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"
I hear your voice
Way down inside
A whispering sea
Of towering trees
But no reply
A silence so rare
And more than I can stand
Sweeps like a flood
Through life's flesh and blood
And steals away with it's heart
If I'm losing you
Then there's nothing more that I can say
The fighting is on
And battles are won
Or thrown away
But if I could live
Safe and sound
In God given fields
Or mountains of steel
Then here I'd stay
Till you'd gone
Guilty of stealing
Every thought I own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Every word's sunk in deep
Like the blades of a knife through my heart
But my strength will return
To fight the bullfight
As time's come to show
I'm told nothing more than I should know
A ship on the sea that threatens to leave
But never goes
This island of blue
Where life clings to your hands
Like water and sand
Will loose it's way
When you're gone
When all's forgiven
Still every fault's my own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Say a prayer for my release
When every hope in the world is asleep
And my strength will return
To fight the bullfight
Way down inside
A whispering sea
Of towering trees
But no reply
A silence so rare
And more than I can stand
Sweeps like a flood
Through life's flesh and blood
And steals away with it's heart
If I'm losing you
Then there's nothing more that I can say
The fighting is on
And battles are won
Or thrown away
But if I could live
Safe and sound
In God given fields
Or mountains of steel
Then here I'd stay
Till you'd gone
Guilty of stealing
Every thought I own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Every word's sunk in deep
Like the blades of a knife through my heart
But my strength will return
To fight the bullfight
As time's come to show
I'm told nothing more than I should know
A ship on the sea that threatens to leave
But never goes
This island of blue
Where life clings to your hands
Like water and sand
Will loose it's way
When you're gone
When all's forgiven
Still every fault's my own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Say a prayer for my release
When every hope in the world is asleep
And my strength will return
To fight the bullfight
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery
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This is my favourite Sylvian song. I see the protagonist as being in a relationship that is breaking down, coming to an inevitable end. The bullfight is the posturing and manouvering of the couple, the arguments and fights. But running through the whole song is the sense that the singer still loves the partner, even though it is accepted that the relationship will end. He sings that ev en if he could live in a paradise (God-given fields) or a place of ultimate security and safety (mountains of steel) he will choose to stay with his partner until the very end, not through stubbornness or spite but in order to keep the relationship going for as long as possible. It's a beautiful, heartfelt song and the intricacies of the music in some way reflect the intricacies of any relationship. Its a wonderful song that I never get tired of listening to.
Michael, of simplysylvian.wordpress.com/
A superbly moody, atmospheric song, written and performed by a very underrated artist. Perfect to chill out to, just add alcohol and tobacco!
I agree except I don't need the tobacco and alcohol. Gone To Earth = masterpiece.