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"
Taking on water,
Sailing a restless sea
From a memory,
A fantasy.
The wind carries
Into white water,
Far from the islands.
Don't you know you're
Never going to get to France.
Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
Never going to get to France.
Could a new romance ever bind you?
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
You know you're
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
You know you're
I see a picture
By the lamp's flicker.
Isn't it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
Y know you're
I see a picture
By the lamp's flicker.
Isn't it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
You know you're
Never going to get to France.
Never going to....
Never going to get to France.
Never going to....
Never going to get to France.
Never going to....
Sailing a restless sea
From a memory,
A fantasy.
The wind carries
Into white water,
Far from the islands.
Don't you know you're
Never going to get to France.
Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
Never going to get to France.
Could a new romance ever bind you?
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
You know you're
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
You know you're
I see a picture
By the lamp's flicker.
Isn't it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
Y know you're
I see a picture
By the lamp's flicker.
Isn't it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
You know you're
Never going to get to France.
Never going to....
Never going to get to France.
Never going to....
Never going to get to France.
Never going to....
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Mike Oldfield wrote this song about Mary Queen of Scots, although it is quite abstract.
Yes I believe "To France" is about Mary Queen of Scots. She was catholic and spent her child hood in France and as we know had a major struggle with Elizabeth I who ended up beheading her. So she never got to France!!
Beautiful song. It is so fitting - the music is haunting, foreboding, expectatious and tragic. Perfect for the subject, as Mary Stuart's story and life are all of those things. She became Queen of a country of which she had little understanding. Scotland and France, where she grew up, were very different and contrasted worlds in the 16th century. Mary carried a deep religious conviction with her into a land which was becoming ever more hostile and wary of that religion. She was armed with little more than a young girl's naivety in a dangerous land. She was gullible and often led astray by those with more devious intent. Passionate, she was involved in a few romantic trysts, Lord Bothwell, et al. In the end, hunted by the Virgin Queen (ironically, someone who had less a birthright claim to the English crown than did Mary), numerous plans for her escape. Alas, she never did get to France. The tale of Mary Stuart is fantastic and captivating - Mike Oldfield pays it honourable tribute with this beautiful song and Maggie Reilly's incomparable voice.
I remembered this from my first year of university and i have looked for it since 1984 but never knew who sang or wrote it - found it tonight on Spotify - I'm soooo happy
Damn I love Maggie Reillys voice. It's so lovely.
Great song! Check out the cover Blind Guardian did! (yeah the metal band) It's on the Forgotten Tales-record. The best cover ever done!
Brexit?