Another Day

Paul Simon said a song is anything that can walk by itself...and this does. It's one of Roy's songs from FolkJokeOpus which made me want to play the guitar so it means a lot to me for that alone. It's obviuos what it is "about", but the song itself is a beautifully realised object in itself.... form and content and all that. Interesting chords too.The whole album is a goldmine, with Goodbye, East of the Sun etc etc...buy it if you can find it!

OK, so it's not on Folkejokeopus it's on Flat Baroque and Berserk...sorry about that.

But I wish that I had 'cause I'm feeling so sad that i never had one of your children.

I love this song. The images are gorgeous, the tone, the subject matter. all very moving.

However, the line "Oh really my dear, I can't see what we fear / sat here with ourselves in between us" makes no sense to me. Am I missing something? Is this some Britishism? (I'm American)

One of the saddest songs ever recorded. Check out the live version on 'Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion' - even better than the studio version. Heartbreaking.

gnovi - I think the line 'sat here with ourselves in between us' is about the reserve and repressed feelings of the two characters getting in the way of their relationship, i.e. they themselves are stopping them being together. A clever line.

I think the line 'a chance is waxed and wanes' is actually 'Our chances waxed and waned', i.e. the chances of them being together disappear as neither takes the initiative.

he does take the initiative ater she states she regrets that she never had a child by him "i must take her and i must make her while the dove domains" dove domains = while there's peace between them "and feel her juice run as she flies" indicates sexual arousal. "run my wings under her sighs" wings(ie arms) tying in with dove and flying. and they are together as they get licked by "the first born lash of dawn" indicating they are together still when morning comes. amazing song.hats off to roy harper.

you think, kazzamine? so your interpretation is that, she comes back to see him years after their unrequited feelings, they do the business, and without a sound, he turns around, and walks away?

i'd never thought of it that way. i'd always thought the part of the song where he describes them having sex was the fantasy, in his head, and i feel that he has deliberately written this part of the song in very poetic language compared with the mundane way in which the factual parts of the song are written, specifically to make this distinction. even the part about the wind on forget-me-nots, etc. is in his head. it's what he thinks she's feeling. to me, it's about his feelings for the woman, the poetic beauty of what could be, and the mundane ordinariness of what actually is, hence the ending.

I first heard this song in 1990, covered by "This Mortal Coil'. They picked a few songs of his, I learned much later. Yeah, so evocative, touching the unspoken that will appear in every life, the things that persist in memory throughout our lives as we try to play them out, find the truth or the meaning.

Lyrics are wrong. It should be:

But I wish that I had 'cause I'm feeling so sad that i never had one of your children.

Can you fix it please?

The kettle's on, the sun has gone Another day She offers me Tibetan tea on a flower tray She's at the door, she wants to score She dearly needs to say

I loved you a long time ago, you know Where the wind's own forget-me-nots blow But I just couldn't let myself go Not knowing what on earth there was to know

But I wish that I had, 'cause I'm feeling so sad That I never had one of your children

And across the room inside a tomb A chance is waxed and wanes The night is young, why are we so hung up In each others chains I must take her and I must make her While the dove domains

And feel the juice run as she flies Run my wings under her sighs As the flames of eternity rise To lick us with the first born lash of dawn

Oh really my dear I can't see what we fear Sat here with ourselves in between us

And at the door we can't say more Than just another day And without a sound I turn around And I walk away