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"
The actress is always breaking things
The things you made and she took you for
And I'm so tired I'd be lying
I hope the prairie buys you more
The fitness coast is growing near
The shores they don't stay blond this year
That's why the marble lawns stay clear
And warm in time
I want to stay but my time is wasting
The magic lands call my name
They want to fire a missile launcher
But I know I need to stay
We all know that by staying here
It'll be a good high this year
So what's the use to staying there
If you've got no use for time
The fitness coast is growing near
The shores they don't stay blond all year
The continent moves with growing fears
It's all for expensive lawn
I want to stay but my time is wasting
The magic lands call my name
They want to fire a missile launcher
But I know I need to stay
I know I need to stay
(And fight the day)
I know I need to stay
(And fight the day)
I know I need to stay
I know I need to stay
The things you made and she took you for
And I'm so tired I'd be lying
I hope the prairie buys you more
The fitness coast is growing near
The shores they don't stay blond this year
That's why the marble lawns stay clear
And warm in time
I want to stay but my time is wasting
The magic lands call my name
They want to fire a missile launcher
But I know I need to stay
We all know that by staying here
It'll be a good high this year
So what's the use to staying there
If you've got no use for time
The fitness coast is growing near
The shores they don't stay blond all year
The continent moves with growing fears
It's all for expensive lawn
I want to stay but my time is wasting
The magic lands call my name
They want to fire a missile launcher
But I know I need to stay
I know I need to stay
(And fight the day)
I know I need to stay
(And fight the day)
I know I need to stay
I know I need to stay
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More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
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.
Both assessments seem on par and are probably more in line with SM's intent. This song, however, takes on a more personal meaning for me. (and is what is so great about Pavement) I associate Ikea furniture with dorm rooms and mid-20's apartments. This song's lyrics (and its tempo) channel that yearning sense of being young. You want to stay, but you time is wasting. All these great opportunities are calling to you, but at the same time you're not sure whether or not you should stay. If you stick around you can always get high, but some mornings you wake up and wonder, "What's the use?"
I think that this song is about material possessions and wanting to leave them behind, but unfortunately, in society that is almost impossible, hence "i know i need to stay".
This song is about the fake and plastic nature of the California lifestyle. These guys have stated over and over again in numerous interviews that they are truely THE BAND OF THE 90's and that they are a CALIFORNIA ROCK BAND. It was simply a commentary on their surroundings.
Both assessments seem on par and are probably more in line with SM's intent. This song, however, takes on a more personal meaning for me. (and is what is so great about Pavement) I associate Ikea furniture with dorm rooms and mid-20's apartments. This song's lyrics (and its tempo) channel that yearning sense of being young. You want to stay, but you time is wasting. All these great opportunities are calling to you, but at the same time you're not sure whether or not you should stay. If you stick around you can always get high, but some mornings you wake up and wonder, "What's the use?"
This song, to me, is about something that one wants to leave behind, but just can't. Yeah, that "thing" in this song is the glitzy, fake lifestyle of, say, Southern California. But it goes to a much larger extent. It's about leaving a bad relationship, a bad lifestyle, hell, a bad life, behind when you should fight or fix it.
It has to be about getting older too, which fits - the Pavement guys were getting older at the time.
Well when I hear this song and read the lyrics, I relate it to my experience of walking into Ikea and being sucked into this land of cheap furniture and I want to get away but I can't. And the fact that their stuff breaks easily. So the sort of droning tone of this song really reminds me of being in an Ikea store- a giant maze of crap that you buy anyway.
"We all know that by staying here it'll be a good high this year So what's the use to staying there if you've got no use for time" its about how were all driven to make the easier decision to chase the "American Dream" we see portrayed in advertisements our entire life instead of
finding out what will make us the happiest and our lives the most meaningful
This is an answer song to their own "Summer Babe"
To me its about trying to be Bougie when you can't afford to be. It's about the pointlessness of bougieness. To me IKEA has always been cheap wanna be rich crap.