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"
Maybe I hang around here
A little more than I should
We both know I got somewhere else to go
But I got something to tell you
That I never thought I would
But I believe you really ought to know
I love you
I honestly love you
You don't have to answer
I see it in your eyes
Maybe it was better left unsaid
But this is pure and simple
And you must realise
That it's coming from my heart
And not my head
I love you
I honestly love you
I'm not trying to make you feel uncomfortable
I'm not trying to make you anything at all
But this feeling doesn't come along everyday
And you shouldn't blow the chance
When you've got the chance to say
I love you
(I love you)
I honestly love you
If we both were born in another place and time
This moment might be ending in a kiss
But there you are with yours
And here I am with mine
So I guess we'll just be leaving it at this
I love you
I honestly love you
I honestly love you
A little more than I should
We both know I got somewhere else to go
But I got something to tell you
That I never thought I would
But I believe you really ought to know
I love you
I honestly love you
You don't have to answer
I see it in your eyes
Maybe it was better left unsaid
But this is pure and simple
And you must realise
That it's coming from my heart
And not my head
I love you
I honestly love you
I'm not trying to make you feel uncomfortable
I'm not trying to make you anything at all
But this feeling doesn't come along everyday
And you shouldn't blow the chance
When you've got the chance to say
I love you
(I love you)
I honestly love you
If we both were born in another place and time
This moment might be ending in a kiss
But there you are with yours
And here I am with mine
So I guess we'll just be leaving it at this
I love you
I honestly love you
I honestly love you
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
It is about two people who cannot be together but are in love. They are both with someone. And "If we both were born / In another place and time" they would be together. Great song. Sad in so many ways.
The lyrics were written by Peter Allen, and the word is that it is from the perspective of a gay man singing to another gay man, both of whom are in relationships with women, hence the line "there you are with yours and here I am with mine." Allen was gay and was famously married to Liza Minnelli, so this makes sense.
That said, it is written so it can be applicable to any person in a relationship who falls for someone else they cannot be with. If you saw "The Wedding Planner" it's amazing that anyone would choose this for a wedding song, but those would be the same folks who see "Born in the USA" as a flag-waver.
It is a gorgeous song, heartbreaking really, and Olivia's original version totally deserved the Grammies it won.
The lyrics were written by Peter Allen, and the word is that it is from the perspective of a gay man singing to another gay man, both of whom are in relationships with women, hence the line "there you are with yours and here I am with mine." Allen was gay and was famously married to Liza Minnelli, so this makes sense.
That said, it is written so it can be applicable to any person in a relationship who falls for someone else they cannot be with. If you saw "The Wedding Planner" it's amazing that anyone would choose this for a wedding song, but those would be the same folks who see "Born in the USA" as a flag-waver.
It is a gorgeous song, heartbreaking really, and Olivia's original version totally deserved the Grammies it won.
I consider this one of the most...honest? sincere? true? authentic?...maybe I'd just better echo the lyrics and call it "pure and simple" - love songs ever written. It's beautiful in the way that simple truth is, and its genius lies in the unaffectedness of its lyrics. It isn't at all what people think of when they say "poetic," but that's what makes it profoundly brilliant poetry.
I can kind of understand why people want to sing it at their weddings, because it has that utter genuineness that no other love song I know of really expresses. When I was in the throes of my (unrequited) high school crush, this was the song that ran through my head because the refrain seemed to say it better than any other words I knew. (I just avoided thinking about the last verse at the time - such is the power of love-inspired blindness! I guess that's what the "sing-it-at-our-wedding" folks are doing, too; but nowadays I consider the song's tragedy part of its intrinsic beauty, and I don't think you can really separate the two.)
Oh how I miss my youth! As a young man, I was always looking for a girlfriend like ONJ. Maybe I still am. LOL
This song reminds me again of just how rare is her beauty of innocence and sweetness. It's probably the only plain direct "I love you" song sang with such melodious tones and plain honest emotions. She wears her heart on her sleeve, giving everything and asking for nothing in return. No dancing around the issue of love.
There are very few voices in all of history who can portray such simple, maybe even naive, openness. It's all the beauty of a young woman. Without any twists. It's like the song was especially written just for her (although it's not).
Definitely a timeless piece. No other singer could've pulled it off.
@veryken Whether ONJ is sweet or innocent is not something one can determine from just hearing her sing this or any song. Olivia was not a song writer and did not write "I Honestly <br /> Love You". What she is , is a fantastic interpreter of the songs of others. Who knows what she is really like other than her friends and family. Peter Allen is the songwriter and he wrote it in memory of a situation tha occurred while he was married to Liza Minelli. He had worked with Liza's mother Judy Garland who fixed the 2 of them up. But there was something he never told them which is that he was Gay. And while married to Liza he fell in love with a friend of his who like him was also Gay and Married to a Woman. It isn't clear if he ever told his friend but he and Liza were Seperated after less than 3 years of marriage and divorced after 6. He may have. The song is not about the response he received but the emotions that made him want to say something. Looking at it that way lines like "we both know I've got somewhere else to go" & "There you are with Yours and here I am with Mine" make far more sense. Far from being innocent the song is about complex emotions like loving 2 people simultaneously. Yet realizing that the other person's happiness may be more important than your new found feelings of love. The emotion is noble but not necessarily innocent. It is not spelled out because doing so would make the song's meaning only apply to a small niche group of people instead of feeling universal as it does. The Song and probably Olivia too is far deeper than it appears at face value. Appearances may or may not be deceiving.
As a gay person, I relate to the lyrics a lot. And the way she sings it, with tears in her eyes and so much heart... Oh boy!
The song is about a single mother of five who feel in love with the owner of the bar she worked at for her secound job! He was married and she had survived two marriages and was cheated on! She could not destroy his marriage as hers was destroyed! She loved him, but would not take it any ferther!
I know this because my mother wrote this as a poem to the bar owner! It came up missing at the end of her shift and three months latter it was on the radio!
@Drnash1221 I'm certain your mother told you this with much emotion and it may have applied to a situation she was once in.But Peter Allen wrote the song about his own experience of being Married to Liza Minelli & being in love with another Man who like him was married. Hence lines like "There You are with Yours and here I am with Mine" that do not apply to the situation you describe. It was written and recorded as a demo with Peter singing it more than 3 months before it was a hit for Olivia Newton John.
"I honestly love you." is what she told the guy she\'s currently with, and is now having an emotional love-affair with someone else, and regretting her predicament. The song actually became an anthem for no-fault divorce in the 70s - that actually being in a committed relationship/marriage is akin to oppression, and gave rise to you-go-gurl divorces that continue today. Don\'t let a man keep you down when you find someone else you like better. And she even leave the option open at the end of the song, "So I guess we\'ll just be leaving it at this". I guess... maybe not - here\'s my phone number in case yours goes out of town.