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"
Not tonight josephine.
In an army's strength therein
Lies the denouement. From
Here you're haunting me. By
The Seine so beautiful, only
Not to be of use, impossible.
So strange, victory, 1200 spires
The only sound, moscow burning.
Empty like the Tuileries. Like a dream
Vienna seems, only not to be of use- impossible.
In the last extremity, to
Advance or not to advance, I
Hear you laughing
Even still you're calling me
"not tonight, not tonight
Not tonight"
Josephine
In an army's strength therein
Lies the denouement. From
Here you're haunting me. By
The Seine so beautiful, only
Not to be of use, impossible.
So strange, victory, 1200 spires
The only sound, moscow burning.
Empty like the Tuileries. Like a dream
Vienna seems, only not to be of use- impossible.
In the last extremity, to
Advance or not to advance, I
Hear you laughing
Even still you're calling me
"not tonight, not tonight
Not tonight"
Josephine
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I'm surprised nobody wrote about this one. I love this song, and it's become like a family quote where my mom just goes, "not tonight, Josephine" and we know what she means. well, Josephine was Napolean's wife, and the song is kind of Napoleon talking to her. Remember, Napoleon was running around screwing up in Russia ("Moscow burning"), and the Tuileries was empty, Vienna was their resting stop for the troops, but the troops were decimated.... read up on Napoleon. Well, Napoleon was running around invading... and cheating on Josephine, a topic that may quite interest Tori. So, Napoleon is running around with his girls and his army, and Josephine is haunting him and laughing at him... But "even still, you're calling me." But he will not be home to her; he's doing the manly thing. "Not tonight, Josephine."
@j3ebrules Napoleon also married his next wife by proxy, she was in Vienna. "Like a dream Vienna seems" brings that to my mind more so than troop movements.
J3ebrules summed it up perfectly. I think of nothing else but of Josephine and Napolean. Amos on the other hand captures a brief moment in time like a writer. beautiful song.
When Napolean invaded Russia the Russians just retreated, hardly engaging him at all but burning fields and slaughtering cattle to stop them falling to the French. His supply lines were stretched further and further and his troops consequently reduced until he reached Moscow. There the Russians finally fought him, at the Battle of Borodino, one of the most bloody battles in history. The French won narrowly, and the Russians retreated beyond Moscow, but rather than surrendering they burned the city to the ground, so all Napolean won was a smoking ruin. He was forced to retreat across hundreds of miles of Russia as winter came, losing thousands upon thousands of his troops and marking the beginning of the end of the time when he was the most powerful man in the world.
Josephine could not offer Napolean children, so they divorced in 1810.
im the real josephine, seriously lol my full name is jossephine :)
josie for short btw =)
which im also haveing trouble spelling, josephine lmao its pathetic, i spelt my own name wrong lol
this song makes me feel really sad, but it;s so beautiful. I never knew what it was about until I read up on here! thanks for explaining people!. I love the way that stories and situations, even ones that happend to other people years ago, can feel so close to you when tori writes about them. Just somethin about the way she sings, it's like she understands things with such an intimacey anyway i love tori, she's super-human :-)
Napoleon really loved josephine