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"
Love came to my door
With a sleeping roll
And a madman's soul
He thought for sure I'd seen him
Dancing up a river in the dark
Looking for a woman
To court and spark
He was playing on the sidewalk
For passing change
When something strange happened
Glory train passed through him
So he buried the coins he made
In People's Park
And went looking for a woman
To court and spark
It seemed like he read my mind
He saw me mistrusting him
And still acting kind
He saw how I worried, sometimes
I worry sometimes
"All the guilty people," he said
They've all seen the stain
On their daily bread
On their christian names
I cleared myself
I sacrificed my blues
And you could complete me
I'd complete you
His eyes were the color of the sand
And the sea
And the more he talked to me, you know
The more he reached me
But I couldn't let go of L.A.
City of the fallen angels
With a sleeping roll
And a madman's soul
He thought for sure I'd seen him
Dancing up a river in the dark
Looking for a woman
To court and spark
He was playing on the sidewalk
For passing change
When something strange happened
Glory train passed through him
So he buried the coins he made
In People's Park
And went looking for a woman
To court and spark
It seemed like he read my mind
He saw me mistrusting him
And still acting kind
He saw how I worried, sometimes
I worry sometimes
"All the guilty people," he said
They've all seen the stain
On their daily bread
On their christian names
I cleared myself
I sacrificed my blues
And you could complete me
I'd complete you
His eyes were the color of the sand
And the sea
And the more he talked to me, you know
The more he reached me
But I couldn't let go of L.A.
City of the fallen angels
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Blue
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Page
Ed Sheeran
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
This song was inspired by an incident that Joni experienced in Berkeley, where she met a delusional street musician who believed that Joni had written a number of songs literally for him, although they had never met. The songs included "For Free" and "River", which is referenced in the line "dancing down the river in the dark..." and other songs, which I forget. It wasn't like he said, hey Joni, I really relate to these songs, it was rather that he was convinced that she had written them specifically for him, as in, this was someone with a mental condition.
Other details of the song, such as the burying of the coins, come from this meeting, but I forget the details. I also forget where I learned this.
I'm fascinated and intrigued by mukome's comment. I met a man that I have been jamming with at a regular gathering for the past two years. Our interactions have been musically very gratifying. He loves to pump out chords and I'm learning to improvise. He plays on the street for spare change and loves to observe and interact with everyone. He is enigmatic. I've found him inscrutable and a curios transplant and throwback to another time and place. He recently said he sought out Joni years back, came to know her and said that she wrote Court and Spark about him. <br /> <br /> Wish you could remember more.
@mukome beautiful thing is...now she has literally written a song about him.
@Woolsey did have eyes the color of the sand in the sea?
Wow... I can't believe that no one's written about this song O.o Court and Spark has to be one of my favorite albums of all time. I think this song is about a man who changed, he cleaned up his life, and a woman falls in love with him. She's mistrusts him some for his past, but he tries to reassure her that he's changed and that she could change too. And she wants to follow him and believe him, but she can't leave L.A. Who hasn't been in love only to find that there's something holding you back? This song is so true, that is always touches me every time I hear it.
Yes this is when he has seen the light is her. Yes he cleans up, but mean while she has moved on. He will never forget her, but his life is changed for the better.
Love came to my door With a sleeping roll And a madman's soul
quite the unique experience ...
amazing how you can be in love; you feel as if you're totally vulnerable and unguarded (to an uncomfortable degree, perhaps)...and later you realize, fear was holding you back
Yeah, I like that interpretation. You're in love, but can't quite commit. Youre a little fearful of what loving this person will mean,but you can't give up the life you've made for yourself. This is one of my all-time favorite songs. I've heard it literally thousands of times and have never tired of it.