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"
What's it all about, Alfie
Is it just for the moment we live
What's it all about when you sort it out, Alfie
Are we meant to take more than we give
Or are we meant to be kind
And if only fools are kind, Alfie
Then I guess it's wise to be cruel
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie
What will you lend on an old golden rule
As sure as I believe there's a heaven above, Alfie
I know there's something much more
Something even non-believers can believe in
I believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie
Until you find the love you've missed you're nothing, Alfie
When you walk let your heart lead the way
And you'll find love any day, Alfie, Alfie
Is it just for the moment we live
What's it all about when you sort it out, Alfie
Are we meant to take more than we give
Or are we meant to be kind
And if only fools are kind, Alfie
Then I guess it's wise to be cruel
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie
What will you lend on an old golden rule
As sure as I believe there's a heaven above, Alfie
I know there's something much more
Something even non-believers can believe in
I believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie
Until you find the love you've missed you're nothing, Alfie
When you walk let your heart lead the way
And you'll find love any day, Alfie, Alfie
Lyrics submitted by planetearth
Alfie Lyrics as written by Hal David Burt Bacharach
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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lovely, touching lyrics. never quite figured out exactly the meaning of ".. what will you lend on an old golden rule?"
Ideas anyone? I know what the Golden Rule is (for example, do unto others as you would have them do unto you), but to lend on it??? strange wording.
@tsreyb <br /> Hal David wrote the line and said he was just trying to fill in the words to the music Burt Bacharach had done...he said it actually meant nothing and was open to interpretation.<br /> Bacharach liked the line and wanted to keep it.
Generally it's about love. There's filial, romantic and agape love in it. Old golden rule, yes it's what we read in the book., God's love agape, which is the greatest and different to romantic that we feel towards the other. Lastly the filial is 2hat we have for our love ones. You can find these 3 love in the lyrics.
tsreyb... I, too, feel it's a strange wording but I came up with this:
To "lend" is an expectation that the same thing (or an equivalent) will be returned. This relates to The Golden Rule where our (presumably kind) actions toward others are similarly returned.
So, I'd say the speaker in the song is asking Alfie why "the strong" would help the weak if there is nothing valuable the weak can provide in return.
Hi! i think it means lend on the basis or strength of the Golden Rule of "Do unto others etc." Another rule of life, not so famous or sacred-sounding but golden nevertheless, is "What goes around, comes around." So, Alfie: it's not a sign of weakness to be kind and neighborly; it's thoroughly human. Giving is one of the secrets of life. (Sorry if this all sounds preachy.)
I recently listened to NPR and I think the interview was with Greg Kurstin. It was implied that the singer was a womanizer. From that I deduced that to "lend on an old golden rule" implies that fidelity can be loosely interpreted as long as love is implied in the encounters.