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"
This cruel country has driven me down
Teased me and lied, teased me and lied
I've only sad stories to tell to this town
My dreams have withered and died
Once I was bending the tops of the trees
Kind words in my ear, kind faces to see
Then I struck up with a boy from the west
Played run and hide, played run and hide
Count one to ten and he's gone with the rest
My dreams have withered and died
Silver moon sail up and silver moon shine
On the waters so wide, waters so wide
Steal from the bed of some good friend of mine
My dreams are withered and died
If I was a butterfly, live for a day
I could be free, just blowing away
This cruel country has driven me down
Teased me and lied, teased me and lied
I've only sad stories to tell to this town
My dreams have withered and died
Teased me and lied, teased me and lied
I've only sad stories to tell to this town
My dreams have withered and died
Once I was bending the tops of the trees
Kind words in my ear, kind faces to see
Then I struck up with a boy from the west
Played run and hide, played run and hide
Count one to ten and he's gone with the rest
My dreams have withered and died
Silver moon sail up and silver moon shine
On the waters so wide, waters so wide
Steal from the bed of some good friend of mine
My dreams are withered and died
If I was a butterfly, live for a day
I could be free, just blowing away
This cruel country has driven me down
Teased me and lied, teased me and lied
I've only sad stories to tell to this town
My dreams have withered and died
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This has to be one of the most miserable songs ever written from the depths of despair, although it is so beautiful in a maudlin way. I only sing it when I'm in a particularly bad way & it helps express the sorrow & anguish I'm feeling.
Great song. Does anyone care to explain their view of the lyrics? I belive it's about a girl whose dreams have withered and died of course, but what I find more open to sugestions are the lines about the silvermoon and the boy from the west. I think maybe the moonshine is a wordplay meaning she is sitting somewhere by the water and looking at this silvermoon shining on the water, but also drinking moonshine she stole from a bed of a good friend of hers. The boy from the west is someone who she is in love with and with playing run & hide means he run and hide from her and their relationship. Am I wrong?
I think "Steal from the bed of some good friend of mine" refers to the narator indulging in casual sex to escape her despair.<br /> The fall from chastity is a common theme in folk song.<br /> <br /> As for the "waters so wide", perhaps the "boy from the west" has gone back west; or perhaps he took her west and then abandoned her and the waters are those between her and her childhood.
The song is very simnilar to the traditional Northern Irish song 'Banks of the Bann' - pwerhaps RT intended it as a sequel (Or, more likely, the point of veiw of the woman in the song):<br /> <br /> Banks of the Bann<br /> <br /> When first to this country a stranger I came<br /> I laid my affections on a girl that was young,<br /> She being fair and tender, her waist small and slender<br /> Fond nature had formed her for my overthrow.<br /> <br /> On the banks of the Bann it was there I first met her,<br /> She appeared like an angel or Egypt's fair queen,<br /> Her eyes were like diamonds or stars brightly shining.<br /> She's one of the fairest in the world that I've seen.<br /> <br /> It was her cruel parents that first caused a variance<br /> Because they are rich and above my degree.<br /> But I'll do my endeavor to gain my love's favour<br /> Although she is come of a high family.<br /> <br /> My name is Delaney, it's a name that won't shame me<br /> And if I'd saved money I would never have roamed.<br /> But drinking and sporting, night rambling and courting<br /> Are the cause of all me ruin and absence from home.<br /> <br /> Now had I the riches that are in the Indies,<br /> I'd put rings on her fingers and gold in her ears.<br /> It's there on the banks of the lovely Bann River<br /> In all kinds of splendor I'd live with my dear.