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Twilight Lyrics
The visions dancing in my mind,
The early dawn the shades of time.
Twilight crawling through my window pane.
Am I awake or do I dream,
The strangest pictures I have seen,
Night is day and twilight's gone away.
With your head held high and your scarlet lies,
You came down to me from the open skies,
It's either real or it's a dream
There's nothing that is in between
Chorus
Twilight, I only meant to stay a while
Twilight, I gave you time to steal my mind
Away from me.
Across the night I saw your face
You disappeared without a trace
You brought me here but can you take me back.
Inside the image of your light
That now is day and once was night
You leave me here and then you go away.
Chorus
You brought me here but can you take me back again.
With your head held high and your scarlet lies,
You came down to me from the open skies,
It's either real or it's a dream
There's nothing that is in between
Chorus
The early dawn the shades of time.
Twilight crawling through my window pane.
The strangest pictures I have seen,
Night is day and twilight's gone away.
You came down to me from the open skies,
It's either real or it's a dream
There's nothing that is in between
Twilight, I only meant to stay a while
Twilight, I gave you time to steal my mind
Away from me.
You disappeared without a trace
You brought me here but can you take me back.
That now is day and once was night
You leave me here and then you go away.
You came down to me from the open skies,
It's either real or it's a dream
There's nothing that is in between
Song Info
Submitted by
random7 On Dec 17, 2005
More Electric Light Orchestra
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Telephone Line
Don't Bring Me Down
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Can't Get It Out Of My Head
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
no offense to the above, but you guys are ignoring the storyline of the album. Its a concept album regarding a man from 1981 who is brought by time travelers to the year 2095. This is the beginning of his story. "You brought me here but can you take me back again." He abandoned by the time travelers to fend for himself in his new home as is learned in later songs on the album.
@rs180216
@rs180216
i love the story of the album, but as it is with scifi...it's a metaphor. this is about love, or rather, about false love, that is realised after the lover is abandoned.
it's either real or it's a dream. You lead me here and then you go away. of course, it's been my favourite song since 1985, when i first heard it...interpretations are always subjective. kudos.
i love the story of the album, but as it is with scifi...it's a metaphor. this is about love, or rather, about false love, that is realised after the lover is abandoned.
it's either real or it's a dream. You lead me here and then you go away. of course, it's been my favourite song since 1985, when i first heard it...interpretations are always subjective. kudos.
I can't believe no one has commented on the greatness of this song! He's talking about a girl who just took his mind away and he can't stop thinking about her. He compares her to "twilight" - illusory, beautiful, supernatural, like a muse - hence the name of the song.
Here is my counter theory; Twilight is the technology (time travel wormhole perhaps, but it appears as twilight to us humans). He arrives in the future, meet by a robot version that looks a lot like his g/f Julie (from the cut track "Julie don't Live Here Anymore"). Somehow, he can communicate to his real Julie through dreams, or tries too anyway. He is not thrilled with Julie-bot and grows depressed
Here is my counter theory; Twilight is the technology (time travel wormhole perhaps, but it appears as twilight to us humans). He arrives in the future, meet by a robot version that looks a lot like his g/f Julie (from the cut track "Julie don't Live Here Anymore"). Somehow, he can communicate to his real Julie through dreams, or tries too anyway. He is not thrilled with Julie-bot and grows depressed
Our hero contemplates running away, maybe even killing himself with a ticket to the moon. He changes his mind and does not. Instead he...
Our hero contemplates running away, maybe even killing himself with a ticket to the moon. He changes his mind and does not. Instead he tracks down the town he used to live in Is This The Way Life's Meant To Be, perhaps giving himself a chance to assimilate.
Julie Don't Live Here Anymore, the cut track probably goes here when he goes in search of her, where she used to live.
Another Heart Breaks - Julie is gone, his life is gone, his heart is brooken. What to do?
Rain Is Falling - still contemplating his situation in the future, and he's sad. We get it!
End Of The World - He dreams of Julie, thinking he's sending he messages, ala Yours Truly 2095. But the dreams he has f Julie are wrong (sees her as a sidewalk dancer and wakes up is horror). Perhaps our hero decides it's pointless to covet what he can't have and maybe resign himself to live with the Julie like robot.
The Lights Go down - Our hero is giving up on his dreams of getting back, of Julie and embraces robot girl.
Here is the news - A kind of recap. "Someone left their life behind in a plastic bag" is obviously a reference to our hero. As is "escaping from satellite 2" when he considered leaving for the moon and however you interpret that - Suicide is what I think - and then changed his mind.
21st century man - Well folks, it was all a weird ass dream (Cut back on the MaryJ, Jeff). He's happy he's home, but has he learned his lesson?
Hold On Tight answers that question. Yes, he did.
It may not be perfect, but it's what I've held onto all these years.
@KProvance I'm not the only one who noticed the line "You stepped out of the dream, believing everything was gone" - which, to me, was the final giveaway. Interesting, though, Lynne has said he never established, in his own mind, whether it was all a dream or real - to the protagonist.
@KProvance I'm not the only one who noticed the line "You stepped out of the dream, believing everything was gone" - which, to me, was the final giveaway. Interesting, though, Lynne has said he never established, in his own mind, whether it was all a dream or real - to the protagonist.
Well, there's not much question but that Webmasterdee is right, about everything, too - the sheer awesomeness and the meaning, as well.
The music apparently caught someone; the Japanese animame folk became captured in "Twilight" (see the Wikipedia entry). Regarding the meaning, the album may have had it's theme (as noted in the third entry above), but it's obvioulsy a metaphorical song. ELO is all about metaphor and passion. The first commentor waaaaay back in 2006 hit it on the nail; Jeff Lyne is writing about passion for a woman who controls his desire. This "twilight" is the kind of thing that dominates men, and women (like "Evil Woman") can disappear and destroy that loving joy (though of course, men can do that to women too...). In this case, "Twilight" is that unreal desire, but it's not permanent sometimes. Of course, the difference between "twilight" and people is that twilight always happens; you can't get it back. But people can decide how they'll act towards another who is enamored with them.
Obviously rs180216 is right. The song is an opener to a concept album on time travel, and describes the imaginary fact of being taken ahead of time by some mysterious being which is a liar and a very proud being ("with your head held high and your scarlet lies") which may be referred to some kind of artificial intelligence or even postmodern society as an entity.
The song and the album verse so much about transhumanism and its bitter and sour influence in our lives that one wonders if mr. Lynne wasn't actually taken forward to the future (2019?) to see how everything was to become so automatised and cold, so lifeless and materialistic. The energetic pulse of the very much ahead of its time sound of drum machine and the colourful sweeping synths create a sound picture which has hardly been taken over by any other pop song ever.
Shame they were so much ahead of the time I think the great public wasn't prepared for this. It would have been hit every number one in 1986, year in which they instead created the decadent, Caribbean 'Miami Vice' sounding 'Balance of Power' which holds a lot of quality in a few numbers but highlights tiredness and lack of inspiration in way too many parts. Shame but success also is an inspiring force and sadly ELO were a progressively deflated baloon in the 80's, just the opposite as what happened to them in the 70's. Nothing lasts forever but their music has aged well and they keep on selling big stadiums out in 2019.
So good!!
No this song is about seing the light of heaven in a very short time ,as a lot of elo's song goes! Also it goes about the end that is coming to our whole world! O and about me and my father!
Great article about ELO's Time album. The author includes his views on what this concept album (including Twilight) is about. https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/music-review-electric-light-orchestra-time-took-us-to-the-future/
[Edit: Link still not correctly generated]
Sounds like ELO took E, watched Back to the Future in fast forward, then wrote this dayglo number. To me, at least.