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"
Grim-faced and forbidding
Their faces closed tight
An angular mass of New Yorkers
Pacing in rhythm
Race the oncoming night
They chase through the streets of Manhattan
Head-first humanity
Pause at a light
Then flow through the streets of the city
They seem oblivious
To a soft spring rain
Like an English rain
So light, yet endless
From a leaden sky, yeah
The buildings are lost
In their limitless rise
My feet catch the pulse
And the purposeful stride
I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city
Wide-angle watcher
On life's ancient tales
Steeped in the history of London
Green and Grey washes
In a wispy white veil
Mist in the streets of Westminster
Wistful and weathered
The pride still prevails
Alive in the streets of the city
Are they oblivious
To this quality?
A quality
Of light unique to every city's streets
Pavements may teem
With intense energy
But the city is calm
In this violent sea
I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city
Their faces closed tight
An angular mass of New Yorkers
Pacing in rhythm
Race the oncoming night
They chase through the streets of Manhattan
Head-first humanity
Pause at a light
Then flow through the streets of the city
They seem oblivious
To a soft spring rain
Like an English rain
So light, yet endless
From a leaden sky, yeah
The buildings are lost
In their limitless rise
My feet catch the pulse
And the purposeful stride
I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city
Wide-angle watcher
On life's ancient tales
Steeped in the history of London
Green and Grey washes
In a wispy white veil
Mist in the streets of Westminster
Wistful and weathered
The pride still prevails
Alive in the streets of the city
Are they oblivious
To this quality?
A quality
Of light unique to every city's streets
Pavements may teem
With intense energy
But the city is calm
In this violent sea
I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city
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The Night We Met
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This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
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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.
Magical
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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.
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.
The first half of the song describes a street scene in New York. The second half describes one in London. Musically, the song is composed of two very similar halves, one for each city. Aside from statements that find both cities (perhaps all cities) very positive for their energy, there's not too much indirection here -- every line says what it means.
The New York scene includes a rain "like an English rain", detailing one facet in which New York is like London.
There aren't too many phrases that actually capture the nature of either city. New York has a limitless rise. London has history and is weathered. This could just as well be about Chicago and Rome.
I think Neil Peart must have been reading some Lewis Mumford when he wrote this lyric. Mumford's masterpiece, The City in History, explores the dynamic of city growth. He weighs the pros and cons of organic city growth versus urban planning. He notes, specifically, how light is unique to every city's street. Mumford also has a lot to say about function and form in urban planning, which is a phrase that appears in another of Peart's lyrics on "Moving Pictures" (Vital Signs).
Mumford explores livability in the urban environment, studying things like commuter patterns right down to city tourism and how a city impacts a new visitor ("my feet catch the pulse and the purposeful drive").
Mumford also discusses how the urban form can bring comfort and security to a citizen and, despite the population density of urban living, the urban form is still an organic one; a natural place for human existence ("Pavements may teem with intense energy, But the city is calm in this violent sea."0
This song is amazing, but the lyrics are not straight forward. The lyrics must be read in context of the whole album, particularly the first and last songs, "Tom Sawyer" and "Vital Signs". Their next album, "Signals," carried on the same theme. It is said of "Today's Tom Sawyer" that his "skies are wide" and his "eyes are wide", as would be"wide angle watchers" as mentioned in "Camera Eye". All others seem oblivious of such things as beauty and quality. The most difficult phrase is: Pavements may team with intense energy But the city is calm in this violent sea.
What is "this violent sea"? Is the violent sea this general disconnect, this general oblivion to what is mentioned in "Tom Sawyer": The world is The world is Love and Life are deep. This "focus is sharp in the city." The last song, "Vital Signs", identifies the many various indications of this general disconnect and concludes that "Everybody has to elevate from the norm".
i like this song. the complex world of the big city. so brilliant, so alive, yet...so dangerous.
I like this song. It's not one of Rush's most well known, but the synth opening is great.
wtf only 3 posts?!?! this song is great
I love this song too. I found it interesting to read some of the reviews concerning Rush's greatest hits compilations on Amazon and it struck me as a bit odd that this one has never been included.
hey everyone..i love this song...could someone please help me with finding a detailed meaning for this song..i need it for school, cheers.
At 10:56, this was the last song Rush recorded that was over 10 minutes long.
At 10:56, this was the last song Rush recorded that was over 10 minutes long.