-sides? 'The Masterplan' song, I feel, could make any Oasis album!
I love this song, it's a mix of somebody obviously being far away and being in love with them.. but still being angry at them. I can't really explain the meaning I'm getting out, but it is pretty self explainatory.
This the theme song of 'the Royle Family'. I have this song on a maxi-single my mom brought for me in Japan. I used to listening about this all the time when i was around 14 thinking about the day when i will leave my old town.. and i think time has come :-)
'You can't give me the dreams that were mine anyway' dats gotta b one of the best lines ever. its so true and i think it shows how some people will try n manipulate u to believe that they helped you to make something of yourself, when in fact they didnt. u just need to believe in yourself and know you cna have dreams of your own
Yeah, I recently re-watched Spaced on DVD, and it prompted me to start listening to this song again. Great tune.
I dont pretend to solve the true meaning of this song. But I felt like sharing what I felt.
I feel like he is going trough something frustrating and keep finding himself in the same situation over and over again. Dealing with it is hard, and is taking a tool on him. I do get a suicidal vibe from it, but then it gets better. He doesnt feel down. He wont give up just yet
It has a pretty straightforward meaning and i think everybody could see that Its a beautiful song and I dont live in UK so I dont k now anything about the tv show but I heard its cool acoustic feel is just great and real easy to play
I love this song. and yes it was on The Royle Family..a hilarious show. Trust me. And the reason why they have sang better is cuz its a B side. All the songs on the album The masterplan are B sides..so they arent supposed to be the greatest. I saw them in concert. i love them! hehe
this song is my life right now. I'm away at college in a small farm town in iowa, and it really doesn't smell pretty (mostly like cows). I've been so stressed out trying to fit in this stupid school where everyone is immature and clicky. Let's just say it's not living up to my expectations. I'm half the world away from my family and friends. This school is not helping me acheive the goals and dreams that are mine anyway, my mind is running around like crazy all the time. I just turned21 and feel sooooo old, esp when everyone around here acts like 14 year old asses. Anyways, yeah, this song totally makes sense to me. i'm also a song writer and could have written the exact same thing myself