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 wretched desert takes its form
The jackal proud and tight
In search of you I feel my way
Through slowest heaving night
Whatever fear invents
I swear it makes no sense
I reach out through the border fence
Come down, come talk to me
In the swirling curling storm of desire
Unuttered words hold fast
With reptile tongue, the lightning lashes
Towers built to last
Darkness creeps in like a thief
And offers no relief
Why are you shaking like a leaf?
Come on, come talk to me
Oh please talk to me
Won't you please talk to me
We can unlock this misery
Come on, come talk to me
I did not come to steal
This all is so unreal
Can't you show me how you feel?
Now come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me
Come talk to me
The earthly power sucks shadowed milk
From sleepy tears undone
From nippled skin as smooth as silk
The bugles blow as one
You lie there with your eyes half closed
Like there's no-one there at all
There's a tension pulling on your face
Come on, come talk to me
Won't you please talk to me?
If you'd just talk to me
Unblock this misery
If you'd only talk to me
Don't you ever change your mind
Now your future's so defined
And you act so deaf, so blind
Come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me
Come talk to me
I can imagine the moment
Breaking out through the silence
All the things that we both might say
And the heart, it will not be denied
'Til we're both on the same damn side
All the barriers blown away
I said please talk to me
Won't you please come talk to me?
Just like it used to be
Come on, come talk to me
I did not come to steal
This all is so unreal
Can you show me how you feel?
Now come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me
Come talk to me
The jackal proud and tight
In search of you I feel my way
Through slowest heaving night
Whatever fear invents
I swear it makes no sense
I reach out through the border fence
Come down, come talk to me
In the swirling curling storm of desire
Unuttered words hold fast
With reptile tongue, the lightning lashes
Towers built to last
Darkness creeps in like a thief
And offers no relief
Why are you shaking like a leaf?
Come on, come talk to me
Oh please talk to me
Won't you please talk to me
We can unlock this misery
Come on, come talk to me
I did not come to steal
This all is so unreal
Can't you show me how you feel?
Now come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me
Come talk to me
The earthly power sucks shadowed milk
From sleepy tears undone
From nippled skin as smooth as silk
The bugles blow as one
You lie there with your eyes half closed
Like there's no-one there at all
There's a tension pulling on your face
Come on, come talk to me
Won't you please talk to me?
If you'd just talk to me
Unblock this misery
If you'd only talk to me
Don't you ever change your mind
Now your future's so defined
And you act so deaf, so blind
Come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me
Come talk to me
I can imagine the moment
Breaking out through the silence
All the things that we both might say
And the heart, it will not be denied
'Til we're both on the same damn side
All the barriers blown away
I said please talk to me
Won't you please come talk to me?
Just like it used to be
Come on, come talk to me
I did not come to steal
This all is so unreal
Can you show me how you feel?
Now come on, come talk to me
Come talk to me
Come talk to me
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I can't believe that no one has written a review of this song or anything! This has got to be one of Peter Gabriel's best songs. This song is supposed to be about relationships (as is the rest of the album US), and this song is about his failed relationship with his backup singer Sinead O'Connor.