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"
Belladonna's on the high street
Her breasts upon the offbeat
And the stalls are just the side shows
Victoriana's old clothes
And yes, her jeans are tight now
She gotta travel light now
She got to turn up all her roots now
She got to turn up for the boots now
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
She sees a man upon his back there
Escaping from a sack there
And Belladonna lingers
Her gloves they got no fingers
Yeah, the blind man sing in Irish
He get his money in a tin dish
Just a corner serenader
Upon a time he could have made her, made her
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Yes, and the barrow boys are hawking
And the parakeet is squawking
Upon a truck there is a rhino
She get the crying of a wino
And then she hear the reggae rumble
Belladonna's in the jungle
But she is no garden flower
There is no distress in the tower
Belladonna walks
Belladonna taking a stroll
She don't care about your window box
Or your button hole
Yes, and she sing a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Her breasts upon the offbeat
And the stalls are just the side shows
Victoriana's old clothes
And yes, her jeans are tight now
She gotta travel light now
She got to turn up all her roots now
She got to turn up for the boots now
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
She sees a man upon his back there
Escaping from a sack there
And Belladonna lingers
Her gloves they got no fingers
Yeah, the blind man sing in Irish
He get his money in a tin dish
Just a corner serenader
Upon a time he could have made her, made her
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Yes, and the barrow boys are hawking
And the parakeet is squawking
Upon a truck there is a rhino
She get the crying of a wino
And then she hear the reggae rumble
Belladonna's in the jungle
But she is no garden flower
There is no distress in the tower
Belladonna walks
Belladonna taking a stroll
She don't care about your window box
Or your button hole
Yes, and she sing a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Portobello Belle Lyrics as written by Mark Knopfler
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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