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"
Take good care of what you've got
My father said to me
As he puffed his pipe and Baby B
He dandled on his knee
Don't fool with fools who'll turn away
Keep all good company
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Take care of those you call your own
And keep good company
Soon I grew and happy too
My very good friends and me
We'd play all day with Sally J
The girl from number four
Very soon, I begged her, won't you keep me company?
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Come marry me, forevermore, we'll be good company
Now marriage is an institution, sure
My wife and I, our needs, and nothing more
All my friends by a year
By and by, disappeared
But we're safe enough behind our door
I flourished in my humble trade
My reputation grew
The work devoured my waking hours
But when my time was through
Reward of all my efforts
My own limited company
I hardly noticed Sally as we parted company
All through the years, in the end, it appears
There was never really anyone but me
Now I'm old, I puff my pipe
But no one's there to see
I ponder on the lesson of my life's insanity
Take care of those you call your own
And keep good company
My father said to me
As he puffed his pipe and Baby B
He dandled on his knee
Don't fool with fools who'll turn away
Keep all good company
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Take care of those you call your own
And keep good company
Soon I grew and happy too
My very good friends and me
We'd play all day with Sally J
The girl from number four
Very soon, I begged her, won't you keep me company?
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
Come marry me, forevermore, we'll be good company
Now marriage is an institution, sure
My wife and I, our needs, and nothing more
All my friends by a year
By and by, disappeared
But we're safe enough behind our door
I flourished in my humble trade
My reputation grew
The work devoured my waking hours
But when my time was through
Reward of all my efforts
My own limited company
I hardly noticed Sally as we parted company
All through the years, in the end, it appears
There was never really anyone but me
Now I'm old, I puff my pipe
But no one's there to see
I ponder on the lesson of my life's insanity
Take care of those you call your own
And keep good company
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Great version of a great song,
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I really can't help wondering why, in the second verse, to make it rhyme, they didn't call her Sally J. from number three, instead of four.
@Random18 Maybe if he had used "three", it would sound too much like the previous verse. By "breaking that rhyme scheme (melody and harmony are the same), he keeps it "interesting". Also the "Won't" from "I begged her won't you keep me company" may have sth to do, but that's just speculation.<br />