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
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Oh come on,
All of the above seems right but I think is too realistic to have anything to do with such a passionate song. Police, IRA, Drugs…
Why don’t you try a man and woman in love. The woman is trying for years to persuade the man. He is constantly on the verge of saying yes, but always denies (maybe he is in a relationship with another woman). But tonight she won’t let him make the same mistake again. She will take him on a ride even for this one time.
I believe Kate uses the Swallow for his flying abilities and as a freedom symbol and not his returning habits.
Furthermore I’m sure the pigs that fly is an image she borrows from the “Animals” Pink Floyd album and that has nothing to do with the police but with dominant and ruthless people, destroyers of dreams, in this case social ethics.
Maybe I’m wrong but that’s how I love this song and I won’t see it turning into Rambo III.