Meaning of “Goodbye Old Friend” by The Devil Makes Three
The Devil Makes Three is a band from the Californian city of Santa Cruz that specializes in Americana music. This act, which consists of guitarists Pete Bernhard and Cooper McBean, joined by (upright) bassist Lucia Turino, has been around since 2002, with seven studio albums as of this writing to show for it.
“Goodbye Old Friend” is from the fourth of those projects, “I’m a Stranger Here”, which was released through New West Records on 29 October 2014, and the song was produced by Buddy Miller .
The Lyrics of “Goodbye Old Friend”
It has been put forth by Genius that the lyrics of this song deal with the theme of battling drug addiction, which permeates throughout “I’m a Stranger Here”. In other words, if so that would mean that the addressee is a personification of the substance(s) that the vocalist has issues with.
But that theory aside, by and large it does read as if he is singing to/of another person. There are of course metaphors present, and there’s also certain lines that can be interpreted as if as if who or what is being sung to is not human, such as the vocalist claiming that he has “befriended everyone” whom the addressee ‘has used’. But by and large, this “old friend” appears to be a literal one, at least with this song being taken as a standalone work.
And to make a long story short, the vocalist’s disposition is threefold. First and foremost is the relationship between him and the addressee being a toxic one.
Secondly, it’s as if they’re having a hard time resisting each other, or at least that was the case as far as the singer is concerned. And conclusively, he has decided to call it quits, not wanting anything to do with the other party anymore, rather being content with the two of them occasionally crossing paths in the dream world.
So whether the addressee is a person or a personification, it is obvious that the vocalist feels that their relationship has run its course. Furthermore, since he is referring to this entity as an “old friend”, it doesn’t particularly read like any hard feelings on his part. It’s more as if their relationship held value for a while, but eventually it became one of contention.
