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"
Wondering aloud
How we feel today
Last night sipped the sunset
My hand in her hair
We are our own saviours
As we start both our hearts beating life
Into each other
Wondering aloud
Will the years treat us well
As she floats in the kitchen,
I'm tasting the smell
Of toast as the butter runs
Then she comes, spilling crumbs on the bed
And I shake my head
And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are
How we feel today
Last night sipped the sunset
My hand in her hair
We are our own saviours
As we start both our hearts beating life
Into each other
Wondering aloud
Will the years treat us well
As she floats in the kitchen,
I'm tasting the smell
Of toast as the butter runs
Then she comes, spilling crumbs on the bed
And I shake my head
And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are
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Well, never thought of it that way, but, you know, could be along those lines.. :-)
To me, it's always been this feelgood-song about, ehm, feeling good. You know, sunny afternoon, the '60s... Ian, in an easy mind, sitting on the bed with his guitar strumming, composing, etc. Good stuff
You people who think it's about intercourse probably think a lot about intercourse throughout the day. This is simply a wistful love song, with not one unambiguous reference to sex (unless you consider the word "bed" as something to be used only for that).
I believe that it is a song about life and love (sex included) and that giving to another is the highest aspiration one can achieve :)
Thanks for pointing out the link with the other Tull song "Wondering Again" and reproduction, this has really helped. However I feel your interpretation is missing a great point within the lines: "We are our own saviours as we start both our hearts beating life into each other" I never thought of this song as being about intercourse, maybe because english is not my first language. What this means to me is that you give your lover a meaning in life and the lover gives you this meaning in return (a reason to exist). This is emphasized by Ian's "We are our own saviours", as if we had to be saved from the lack of sense in life. "Wondering aloud, will the years treat us well?" seems spoken so softly, so lightly that this doesn't even remotely sound like an important question, but the fact that it is the only question aside from "how we feel today" could also mean that Ian considers this an important matter, but it does not need to be answered as what really matters in this song is the feeling of the moment. "Wondering Again"'s reference to infancy might be a sign of Ian maturing and now considering having kids as a new meaning in life, which is certainly a change in thoughts that many adults experience. It sounds to me as the appendage to this song, which is focusing on the present, the "now" and the feeling, and representing the future and carrying a bit of a hopeful message.
Remember Ian has a tradition of singing lightly about very heavy topics, see "Cheap Day Return", so this could seem like a feelgood song and carry a second meaning, which is according to my interpretation surprisingly optimistic in this song (as opposed to many other songs by Jethro Tull).
...and it's only the giving that makes you what you are... Maybe an opening to the infant thing in "Wondering again", or just Anderson's two cents about individualism that is the main caracteristic of modern and post-modern eras as opposed to his vision of life shared with somebody else.
Forgot to point out how the two previous posters' names seem to be references to my favorite band. Wish the Mars Volta's lyrics were a bit like Ian's... meaning you don't need to invest 40hours+ to understand them. Anyways. I need to add that this is by far my favorite Tull song.
"And it's only the giving that makes you what you are."
So true.
"It's only the giving..." & "you become what you do" (Full Metal Jacket?) -- two stark, ineluctable bits of wisdom that shape people continually whether they come to realize it or not.
But everyone should have the glory of a we, whether for a lifetime or just one night...
How you people only see this as a "sex" themed song amazes me.
This song is about the simple true things of life & about those special moments you share with the person you really love.
Someone mentioned she "cums"???? For christ's sake...
Picture this... he's in bed, waiting for her.. she brings him fresh-made toasts and spills crums on the bed... he shakes his head.
Its about cumplicity between 2 people that love eachother and enjoy the time they spend together, regardless if they did sex before or after that moment.
If you didn't understand this, i wonder what you think of the "Grace" song lol
The early posters were way off base, IMHO. This song, about life's simple pleasures and sharing a life with someone you love (Ian Anderson was recently married to first wife Jennifer) followed up on the theme of Inside, from the previous album, Benefit. Watching the sun go down together, laughing at toast crumbs in the bed, and wondering how their life together will turn out. Unfortunatly, Ian's first marriage wouldn't last, although his second, to Shona, is something like 36 years and counting, I believe.
Wond'ring Again was written in 1970, although not included on Aqualung, even though it shared some of the pessimistic views (it's only the taking that makes you what you are) of other songs on the album.
It's about conception / intercourse. See Wondering Again.