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"
A lady stands before an open window
Staring so far away
She can almost feel the southern wind blow
Almost touching her restless day
She turns from her window to me
Sad smile her apology
Sad eyes reaching to the door
Daylight loses to another evening
And still she spares me the word goodbye
And sits alone beside me fighting her feelings
Struggles to speak but in the end can only cry
Suddenly it's so hard to find
The sound of the words to speak her troubled mind
So I'm offering these to her as if to be kind
There's a train everyday leaving either way
There's a world, you know
There's a way to go
And you'll soon be gone, that's just as well
This is my opening farewell
A child's drawings left there on the table
And a woman's silk lying on the floor
And I would keep them here if I were able
Lock her safe behind this open door
But suddenly it's so clear to me
That I'd asked her to see what she may never see
And now my kind words find their way back to me
There's a train everyday leaving either way
There's a world, you know
You got a way's to go
And I'll soon believe, it's just as well
This is my opening farewell
Staring so far away
She can almost feel the southern wind blow
Almost touching her restless day
She turns from her window to me
Sad smile her apology
Sad eyes reaching to the door
Daylight loses to another evening
And still she spares me the word goodbye
And sits alone beside me fighting her feelings
Struggles to speak but in the end can only cry
Suddenly it's so hard to find
The sound of the words to speak her troubled mind
So I'm offering these to her as if to be kind
There's a train everyday leaving either way
There's a world, you know
There's a way to go
And you'll soon be gone, that's just as well
This is my opening farewell
A child's drawings left there on the table
And a woman's silk lying on the floor
And I would keep them here if I were able
Lock her safe behind this open door
But suddenly it's so clear to me
That I'd asked her to see what she may never see
And now my kind words find their way back to me
There's a train everyday leaving either way
There's a world, you know
You got a way's to go
And I'll soon believe, it's just as well
This is my opening farewell
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Holiday
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Midnight
Ed Sheeran
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“Midnight” is a song about finding a love that is so true that it provides a calming feeling through every storm. Ed Sheeran reflects on his good fortunes in landing someone with such peace and support and speaks of not fearing the dark days because he knows they’ll all end in the safety nets of her arms.
“Well, good morning there / What a way to start the day / With everything laid bare,” Ed Sheeran sings in the first verse, enthusiastic to be waking up beside his woman. He apologizes for missing her calls in the second verse and promises to return them because for him, speaking to her is the most important thing. “Well, I get lost inside my head / In this chaos, you’re my calm / And I will find my feet again / ‘Cause еven the worst days of my life will always еnd / At midnight in your arms,” sings Ed Sheeran in the chorus, revelling in his good luck.
Another great song. A couple are on the verge of a break up. The man holds on for a long time hoping to convince the woman to stay with him, even going so far as to give her reasons to stay, "I'm offering these to her as if to be kind." He eventually realizes that while he may feel strongly for her, all he's really doing is keeping her in an unwanted and depressing relationship, or as he puts it, "lock her safe behind this open door." He also comes to understand that his vision of their future did not fit hers and he had in essence, "asked her to see what she may never see." So he gives her his opening farewell as he prepares to leave their relationship behind.
I see how it could be about a couple breaking up, but I see it more as a man whose daughter is moving out. I'm not sure why I see it that way, but it makes sense in that in the first verse he refers to her as "A lady" showing she's grown up and they are not so close anymore, and she needs to go out into the world for herself. Again when he mentions the "child's drawings" and "a woman's silk", he is referencing her growth again. He realizes she will never see his vision of having her close to him. But is trying to comfort her and himself by saying that she can visit often via the "train everyday, leaving either way". The next line "there's a world you know" could be spoken by the daughter who is trying to explain herself. Finally, he accepts her leaving and knowing that he will lose her more and more as she grows older and that he will repeat the process with his other children, he says "this is my opening farewell."
I don't see the chronology of Jackson's life matching your scenario....but whatever works for you.
@kitconsul -- It doesn't matter what the chronology of his life was. He was talented enough to write songs that weren't always about himself specifically. Of course, he wove a lot of personal details into his songs, but there are several bits of his songs that don't fit with his life at all.<br /> <br /> In short, this interpretation makes sense, because the song may not necessarily be following the chronology of Jackson's life. There is no reason to talk down to OldSoul1 like that.
To me this is just one of those great lyrics that may or may not have illustrated something Jackson had lived....but had just come to understand.....written so skillfully that almost anyone could find their own story in the words.
I tend to agree that it's about a daughter leaving home for the first time. The line that convinces me is "a child's drawing is left there on the table, and a woman's silk is lying on the floor", representing a girl who has grown up in the home, and is now going out on her own. Also, not many couples splitting up offer to keep the option to reunite open: "there's a train every day, leaving either way". But a parent telling a daughter she can come home whenever she wants (and her telling her Dad he can feel free to visit her any time) is a far more plausible explanation.
I like how this song was portrayed by JD Souther on the Jackson Browne Tribute Album "Looking Into You". I think this is a sensational cover of this song which I had largely ignored until I heard this version. Now I can't get enough of it. Brilliantly produced too. The lyrics are so great and I agree with all of the comments above, it's so beautiful that it could mean lots of different things. That is the essence of Jackson's writing, he conjures up the imagination to many different scenario's. Jackson's lyrics are wonderful but JD Souther just nails this one.
I think this is a two layer story. At first, the woman wants to leave the relationship ("sad eyes looking to the door") and sees that it will not last. But he tries to give her comfort and almost defiantly tells her that she can come and go as she pleases ("train every day leaving either way"), he's not holding her there, in fact taunts her ("you'll soon be gone, it's just as well").
Later, she has won his heart. They have a child together. He now wants to protect her, to lock her and the child safely from the world. However, now she has already gone ("a child's drawings left there on the table and a woman's silk lying on the floor"). Suddenly he recalls his kind (but taunting) words, that she can come and go as she pleases, even though now, his false taunting and bravado are see as just a way of protecting himself. He does not want her to go. Yet "there's a train every day, leaving either way" echos in his mind, and his now broken heart.
Another one of my fave Jackson lines ever:
"There's a train everyday. Leaving either way."