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"
Oh Lord, I'm tired, it's time to go to bed,
Way, after midnight, and the wine's gone to my head,
Lying here upon the shore just listening to the waves,
And it's been a perfect day.
Packed up a picnic and set off for the sea,
Taking all the back roads where no-one else would be,
My and you and Paul and Sue,
How we laughed the time away,
And we had a perfect day.
I brought along my old guitar,
And lying there beneath the stars,
We sang all the Beatle songs we knew,
Lord you should have heard those harmonies,
When we did Nowhere Man and Let It Be
My love, if we should break up,
Should we ever part,
And you're searching for some memory,
To help your aching heart,
Forget about the hurtful things,
That lovers often say,
And remember this perfect day.
Then people start coming around the fire,
And I was strumming at my old guitar,
Trying to think of something everybody knew,
And then you said "though it's far away,
A Christmas song would really make my day."
And everybody sang
And all I really want to do,
Is sing songs for you,
Then it's been a perfect day,
Yes it's been a perfect day.
Way, after midnight, and the wine's gone to my head,
Lying here upon the shore just listening to the waves,
And it's been a perfect day.
Packed up a picnic and set off for the sea,
Taking all the back roads where no-one else would be,
My and you and Paul and Sue,
How we laughed the time away,
And we had a perfect day.
I brought along my old guitar,
And lying there beneath the stars,
We sang all the Beatle songs we knew,
Lord you should have heard those harmonies,
When we did Nowhere Man and Let It Be
My love, if we should break up,
Should we ever part,
And you're searching for some memory,
To help your aching heart,
Forget about the hurtful things,
That lovers often say,
And remember this perfect day.
Then people start coming around the fire,
And I was strumming at my old guitar,
Trying to think of something everybody knew,
And then you said "though it's far away,
A Christmas song would really make my day."
And everybody sang
And all I really want to do,
Is sing songs for you,
Then it's been a perfect day,
Yes it's been a perfect day.
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