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Matchbox 20 - Back 2 Good Lyrics Meaning

By Mia Kelly |

I think that this song is about a lot of cheating going on within a group of people. This has torn the social circle apart. Even the narrator himself is participating in this cheating, as evidenced that the fact that he invites someone to leave so that "no one would know."

He goes on to try to get everyone in the group to admit that none of them are happy with their own partners and are all lusting after someone else but are at least trying to veil these feelings so as to maintain a semblance of peace and friendship within the group ("keep it under our heads").

The second verse really cements this interpretation to me, though. The narrator is speaking to his official girlfriend or partner, expressing bitterness in being attached to her and resentment at being limited from exploring other relationships because of her. He admits that their relationship is "phony" and that neither of them are happy (suggesting that she is also looking at other men) and asks her to "turn [her] head" and ignore his blatant cheating so he can decide what to do about this situation.

After that, the narrator criticizes the hypocrisy of everyone in the group: "everyone here hates everyone here for doing just like they do." Each person cheats freely and looks at others, but gets angry when their own partner cheats on them. It's very clear that this is about cheating and sexual infidelity because the narrator describes some initial confusing about why "everyone here was doing [him] like they do."

The narrator then finally just goes right out and says it: "Everyone here is wondering what it's like to be somebody else." He pleads with the group to be sensible and stop the madness, arguing that inside, everyone is alike and everyone has something to be ashamed with. He so desperately wants everyone to just be friends again and to abandon the deceit and hatred that has been developed over the course of the friendship.

But it's too late.

One thing I could never figure out about this song was why the word "to" was represented by the number 2. If anyone has any ideas about that, I'd love to hear them. One theory I have is that 2 is the number of people in a normal healthy romantic relationship. Such a relationship should be between two people and two people only, not shared between a whole group of cheaters.