anonymous Sep 29th 2018 !⃝This song has actually been misinterpreted by some to be only about an ex girlfriend, but it actually is also a message to the fans. The narrator specifically mentions writing many songs about the same girl, and everyone has been listening to it, and the girl metaphorically comes along with him when he is on tour. Here is a more in-depth analysis:
Verse 1:
"Seventeen, you don't think that much about life
You just live it
Like Kerosene dancing around a fire
But you're in it
So you jump right in
Ain't afraid to fall
And you give it all"
The narrator fell in love with this girl when he was 17, when he was young and not really thinking rationally. It was like being in a kerosene fire, with a lot of passion. He is talking about how when you're young and you meet someone special, you aren't afraid to "fall" (fall in love) and you easily "give it all" emotionally to the other person.
Chorus:
"She got the best of me
She broke my heart
Now all that's left of me
Is beating in this guitar
Every night, a different town
She follows me around
So you get what's left of me
She got the best of me"
The girl broke the narrator's heart and it was very painful. She got "the best of" him, meaning when he lost her it took a lot out of him. Now, all that was left was "beating in this guitar", meaning all he felt he had was the memories and raw emotion he threw into his music. Now, he is on tour going from town to town, and because he's writing songs about her for his audience, she kind of is still with him, which is very hard. The audience is getting "what's left" after the heartbreak.
Verse 2:
"I picked myself up off the floor
And found something new worth living for
And a, old dusty hand-me-down six string
And a couple chords
I'm getting over her
A little more with every song
So sing a-long"
The narrator describes that eventually he "picked [him]self up off the floor and found something new worth living for". This means that the heartbreak was very severe and made him feel like he had nothing left worth living for, but eventually he found something else that mattered to him, his music. He picked up his guitar and just started playing. He is slowly getting over the girl with each new song he writes, but the pain is still there and he is inviting the audience to "sing along" and experience it with him.
The rest of the song is just the chorus again and some repeated lines. Overall, he's sharing not just his pain, but what it's like having opened himself up to the world through his music and the good and bad of all of it.
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