This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
The Red Chins in their millions
Will overspill their borders
And chaos then will reign in our Rael
The country of my fathers
A proud land overloaded
Like a goldfish being swallowed by a whale
Rael the home of my religion
To me, the center of the earth
The Red Chins in their millions
Will overspill their borders
And chaos then will reign in our Rael
My heritage is threatened
My roots are torn and cornered
And so to do my best I'll homeward sail
And so to do my best I'll homeward sail
Now captain, listen to my instructions
Return to this spot on Christmas day
Look toward the shore for my signal
And then you'll know if in Rael I'll stay
If a yellow flag is fluttering
Simply held against the morn
Then you'll know my courage is ended
And you'll send your boat ashore
But if a red flag is flying
Brazen, bold against the blue
Then you'll know that I am staying
And my yacht belongs to you
Now captain listen to my instructions
Return to this spot on Christmas day
Look toward the shore for my signal
And then you'll know if in Rael I'll stay
He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again
He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again
He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again
He's crazy anyway
If a yellow flag is fluttering
Sickly held against the morn
Then you'll know my courage is ended
And you'll send your boat ashore
Will overspill their borders
And chaos then will reign in our Rael
The country of my fathers
A proud land overloaded
Like a goldfish being swallowed by a whale
Rael the home of my religion
To me, the center of the earth
The Red Chins in their millions
Will overspill their borders
And chaos then will reign in our Rael
My heritage is threatened
My roots are torn and cornered
And so to do my best I'll homeward sail
And so to do my best I'll homeward sail
Now captain, listen to my instructions
Return to this spot on Christmas day
Look toward the shore for my signal
And then you'll know if in Rael I'll stay
If a yellow flag is fluttering
Simply held against the morn
Then you'll know my courage is ended
And you'll send your boat ashore
But if a red flag is flying
Brazen, bold against the blue
Then you'll know that I am staying
And my yacht belongs to you
Now captain listen to my instructions
Return to this spot on Christmas day
Look toward the shore for my signal
And then you'll know if in Rael I'll stay
He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again
He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again
He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again
He's crazy anyway
If a yellow flag is fluttering
Sickly held against the morn
Then you'll know my courage is ended
And you'll send your boat ashore
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It's about some Crusader knights in Medieval days fighting the Saracens in the Holy Land (Rael). If things get hairy, the Venetian galleys are supposed to pick the Crusader forces up and take them to safety. But the treacherous Venetians take the money and run, leaving the Knights to be massacred by the Muslims. This is close to what really happened. It was absurd that the Europeans wanted to annex Israel, it wasn't even theirs. The Venetians mock their folly and crazy bravado and leave them to their quixotic fate. Gabriel claims that he never heard of this song when he named his NYC hero Rael, but, ahem, that's a hell of a coincidence, Peter. The other Peter was probably extremely annoyed.
@54markl I think that Pete originally wrote Wretches, but was told the Arabs might object. So he changed it to Red Chins, thinking the Chinese wouldn't mind. As it happened, a Chinese army led by Mongolians did invade Palestine in the 1100's, only to be defeated at Ain Jalut by Egyptians toting, are you ready for this, the first hand-held gunpowder weapons ever seen in the West! Some Chinese gunners had deserted the Mongols and taught the Egyptians the technology. Maybe Pete's Crusaders blindly walked into the midst of this battle and got all shot to hell. Perhaps that's what the Tommy music signifies, the Crusaders getting shot off their horses. Perhaps the deaf, dumb, and blind boy saw all of this in a vision. Anyways, they all die at the end, it's a sad song about the delusionality that always accompanies war. Meanwhile, the Venetians sail to France and enslave their orphans. Nice guys.
@54markl The Mongol commander had guns too, but he left them back in his camp at Baghdad thinking they woudn't be needed. This proved to be a fatal error. The Mongol army was shocked and demoralized when they discovered that the Egyptians had procured guns of their own, and the Mongol Knights were picked off their horses by the score. The Mongols were utterly routed, and soon guns had spread everywhere in the West.