The 88 - At Least It Was Here Meaning
At Least It Was Here Lyrics
Show me the door
I cannot stand
To wait anymore
Somebody said
Be what you'll be
We could be old and cold and dead on the sea
But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay
Give me...
-
1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:So many people thinking it's about suicide or giving it a negative connotation made my heart hurt.
I didn't put enough attention to the song's lyrics for long time and I must confess when I listened to the words rope, dream, stay, tie, dead... my mind went there too (suicide).
But now I've READ the lyrics and I can only hope someone else feels the same way about the song. From a man to his lover:
Take my hands...
...and guide me
I really can't...
...make this(1) by myself
They(2)...
...don't approve of our love
They(2) are expecting the worst outcome
But I'll do it, cause I love you so much
I decide(1) to stay with you
But still, give me the tools
so I can dream(3) big of us
Hope of a future(3) [together]
They(2)...
...even say we are ruining our lives right now
They(2) are expecting the worst outcome
I decide(1) to stay with you
And all the people(2) that don't believe in us don't matter, they disapear
I'm tired of being submissive to their(2) opinion
I'm tired of how I used to
Pretend it didn't face me
just to not create conflict
But I can't live the rest of my life like that
They(2) don't realize our love is worth it
So I'm thriving to make a decision, head strong
Their(2) opinions are not the only way
Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away
Oh I love you more than words can say
But still, give me the tools
so I can dream(3) big of us
Hope of a future(3) [together]
They(2)...
...even say we are ruining our lives right now
They(2) are expecting the worst outcome
I'll do it, cause I love you so much
I decide(1) to stay with you
And all the people(2) that don't believe in us don't matter, they disappear
I decide(1) to stay with you
_________________
I hope someone else in the world, at least one person feel the same way. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Shouldn't these ratings be in meow beanz?
-
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I'm pretty sure it's about growing up- settling, more or less giving up- you know? Going through the anxiety of letting go of all your dreams, and just surviving.
-
this song is about life despite and in spite of the many factors that are absurd about it.
"But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay"
-
This is a tough one. I read it as a song about unrequited love.
The speaker is hopelessly in love with their partner, but their partner doesn't reciprocate at the same level and is unwilling to commit to a long term relationship.
The speaker vascillates between wanting to end it cold turkey to stop their painful longing vs wanting to cling to and draw our the imperfect and fated relationship he (or she) has for as long as possible. Unable to decide between the unworkable status quo and fear of losing his partner, the speaker is begging the partner to make the decision (with a glimmer of hope the partner will realize they belong together).
Stanza 1: just end it ("Show me the door/I cannot stand/To wait anymore")
S2: let me live in the fantasy that we could be together ("Give me some more/Time in a dream")
S3: I can't keep pouring my life into a doomed relationship. But, you know, we could be together... ("I'm tired of the wait and see's/...But hours turn into days/...And be here to recognize/There's another way")
S4: I recognize this relationship is harmful but i love you more than the pain; let me have the fantasy of us together for as long as i can. ("I can't count the reasons I should stay/...Oh I love you more than words can say")
The death motifs somewhat clash with my interpretation. I think, at a general level, they reflect how depressed the speaker is about where things are at. More specifically, the two lines offer different visions of the future.
One, how they could grow old together if the partner committed ("We can be old and cold and dead on the sea")
The other, when the speaker tries to convince himself the status quo works, argues that life is fleeting and one should live for the moment not the long-term ("We could be roped up, tied up/Dead in a year")
Some lines could be read to have hints of violence or suicide (death lines + "But hours turn into days/So watch what you throw away"), but I see the main themes being the desperate push and pull emotions of love and sadness in a one-sided relationship. -
IMO this song sounds like an addict in rehab.
Give me your hands
Show me the door
I cannot stand
To wait anymore
"Literally someone dragging him to rehab treatment after he's hit bottom been arrested whatever."
Somebody said
Be what you'll be
We could be old and cold and dead on the sea
"Somebody told him he was an addict, that he'll always be one. They told him his addiction will leave him alone, depressed and it will eventually kill him."
But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay
"He loves his drug. He loves the feeling it gives him, but he can't justify his use anymore."
Give me some rope
Tie me to dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
"He just wants that feeling on more time. He wants it to make him hit bottom, and its there that he could die. This could also literally be interpreted as tying his arm to shoot up"
I'm tired to the wait and sees
I'm tired of that part of me
That makes up a perfect lie
To keep us between
But hours turn into days
So watch what you throw away
And be here to recognize
There's another way
"He has come along this point. He tired of waiting and seeing if addiction will kill him or if things will get better. He tired of the lies he tells himself. His tired of losing his life to it, of throwing his life away. There's another way."
Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
"I think this is in recovery/rehab. He wants more time away from the world. To run out the clock on his addiction. Its here that they told him he needed to change or it would kill him. It is here he could heal."
But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away
Oh I love you more than words can say
"The addiction is still there. That longing, that yearning they never go away. His reasons to use, the lies he told himself to justify his madness are fading though one by one." -
It about a man who wants to get out of a relationship because he is tired of waiting for something to happen and cant think of any reason to stay........or suicide.
-
I think the song is about the difficulties of letting go of somebody you love that is no longer right for you. The relationship discussed in the song is comfortable (time in a dream), but there is a nagging feeling in the back of the singer's head that they are wasting their time staying in a relationship that is not progressing and may have run its course. (Hours turn in to days / watch what you throw away / there's another way).
-
This song is about contemplating suicide. It has nothing to do with a relationship.
-
IMO, it's about facing death in contemplating suicide.
"Give me your hands
Show me the door
I cannot stand
To wait anymore
Somebody said
Be what you'll be
We could be old and cold and dead on the scene"
The song personifies Death, and the singer asks Death to give him their hands, and to show him the door (a common phrase for helping someone exit, in this case exiting life). The singer cannot stand to wait anymore, suggesting that waiting is all he does in life, i.e. he lives a mundane existence. He alludes to the prevalent live-and-let-live attitude in society (society represented by the ambiguous "somebody") which many people adapt to "not get involved", "stay out of it", etc. "Be what you'll be", but then suggests that that is not the best way forward. "We could be old and cold and dead on the scene". Essentially, he asks people to take interest in bettering the world before it's too late, instead of choosing not to help out when it inconveniences themselves.
"But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay"
The singer expresses his love for life, representing a loved one/loved ones, who are his entire "life" -- the entire world to him, and that that is the only thing that is stopping him from committing suicide (hence the use of the word "but" - it's him arguing with himself reasons to stay alive).
There's a bit of ambiguity when he says he can't count the reasons he should stay (living). It could mean that he has a lot to live for, and even though he suggests the only things he lives for are his loved one(s), they mean a great deal to him. It could also mean that he doesn't want ("can't" used in place of "won't" being used to enforce his strong feelings against it) to try counting, because he's afraid that there won't be any actual reasons to stay.
"Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year"
The singer wants some more time to be happy, with his loved one(s)/his life. He compares his suicidal thoughts/intentions as a steam-powered train, and asks for hope to run out of the steam (fuel, i.e. causes of suicidal thoughts) before reaching his destination (death). Once again, he references society on a whole -- that society warns people about staying alive and the hazards of life, but ends up blowing things out of proportion, "we could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year," is verbal irony, and the singer is subtly mocking the exaggerated risks that many people accept.
"I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away"
At this point, the singer -- who has been lost in thought about the things/people he loves in his life (reasons to keep living) -- finds that his positive outlook on what his life is about fades away when he thinks about how he's feeling himself, and stops thinking about others.
"I'm tired of the wait-and-sees
I'm tired of that part of me
That makes up a perfect lie
To keep us between
But hours turn into days
So watch what you throw away
And be here to recognize
There's another way"
The singer is tired of waiting for things to get better or happier. He's tired of lying to himself and saying that he and the people he loves are happy. Again, the song uses the word "but" to indicate him arguing with himself to keep on living.
The last two lines of the stanza seem to trail off unexpectedly. The singer's reasons for staying alive are getting more and more irrational, and he's just regurgitating commonly used arguments against suicide now, ("don't throw away your life," "there's another way," etc.), instead of actually having a reason to live.
Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
The singer is uncomfortable by the innate realisation that he has no reasons to live, and so reverts to the last time in his argument that it was reasonable to stay alive (hence the repetition of a stanza).
"But I love you more than words can say"
The singer tries to hold on to the time when he wanted to live, repeating his sentences in an effort to not go through with suicide.
"I can't count the reasons I should stay"
The ambiguous phrase is repeated. Before, the singer could lie to himself and say that it was because he has so many reasons to stay, too many to count. He lets his guard down because of the phrase's past success and repeats the it, but in his agitated state of mind it jolts him back completely to where he knows that he has no reasons to keep living.
"One by one they all just fade away"
The singer begins to resign himself to suicide.
"Oh I love you more than words can say"
The argumentative "but" is replaced by a resigned "oh". The singer is happy with the positive things in his life in the past, but he has stopped using them as arguments to keep going in the future. He kills himself. -
I think the song is about the way people move through life; you meet people and make friends and want to stay with them forever, always staying in the same place. However, as time goes on, we need to move on and go to a different place in our live, and leave people behind. Those people are no longer a good enough reason to stay in that place but they will be forever treasured.
-
#sixseasonsandamovie
I love this song!
Here's my line by line interpretation:
Be Mine
Or Tell me to Go
I Can't wait, I need to know
People say to let things play out
But we never know how much time we have
I love you more than words could say
There's so many reasons I'd like to stay
Give me more of this
let it go on
Show me a sign not to give up,
They say this could be it
And who knows what other chances we'll get
There's too many reasons for me to stay
They become a blur and fade away
I'm tired of waiting for some kind of sign
I've wasted to much time on that
It's just a lie we tell ourselves
To avoid having to find out if this is real or not
But time slips away quickly
So be careful what you let pass by
And be sure you're aware
That things don't have to be that way
I need to have more
Of this "dream"
Give me some hope to keep me going,
They say this could be it
and who knows what the future will bring
But I love you more than words can say
There's so many reasons I should stay
They become a blur and fade away
Oh I Love you more than words can say..
@MrAndMrsAwesome -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
-
-so here is how i understand the song. i see it also in the perspective of a man
Give me your hands
Show me the door
I cannot stand
To wait anymore
-some guy has met a woman and would like to "explore the world" with her
Somebody said
Be what you'll be
We could be old and cold and dead on the sea
-i understand that as what ever the future helds, they are there and that moment, enjoying live
But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay
-here you can understand that he still has so many reason that he can't count them, why he should go away
Give me some more
Time in a dream
-but all he gets is the prospect of a possible relationship, but he hasn't, and all he gets is hope from here
Give me the hope to run out of steam
-he actually wishes that she would give him so much hope to realise that there is no future relationship
Somebody said it can be here
-he thinks the time for a relationship is now
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
-again, no one knows whats in the future, they should start a relation ship
I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away
-now, he cannot count the reasons not to leave, because there are none left
I'm tied to the wait and sees
-he gets sick of only the possibility for a relationship
I'm tired of that part of me
That makes up a perfect lie
To keep us between
-he hates himself for comming up with some excuses why he still should try or care, living in the dream she has created for him
But hours turn into days
So watch what you throw away
And be here to recognize
There's another way
-she should watch what what she's doing because finally he will gone, and stop waiting for her and she should realise this
Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
-but he just cannot get away from her, wanting to be with her
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
-again, he wants it now
But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away
Oh I love you more than words can say
-he really is in love with her and even if the reasons fade away, he still loves. in my opinion, this is the reason, how the lyrics end how they end, even with all reasons faded, he still cannot forget her -
Seeing all your interpretations to this song, I can only agree to them halfway.
Because of the title itself- at least it was here.
I think this song tells about a relationship between people who lost love to each other and decided to do all they can to make things work out and they did. But only for as long as they can because in the end all they could say is AT LEAST IT WAS HERE..
right??
--just my thoughts..^^ -
Like the flow of experiences of the 7 students in Greendale- they fight, then make-p, they hate, but then love still emerges. whatever the situation may be, no matter how impossible/ complicated the circumstances they went through, they'd still want to go back and try to fix things, for in the end, they know they're still a family. :) I love Community! <3 Coolest sitcom (IMHO)
-
Okay, here is my understanding of the meaning of the song "At Least It Was Here" by The 88:
"Give me your hands
Show me the door
I cannot stand
To wait anymore
Somebody said
Be what you'll be
We could be old and cold and dead on the sea
But I love you more than words can say
I can't count the reasons I should stay"
The lyrics above make me feel that he (I feel the song is told from a man's point of view) is in love and has an irresistable relationship and a woman he adores.
"Give me some more
Time in a dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away"
These lyrics now suggest to me that he doesn't understand why he's even in this relationship anymore- that all the good things had "faded away".
"I'm tied to the wait and sees
I'm tired of that part of me
That makes up a perfect lie
To keep us between
But hours turn into days
So watch what you throw away
And be here to recognize
There's another way"
Here he realizes that he should just end things. However, by the end of the song, the relationship is fixed, and he is glad he stayed. The couple worked through their hardships, and now they both "love each other more than words can say" once again. -
Jeff want some rope
Britta needs to run our of steam
Abed said ''It could be here''
Shirley could be roped up
Annie could be dead in a year
Troy can't count the reasons he should stay
and Pierce faded away.
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