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"
Well the sun goes down on London town
But it never sets on Oxford Street.
Those well spoken young men
And their bouncers,
Are trying to create a well dressed elite.
And all on private medicine,
Tut tut.
Once inside join the rising tide
Of people who are so proud to get in.
Who think their face is their fortune,
But under their skin their ugly as sin.
Didn't I meet you down at the clinic?
And lots of boys with lots of poison
There right down to their hips,
There're lots of pretty girls with suntans
And cold sores on their lips.
Is he your boyfriend
Or is he just here to hold your coat?
Or take it off, take it off, take it off
And let's find out.
Half passed tries with half cast eyes,
Are sucking in their cheeks until it hurts.
Lots of twats in funny hats,
With Karl Marx printed on their shirts.
Will tell you,
Revolution is just a state of mind.
Oh this is Saturday night
In the West End alright,
And these people are not my kind.
You can cut the rug with this weeks drug
Make 'em all queue up to lick your ass
Wear a T-Shirt that says
"Young, free and single",
Or a big badge that says
"I'm here, punk working class".
The place is full of ear holes,
Who hang on every word
That they speak.
Who believe what they write
About themselves,
Week after week after week after week
I don't know how they get away with it,
They should be ashamed.
While if it's all so bloody beautiful
Well take it home and have it framed.
But it never sets on Oxford Street.
Those well spoken young men
And their bouncers,
Are trying to create a well dressed elite.
And all on private medicine,
Tut tut.
Once inside join the rising tide
Of people who are so proud to get in.
Who think their face is their fortune,
But under their skin their ugly as sin.
Didn't I meet you down at the clinic?
And lots of boys with lots of poison
There right down to their hips,
There're lots of pretty girls with suntans
And cold sores on their lips.
Is he your boyfriend
Or is he just here to hold your coat?
Or take it off, take it off, take it off
And let's find out.
Half passed tries with half cast eyes,
Are sucking in their cheeks until it hurts.
Lots of twats in funny hats,
With Karl Marx printed on their shirts.
Will tell you,
Revolution is just a state of mind.
Oh this is Saturday night
In the West End alright,
And these people are not my kind.
You can cut the rug with this weeks drug
Make 'em all queue up to lick your ass
Wear a T-Shirt that says
"Young, free and single",
Or a big badge that says
"I'm here, punk working class".
The place is full of ear holes,
Who hang on every word
That they speak.
Who believe what they write
About themselves,
Week after week after week after week
I don't know how they get away with it,
They should be ashamed.
While if it's all so bloody beautiful
Well take it home and have it framed.
Lyrics submitted by guitarbloke
Talking Wag Club Blues [Previously Unreleased Track; Bonus Track] Lyrics as written by Billy Bragg
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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Several errors here - it's "lots of boys with lots of poise/and hair right down to their hips" - "Half arsed tried with half-caste eyes" and "Or a big badge that says/"I'm hip and working class". One of my favourite bragg songs. deliciously angry and cheeky, makes me grin every time :)