Man, I was going to write a long spiel on how great it was, but Osiris said everything that needed to be said!
I'm naturally thin-skinned, emotionally speaking. A lot of the time, it's a curse: the slightest hint of rejection, and I go into a funk for days. It has its good side, though: when I listen to music, I tend to pull a lot more emotional context out of it.
'Soul-ripping' doesn't begin to describe it.
One of the first times I heard this song, I was in a semi-permanent funk (running about five years). This song jolted me out of it for months (no mean feat). It felt like it was talking about me, like it was a way to be stronger.
The beginning felt like a boxer on the mat- somebody telling himself how weak and pathetic he is- somebody about to give up. Then, he decides that he can't. He has to keep going. He slowly gets up, to the awe of the crowd (who thought him beaten into total submission), and gets back into the fight. This time, he's beating the other guy back- he's so fired up that he goes above and beyond himself to knock his tormentor out. Then, standing there in the center of the ring, as the ref declares him the winner, he finds his confidence restored, and that as long as he perseveres, he can win any fight. He always had the strength to win, but as long as he doubted himself, he could never use it.
Sorry for rambling like this, but that emotion, that idea, resonates pretty deeply with me. It's a beautiful song, brimming with feeling, and it never leaves my computer/ipod/CD player.