Was a Friend

Song Meaning

The lyrics open with a stark confession of past harm, immediately setting a tone of guilt and regret. What follows is a deeply unsettling, ambiguous encounter at a door, filled with unspoken tension. The narrator describes a "funny kind of greeting," neither welcoming nor hostile, leaving both parties in an awkward stasis. This strange interaction, however, ultimately reveals itself as a dream. At the heart of these lyrics lies the lingering pain of a past conflict and the narrator's struggle with reconciliation. The opening lines, "You've been so kind / So why did I hurt you?", establish a deep sense of self-reproach. This guilt manifests in the dream encounter, where the other person is "lurking by the door" and offers no clear sign of engagement, mirroring the narrator's own internal apprehension. The repeated phrase "It's been a long time" underscores the enduring nature of this unresolved history. The most striking craft element here is the sudden revelation that the entire tense interaction was a dream. This twist recontextualizes the preceding ambiguity, turning an external, awkward encounter into a purely internal struggle. Phrases like "not exactly hostile" and "not exactly smiling" initially describe the other person's demeanor, but after the dream reveal, they reflect the narrator's own conflicted feelings and anxieties about facing the past. The search for "where we buried the hatchet" becomes a quest within the narrator's own subconscious, highlighting their deep-seated desire for resolution. Ultimately, these lyrics resonate because they capture the complex, often messy process of confronting old wounds. The shift from the dream's unsettling stasis to the quiet relief of waking, where "Old wounds are healing," offers a profound sense of acceptance. The "faded scars are painless – just an itch" suggests that while memories linger, their power to inflict pain has diminished. This nuanced portrayal of guilt, fear, and eventual, gentle forgiveness makes the internal journey feel incredibly authentic and emotionally effective.