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"
If you see her, say hello
She might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring
Is livin' there, I hear
Say for me that I'm all right
Though things get kind of slow
She might think that I've forgotten her
Don't tell her it isn't so
We had a falling-out
Like lovers often will
And to think of how she left that night
It still brings me a chill
And though our separation
It pierced me to the heart
She still lives inside of me
We've never been apart
If you get close to her
Kiss her once for me
I always have respected her
For doin' what she did and gettin' free
Oh, whatever makes her happy
I won't stand in the way
Though the bitter taste still lingers on
From the night I tried to make her stay
I see a lot of people
As I make the rounds
And I hear her name here and there
As I go from town to town
And I've never gotten used to it
I've just learned to turn it off
Either I'm too sensitive
Or else I'm gettin' soft
Sundown, yellow moon
I replay the past
I know every scene by heart
They all went by so fast
If she's passin' back this way
I'm not that hard to find
Tell her she can look me up
If she's got the time
She might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring
Is livin' there, I hear
Say for me that I'm all right
Though things get kind of slow
She might think that I've forgotten her
Don't tell her it isn't so
We had a falling-out
Like lovers often will
And to think of how she left that night
It still brings me a chill
And though our separation
It pierced me to the heart
She still lives inside of me
We've never been apart
If you get close to her
Kiss her once for me
I always have respected her
For doin' what she did and gettin' free
Oh, whatever makes her happy
I won't stand in the way
Though the bitter taste still lingers on
From the night I tried to make her stay
I see a lot of people
As I make the rounds
And I hear her name here and there
As I go from town to town
And I've never gotten used to it
I've just learned to turn it off
Either I'm too sensitive
Or else I'm gettin' soft
Sundown, yellow moon
I replay the past
I know every scene by heart
They all went by so fast
If she's passin' back this way
I'm not that hard to find
Tell her she can look me up
If she's got the time
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced 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.
Gravity dwarf I really don't think you could be more wrong on this one. Dylan really isn't contradicting himself at all in the places you pointed out.
The reason he says he's alright in some parts and then in others that he's not is because he wants her to think he's alright even though he's not because he knows she's not coming back and wants her to be happy.
He says he won't stand in her way any longer, even though it hurts him. He tried to make her stay at one point but he's given up on it because he knows she wasn't happy there. He's not contradicting himself because he's talking about two different moments in time.
And again when he says their seperation pierced him to the heart though they've never been apart, he's talking about his mindset at two different times. The realisation that a part of her was still with him didn't come until later, and even though a part of her is with him and they're not completely apart, he can still be upset that she is not physically there. It's a little like the way some people think about death. The person may be gone, but their memory and a part of them can live on inside of you. That doesn't mean it's irrational to be upset that they are gone.
And he doesn't want her to know that he still misses her and thinks of her because he doesn't want to make himself vulnerable or feel like he is being a burden to her after she has 'freed' herself, but of course in reality he does still think of her and want to be with her.
I don't think he thinks he's being ridiculous at all. He simply knows that she won't come back and that she is happier without him even though he still longs for her.
I agree with all you say, but I also think you can read the song both ways. On an emotional level, it resonates with me the way it does with you Jim. However, my head tells me that Gravity Dwarf may be pointing out that Dylan is not above a little self-irony. Either way, it is possibly the most moving song I have heard Dylan sing.