Watching the planes land
Over the bay
I wish they
Would hang in the air forever
Holding their patterns for days
I hope they
Will be delayed forever
Standing alone at the gate
She's late
She's miles above somewhere hovering
Why won't you write?
Write me a word to say
Tell me you miss my ways
Tell me you miss my face
I never meant to clip your pretty wings
Oh, your pretty, oh your pretty wings
And you always knew it, you saw right through it
So why'd you have to go?
Standing still at the gate
And I ache (I ache, I ache)
My palms are like lakes rising
The wheels drop
And she starts to descend
And the runway
Will light her way
As she starts hovering
And when she lands
I race for the crash and grab
The oxygen from the masks
The only words I let pass
I never meant to clip your pretty wings
Oh your pretty, oh your pretty wings
We'll be all right
We'll be all right
We'll be all right
We'll be all right
You always knew it, you saw right through it
So why'd you have to go?
Over the bay
I wish they
Would hang in the air forever
I hope they
Will be delayed forever
She's late
She's miles above somewhere hovering
Write me a word to say
Tell me you miss my ways
Tell me you miss my face
Oh, your pretty, oh your pretty wings
And you always knew it, you saw right through it
So why'd you have to go?
And I ache (I ache, I ache)
My palms are like lakes rising
The wheels drop
And she starts to descend
And the runway
Will light her way
As she starts hovering
I race for the crash and grab
The oxygen from the masks
The only words I let pass
Oh your pretty, oh your pretty wings
We'll be all right
We'll be all right
We'll be all right
We'll be all right
So why'd you have to go?
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<- speechless²
The first three stanzas refer to the man waiting in the airport for his love's plane to land.
"Why won't you write? Write me a word to say Tell me you miss my ways Tell me you miss my face "
Clearly the woman he is about to see has not kept in contact, which could be because of the next stanza's message.
"I never meant to clip your pretty wings Oh, your pretty, oh your pretty wings And you always knew it, you saw right through it So why'd you have to go? "
'pretty wings' could be any number of things here. Personally, I think he is talking about taking away her independence. He never meant to be controlling or to try and change her, and since she knew that he didn't mean to, why did she have to leave him?
The next stanza confirms that the plane is delayed and he is still waiting in the airport.
The one after that basically says that when she walks over to him, he can hardly breathe.
"The only words I let pass I never meant to clip your pretty wings Oh your pretty, oh your pretty wings"
He is so hung up on her leaving that he pretty much breaks down when he sees her. He wants her to know that he didn't want her to leave, and that he wants her to stay. He also wants to know why she left in the first place.
Lovely.
I love the version of this on the Demo CD (that came packaged with some editions of Yoko). It's an instrumental version: just acoustic guitar, and horns in place of the vocals.