Walk It Back

Producers

“Walk It Back” has a long history. The song originated as “Roman Candle”, and was initially performed on the Troubadour, Los Angeles on October 16, 2015 with a different… Read More

Sep. 8, 20171 viewer76.2K views

Walk It Back Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I'm always thinkin' about useless things
I'm always checkin' out
I'm always motherin' myself to bits
I'm always checkin' out

[Pre-Chorus]
Forget it, nothin' I change changes anything
I won't let it, I won't let it ruin my hair

[Chorus]
I only take up a little of the collapsin' space
I better cut this off, don't wanna fuck it up
I only take up a little of the collapsin' space
I better cut this off, don't wanna fuck up the place

[Post-Chorus]
I better walk it back, walk it back
Oh, I better walk it back, walk it back, walk it back, walk it back

[Verse 2]
I try to save it for a rainy day
It's rainin' all the time
Until everything is less insane
I'm mixin' weed with wine

[Pre-Chorus]
Forget it, nothin' I change changes anything
I won't let it, I won't let it ruin my hair

[Chorus]
I only take up a little of the collapsin' space
I better cut this off, don't wanna fuck it up
I only take up a little of the collapsin' space
I better cut this off, don't wanna fuck it up
I only take up a little of the collapsin' space
I better cut this off, don't wanna fuck up the place

[Post-Chorus]
I better walk it back, walk it back
Oh, I better walk it back, walk it back, walk it back, walk it back
Oh, I better walk it back, walk it back, walk it back, walk it back

[Instrumental Break]

[Interlude]
"People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you are studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors, and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do"
Apparently that was written on a whiteboard with a red sharpie in the Roosevelt bedroom, sometime around Christmas 2007. Yeah, so I can't stay

[Outro]
I can't stay
And I can't come back
I just keep awake
And I won't react
I'll walk through Lawrencetown
Along the tracks
My own body in my arms
But I won't collapse
So don't go dark on me
It's all alright
If I'm gonna get back to you, someday
I'll need your light

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About

Genius Annotation

“Walk It Back” has a long history.

The song originated as “Roman Candle”, and was initially performed on the Troubadour, Los Angeles on October 16, 2015 with a different set of lyrics than appeared on the album.

Also, The National played two shows at the Troubadour in one night. [A second version of the song was posted] with those lyrics in a different order.

On October 18, 2015, The National played the song live for a third time at the Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco.

Matt Berninger pointed out the increasing name changes:

It was called something else yesterday. Today, it’s called “Checking Out”. Tomorrow, nobody knows.

On July 29th, 2016, as the band were well into recording the album, the song was renamed yet again as “Checking Out of a Collapsing Space (Roman Candle)” with lyrics closer to the ones on the record

This final version is more electronic than the ones played live, especially in the outro.

By contrasting the downbeat lyrics with a famous Karl Rove interview, he plays a collapsing relationship off as a metaphor for the United States under Donald Trump, and creates a bookend to Fake Empire, off their album Boxer.