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"
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
Those days are over
You don't have to sell your body to the night
Roxanne, you don't have to wear that dress tonight
Walk the streets for money
You don't care if it's wrong or if it's right
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
Put on the red light, put on the red light
Put on the red light, put on the red light
Put on the red light, oh
I loved you since I knew ya
I wouldn't talk down to ya
I have to tell you just how I feel
I won't share you with another boy
I know my mind is made up
So put away your make up
Told you once I won't tell you again it's a bad way
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
You don't have to put on the red light
Put on the red light, put on the red light
Those days are over
You don't have to sell your body to the night
Roxanne, you don't have to wear that dress tonight
Walk the streets for money
You don't care if it's wrong or if it's right
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
Put on the red light, put on the red light
Put on the red light, put on the red light
Put on the red light, oh
I loved you since I knew ya
I wouldn't talk down to ya
I have to tell you just how I feel
I won't share you with another boy
I know my mind is made up
So put away your make up
Told you once I won't tell you again it's a bad way
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light
You don't have to put on the red light
Put on the red light, put on the red light
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The Night We Met
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Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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
Ed Sheeran
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.
Sting more recently said he wrote this song—which I’m sure endeared him to prostitutes everywhere—because he was freaked out as a boy of 10 or 12 to see his mother kissing another man. This surprised me because I had previously felt the song was written as a favorable tilt to ladies of the night. Discovering his mother’s infidelity, his trust in women was crushed—something I’m sure was disillusioning but also delightful—perspective is everything—motivation to write a very good song.
Remaining unforgiving of his mother, when asked about his own indiscretion that led to his divorcing his first wife, he said he and Trudie had been honest about this whereas his mother had not been. I found this so intriguing—and not just in the gossipy sense—because I wondered how happy he might have been as a boy if his mother had been honest and destroyed the relationship she had with his father. Her silence and her honesty would both have brought unhappiness just as his honesty—kind as it seemed at the time—could only bring Fran unhappiness. My point is that there is no right way to handle such difficulties of the heart. It could be that his mother didn’t love the man enough to leave his father but he loved Trudie enough to leave Fran so silence was obviously not an option. Honesty in his own situation is not a better option—it was his only option and I am not condemning it. I can’t condemn anyone who finds themselves in the throes of a passionate challenge—they are difficult to handle!
But I felt he might understand that the mother he loved and admired was human and it is not easy for a mother who loves her family to place integrity before love—especially when she isn’t sure which way to turn. I would love to hear that he forgives her decision, does not place his own decision above hers, and does not harbor guilt or grief over what happened between him, Trudie and Fran—who were friends. Such things happen!
Trudie was apparently part of his destiny. He was ending one chapter of life and moving to another. He had a lovely life with Fran and now has a lovely life with Trudie. “Love, love, love, love. Look what you’ve done to me!”—Betty Boop song. Hopefully this will occur to all three of them so they can lay some obsolete pain to rest. Oh, and … duh … I’ll give the song a 9. It’s got a great beat and it’s easy to dance to.