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"
The night doesn't like it
Looks just like your face on the moon to me
And I won't let you do
What you want to do
It's funny how, even now, you're laughing.
I won't let you do it!
If you go, I'll let the law know
And they'll head you off when you touch the ground
Ooh, please, don't go through with this
I don't like the sound of it
It's funny how, even now, you're miles away
I won't let you do it
I won't let you do it
I won't let you go through with it!
Meet them over at Dover
I'll just pilot the motor
Take them over the water
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
In Malta, catch a swallow
For all of the guilty to set them free
Wings fill the window
And they beat and bleed
They hold the sky on the other side of borderlines
Meet them over at Dover
I'll just pilot the motor
Take them over the water
Like a swallow flying to Malta
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
Give me a break!
Oh, let me try!
Give me something to show
For my miserable life!
Give me something to take!
Would you break even my wings
Just like a swallow?
Let me, let me go
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
("Let me, let me go!")
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
("Let me, let me go!")
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
("Let me, let me go!")
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
But you're not a swallow!
Looks just like your face on the moon to me
And I won't let you do
What you want to do
It's funny how, even now, you're laughing.
I won't let you do it!
If you go, I'll let the law know
And they'll head you off when you touch the ground
Ooh, please, don't go through with this
I don't like the sound of it
It's funny how, even now, you're miles away
I won't let you do it
I won't let you do it
I won't let you go through with it!
Meet them over at Dover
I'll just pilot the motor
Take them over the water
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
In Malta, catch a swallow
For all of the guilty to set them free
Wings fill the window
And they beat and bleed
They hold the sky on the other side of borderlines
Meet them over at Dover
I'll just pilot the motor
Take them over the water
Like a swallow flying to Malta
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
Give me a break!
Oh, let me try!
Give me something to show
For my miserable life!
Give me something to take!
Would you break even my wings
Just like a swallow?
Let me, let me go
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
("Let me, let me go!")
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
("Let me, let me go!")
With a hired plane
And no names mentioned
Tonight's the night of the flight
Before you know
I'll be over the water
Like a swallow
("Let me, let me go!")
There's no risk
I'll whisk them up in no moonlight
And though pigs can fly
They'll never find us
Posing as the night
And I'm home before the morning
But you're not a swallow!
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Night of the Swallow Lyrics as written by Kate Bush
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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A Great Song Story! ... 'The Night doesn't like it' ... The opening evokes divination, ill omen, witchcraft, spells... an appeal to the Moon Goddess... An inauspicious moon... a feeling of foreboding...
Swallows are excellent fliers, using their skill to attract a mate and defend territory... The SWALLOW represents the idea of coming back, of returning home, of resurrection, hope, loyalty, freedom... a hardship survived, a victory gained... The SWALLOW can also represent the relationship between an older and younger brother...
"But you're not a swallow" (heard right at the end of the track)... The dreadful foresight of one sees the doom of the other... The other seems lost to the scheme, heedless; deaf to appeal and blind to the seriousness of events... Hubris... Too heroically ambitious, arrogant and foolish... Too driven to make a stand, to give it meaning...
The song captures the inner struggle between caution and desire, and the human struggle of one who really cares...
Totally agree with your opening statement about divination, the moon, etc. If you are familiar with the tarot (Western esoteric tradition), The Moon card, one of the 22 Trumps or Major Arcana, was the first thing that popped in my mind the first time I read these lyrics. <br /> <br /> Also, nice character dissection in terms of the criminal's motivations (heroically ambitious, foolish, driven to do something that gets him noticed).