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 dangerous woman up to a point once said
"As per your wishes, I left you for dead
I left England for the English"
Is it always the one thing or the other with you?
"Forgive them, my lord, they know not what they do!"
"Hey, your friends are fucked
In so far as your friends are an ancient beast bronzed in tar"
Have I told you lately that I love you?
Did I fail to mention there's a sword hanging above you?
"Those who love Zeppelin will soon betray Floyd"
I cast off those couplets in honor of the void
I was here to stay
I would weather the storm
I pictured heaven on earth made of clay, as your form dictated
I went down to the garden with the noblest of intentions
I felt the need to be brief
I stuck a rose between my teeth and had a laugh
The sun set at the speed of light, so I thought I also might leave this
Port of Woe on tall ships made of snow invading the sun
A dangerous woman up to a point once said
I've never read "so-and-so," so why mention him here
In this square where culprits axe me, my dear
Tried to enjoy myself at the Society Ball, really I did
Froze on Union Street, it was springtime,
I was just a kid lost in a map of the stars called "your eyes"
It was a trap
It was a good time
It was hard to realize
I can't win
I can't even walk
Baby, you should talk
Baby, you should hear what you're saying
They said, "don't look back," but I looked back
It was a bore
It was a fucking horror
It was, well, honey, you know quite well what you are
A dangerous woman up to a point once said
"People come, and people go, and people lie nameless in the snow"
"As per your wishes, I left you for dead
I left England for the English"
Is it always the one thing or the other with you?
"Forgive them, my lord, they know not what they do!"
"Hey, your friends are fucked
In so far as your friends are an ancient beast bronzed in tar"
Have I told you lately that I love you?
Did I fail to mention there's a sword hanging above you?
"Those who love Zeppelin will soon betray Floyd"
I cast off those couplets in honor of the void
I was here to stay
I would weather the storm
I pictured heaven on earth made of clay, as your form dictated
I went down to the garden with the noblest of intentions
I felt the need to be brief
I stuck a rose between my teeth and had a laugh
The sun set at the speed of light, so I thought I also might leave this
Port of Woe on tall ships made of snow invading the sun
A dangerous woman up to a point once said
I've never read "so-and-so," so why mention him here
In this square where culprits axe me, my dear
Tried to enjoy myself at the Society Ball, really I did
Froze on Union Street, it was springtime,
I was just a kid lost in a map of the stars called "your eyes"
It was a trap
It was a good time
It was hard to realize
I can't win
I can't even walk
Baby, you should talk
Baby, you should hear what you're saying
They said, "don't look back," but I looked back
It was a bore
It was a fucking horror
It was, well, honey, you know quite well what you are
A dangerous woman up to a point once said
"People come, and people go, and people lie nameless in the snow"
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The Night We Met
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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