I Am Trying to Break Your Heart Lyrics
I am an American aquarium drinker
I assassin down the avenue
I'm hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I let go of you?
[Verse 2]
Let's forget about the tongue-tied lightning
Let's undress just like cross-eyed strangers
This is not a joke, so please stop smiling
What was I thinking when I said it didn't hurt?
[Verse 3]
I want to glide through those brown eyes dreaming
Take it from the inside, baby hold on tight
You were so right when you said I've been drinking
What was I thinking when we said good night?
[Verse 4]
I want to hold you in the Bible-black predawn
You're quite a quiet domino, bury me now
Take off your Band-Aid because I don't believe in touchdowns
What was I thinking when we said hello?
[Verse 5]
I'd always thought that if I held you tightly
You'd always love me like you did back then
Then I fell asleep and the city kept blinking
What was I thinking when I let you back in?
I am trying to break your heart
I am trying to break your heart
But still, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't easy
I am trying to break your heart
[Verse 6]
Disposable Dixie-cup drinking
I assassin down the avenue
I'm hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I let go of you?
[Outro]
(... Loves you
I'm the man who loves you)
About
The opening song on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot looks at a man who feels isolated and alone in the big city after a tumultuous relationship, seemingly ended by his own misdeeds.
In Sam Jones' documentary named after this song, Nonesuch Records executive David Bither was excited about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot after hearing the first 30 seconds of this song.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Jeff Tweedy on the lyrics in a 2021 interview at the Connecticut Forum:
Well, mostly they’re nonsense… but they mean something to me that I couldn’t say at the time. And I still can’t quite say it, but I feel it every time I sing it. And that’s kind of an element, to me, of poetry, and if I could say it some other way with language and have it make more sense, it wouldn’t feel the same way. […] What I’m really trying to get at is, is to get how I feel across. So, that song, like a lot of my songs, has a lot of imagery and seemingly abstract language, and then what I think of as a, just a turning and looking straight at the audience, and saying, “I’m trying to break your heart, I don’t know how.” And that’s what I really want to do with this song, that’s what I really want to do with every song, basically, is find a way into your heart. To do that, I have to break it. So, that song, to me, is always, every night I sing it, it’s that moment when I look at the crowd and I want them to get that that’s how I feel. I feel very strongly that that’s what I’m supposed to be doing with this silly piece of art.
- 1.I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
- 2.Kamera
- 3.Radio Cure
- 4.War on War
- 5.Jesus, Etc.
- 10.Poor Places
- 11.Reservations