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"
Why's it never light on my lawn
Why does it rain
And never say good-day to the new-born
On the big screen they showed us the sun
But not as bright in life as the real one
It's never quite the same as the real one
And tell me grey seal
How does it feel
To be so wise
To see through eyes
That only see what's real
Tell me grey seal
I never learned why meteors were formed
I only farmed in schools
That were so warn and torn
If anyone can cry then so can I
I read books and draw life from the eye
All my life is drawings from the eye
And tell me grey seal
How does it feel
To be so wise
To see through eyes
That only see what's real
Tell me grey seal
Your mission bells were wrought by ancient men
The roots were formed by twisted roots
Your roots were twisted then
I was re-born before all life could die
The Phoenix bird will leave this world to fly
If the Phoenix bird can fly then so can I
And tell me grey seal
How does it feel
To be so wise
To see through eyes
That only see what's real
Tell me grey seal
Why does it rain
And never say good-day to the new-born
On the big screen they showed us the sun
But not as bright in life as the real one
It's never quite the same as the real one
And tell me grey seal
How does it feel
To be so wise
To see through eyes
That only see what's real
Tell me grey seal
I never learned why meteors were formed
I only farmed in schools
That were so warn and torn
If anyone can cry then so can I
I read books and draw life from the eye
All my life is drawings from the eye
And tell me grey seal
How does it feel
To be so wise
To see through eyes
That only see what's real
Tell me grey seal
Your mission bells were wrought by ancient men
The roots were formed by twisted roots
Your roots were twisted then
I was re-born before all life could die
The Phoenix bird will leave this world to fly
If the Phoenix bird can fly then so can I
And tell me grey seal
How does it feel
To be so wise
To see through eyes
That only see what's real
Tell me grey seal
Lyrics submitted by toadtws, edited by loupgarous
Grey Seal Lyrics as written by Elton John Bernie Taupin
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'd assumed 'grey seal' meant the official seal of authority, probably on a certificate of learning, be it a highschooler's diploma or the educator's. So 'grey seal' would be slang for any authority that influenced -- in a perceptually stunting way -- the lyricist's development. But a quick Google search shows grey seals are common to the England/Scotland area, where Taupin and John are from, so perhaps it refers to the actual animal. I do know that when a seal sits up its chest pops out and head tilts slighty upwards in a regal bearing. And perhaps Taupin equated the seal's natural ability to learn through exposure and experience with a 'wisdom' lacking in formalized "warn and torn" educational settings.
The 'phoenix' "...reborn before all life could die" is just about surviving a past perspective/belief system and beginning/learning life anew.