I've always thought this song was about a break up. Maybe I'm looking at this too simply, but maybe you guys are looking at it too deep.
"cut this picture into you and me"
--- Cut a picture of us together into halves.
"burn it backwards kill this history"
--- The backwards confuses me, but burning it is what matters. forgetting your past love after a breakup.
"make it over make it stay away"
--- Rearrange the love in your mind to make the feelings that you miss him or her stay away. Or maybe the actions that caused the break up, make them into something you can understand, make yourself the good one if your actions led to it.
"or hate'll say the ending that love started to stay"
--- Love started to stay the ending -ward it off. Love followed through would have made it last longer than it was going to. Hate says the ending of the love through something like, "I hate you, it's over, blah blah blah..."
"there's a kid a floor below me saying brother can you spare
sunshine for a brother old man winter's in the air"
--- I personally don't think this has anything to do with class. A kid just lives below him and is trying to make him smile. The kid's wise and poor and needs that small comfort from Smith to cheer both of them up. Establishing Smith as visably depressed.
walked me up a story asking how you are
---walked him up to his apartment...
told me not to worry you were just a shooting star
--- Smith tells the kid she's gone and the kid again tries to cheer him up. Tells him that she was never gonna be able to stick around. Establishes the girl as bright and lovely and mysterious and transitory.
sweet adeline
sweet adeline
my clementine
sweet adeline
---The beautiful, gut wrenching, outpouring of emotion. You know it when you've been there and you only want to say the name of the one you love to call them back to you.
"it's a picture perfect evening and i'm staring down the sun
fully loaded deaf and dumb and done
waiting for sedation to disconnect my head
or any situation where i'm better off then dead"
---Can't even fill you in on this one unless you've been there and felt it. Just heartbroken loneliness with no hopes and nothing to look forward to but drugs to get the person off your mind.
I've always thought this song was about a break up. Maybe I'm looking at this too simply, but maybe you guys are looking at it too deep.
"cut this picture into you and me" --- Cut a picture of us together into halves.
"burn it backwards kill this history" --- The backwards confuses me, but burning it is what matters. forgetting your past love after a breakup.
"make it over make it stay away" --- Rearrange the love in your mind to make the feelings that you miss him or her stay away. Or maybe the actions that caused the break up, make them into something you can understand, make yourself the good one if your actions led to it.
"or hate'll say the ending that love started to stay" --- Love started to stay the ending -ward it off. Love followed through would have made it last longer than it was going to. Hate says the ending of the love through something like, "I hate you, it's over, blah blah blah..."
"there's a kid a floor below me saying brother can you spare sunshine for a brother old man winter's in the air" --- I personally don't think this has anything to do with class. A kid just lives below him and is trying to make him smile. The kid's wise and poor and needs that small comfort from Smith to cheer both of them up. Establishing Smith as visably depressed.
walked me up a story asking how you are ---walked him up to his apartment...
told me not to worry you were just a shooting star --- Smith tells the kid she's gone and the kid again tries to cheer him up. Tells him that she was never gonna be able to stick around. Establishes the girl as bright and lovely and mysterious and transitory.
sweet adeline sweet adeline my clementine sweet adeline
---The beautiful, gut wrenching, outpouring of emotion. You know it when you've been there and you only want to say the name of the one you love to call them back to you.
"it's a picture perfect evening and i'm staring down the sun fully loaded deaf and dumb and done waiting for sedation to disconnect my head or any situation where i'm better off then dead"
---Can't even fill you in on this one unless you've been there and felt it. Just heartbroken loneliness with no hopes and nothing to look forward to but drugs to get the person off your mind.