Wish You Were Here

Album: On A Wire (2002)
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Songfacts®:

  • Matt Pryor explained the meaning behind this song: "There two friends of mine, they were basically like, 'Well, I'm moving, so we're gonna break up in three months.' And I was just like, 'What's the f--king point of staying in a relationship if you know exactly when its gonna end?' It's sort of like knowing the day you're gonna die." In the song, we watch as a couple count down to their planned break up, even though the guy secretly does not want the split to happen. The pair do ultimately break up, although the guy holds on to the memories for years to come: "Remember me, I'm waiting here/Disappointed, hanging on/Stayed behind while you moved on/Wish you were here."
  • This song features on The Get Up Kids' third album, On A Wire. Matt Pryor told 17 Dots the album was heavily influenced by classic rock: "At the time we were just sick of what we were doing. We felt like we were getting stale and getting formulaic... so we just wanted to do something different and wanted to embrace all the facets of the things we were listening to...it's going back and getting more into the Kinks and the Beatles and the Stones and just wanting to be like, we can still be a rock band, we can be all-encompassing if we want to."

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