I think this song is a good example of how people interpret songs differently based on their own life experience. I was 15 when the song came out and now 5 years later I dare to say I understand it now and in a way I didn't back then.
When you are still very young you believe that one day, quite soon, you'll meet a boy that will always truly love you, whose heart is as pure and innocent as yours and he will do everything right, he'll fix you, make your life better- and he's good-looking too! And you wait for this person, you don't look around into the real world, you stay in your fantasies, disappointed of the fact that all the guys around you act so differently from him. One day, after having waited oh-so long, you meet a man who steals your heart. He isn't anything like you imagined your love to be "he doesn't look anything like Jesus", in fact he's not that innocent, good-looking or loving by any means, he hurts you but he's the first to turn your head, to charm you in a manner that no other guy has ever did before ("talks like a gentleman" just like ME68 has said before). And this girl falls for this because it feels good or at least that's what she believes. She sticks with him (more than you'll ever know) however as an young adult starts to realize where she got to. She realizes her unhappiness with how everything went and at times she thinks back ("and sometimes you close your eyes/and see the place where you used to live/when you were young") of the time when she still had this dream, the belief in something so absolutely beautiful and good, this feeling of security based on a lack of knowledge about the "real world". I feel like every "when you were young" is a mourning, a yearning for this long gone naivity.
I think this song is a good example of how people interpret songs differently based on their own life experience. I was 15 when the song came out and now 5 years later I dare to say I understand it now and in a way I didn't back then. When you are still very young you believe that one day, quite soon, you'll meet a boy that will always truly love you, whose heart is as pure and innocent as yours and he will do everything right, he'll fix you, make your life better- and he's good-looking too! And you wait for this person, you don't look around into the real world, you stay in your fantasies, disappointed of the fact that all the guys around you act so differently from him. One day, after having waited oh-so long, you meet a man who steals your heart. He isn't anything like you imagined your love to be "he doesn't look anything like Jesus", in fact he's not that innocent, good-looking or loving by any means, he hurts you but he's the first to turn your head, to charm you in a manner that no other guy has ever did before ("talks like a gentleman" just like ME68 has said before). And this girl falls for this because it feels good or at least that's what she believes. She sticks with him (more than you'll ever know) however as an young adult starts to realize where she got to. She realizes her unhappiness with how everything went and at times she thinks back ("and sometimes you close your eyes/and see the place where you used to live/when you were young") of the time when she still had this dream, the belief in something so absolutely beautiful and good, this feeling of security based on a lack of knowledge about the "real world". I feel like every "when you were young" is a mourning, a yearning for this long gone naivity.