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"
As I did walk by Hampstead Fair
I came upon Mother Goose
So I turned her loose
She was screaming
And a foreign student said to me
Was it really true there elephants and lions too in Picadilly Circus?
Walked down by the bathing pond to try and catch some sun
Saw at least a hundred schoolgirls sobbing into handkerchiefs as one
I don't believe they knew I was a schoolboy
And a bearded lady said to me
If you start your raving, and your misbehaving
You'll be sorry
Then the chicken-fancier came to play
With his long red beard and his sister's weird, she drives a lorry
Laughed down by the putting green
I popped 'em in their holes
Four and twenty laborers were laboring
And digging up their gold
I don't believe they knew that I was Long John Silver
Saw Johnny Scarecrow make his rounds in his jet-black 'mac
Which he won't give back
Stole it from a snowman
As I did walk by Hampstead Fair
I came upon Mother Goose
So I turned her loose
But she was screaming
Walked down by the bathing pond to try and catch some sun
Must of been at least a hundred schoolgirls sobbing into handkerchiefs as one
I don't believe they knew I was a schoolboy
I came upon Mother Goose
So I turned her loose
She was screaming
And a foreign student said to me
Was it really true there elephants and lions too in Picadilly Circus?
Walked down by the bathing pond to try and catch some sun
Saw at least a hundred schoolgirls sobbing into handkerchiefs as one
I don't believe they knew I was a schoolboy
And a bearded lady said to me
If you start your raving, and your misbehaving
You'll be sorry
Then the chicken-fancier came to play
With his long red beard and his sister's weird, she drives a lorry
Laughed down by the putting green
I popped 'em in their holes
Four and twenty laborers were laboring
And digging up their gold
I don't believe they knew that I was Long John Silver
Saw Johnny Scarecrow make his rounds in his jet-black 'mac
Which he won't give back
Stole it from a snowman
As I did walk by Hampstead Fair
I came upon Mother Goose
So I turned her loose
But she was screaming
Walked down by the bathing pond to try and catch some sun
Must of been at least a hundred schoolgirls sobbing into handkerchiefs as one
I don't believe they knew I was a schoolboy
Lyrics submitted by KidArt, edited by jdm2112, DanVitaleRocks
Mother Goose Lyrics as written by Ian Anderson
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Word Collections Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song is about who we are behind the mask, and who can see through the mask. There's plenty of elephants and lions all over the place, if you go looking
Doesn't matter what age the singer is, the schoolgirls can't tell he's just a mischievous schoolboy, and he's the one they're looking for and mourning. A gentle, wild soul, not unlike Long John Silver.
The ultimate "straights" or squares, the working stiffs who run away from their families to play golf....they laugh at him...and he tells us that this type, the "suits," deserve the fist. And whilst they're working hard for their gold, the wild child is amongst them, prepared to take their booty, as they laugh at what a fool he is.
He's really just a trouble maker inhabiting a world where even our effigies are playful spirited scarecrows stealing the hats off snowmen, who can't run after them. A jet-black mac is also a type of hat.
If you think this is raving, then you're a bearded lady. The Yin and Yang turned against itself. Ian couldn't be more clear than
This is also NOT a song performed by an intermediate or beginner. At least not well. Martin Barre saw to that.
@StoneCrow Well stated.
@StoneCrow A mac is a macintosh, in other words a raincoat.
@StoneCrow Ian Anderson plays acoustic guitar here. A hybrid picking/ strumming style.