Tap At My Window

Found this in an interview with Marling,with the Telegraph.. she's talking on this song...

"I had to sit my parents down and play that to them and say 'Guys, don't worry, I don't hate you'," she laughs. "That song is based on the Philip Larkin line, 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad'. I bet everyone in the world thinks like that. In fact, my parents were bloody good to me, picking me up from the station at one o'clock in the morning when I was coming back from a gig. Obviously they weren't too pleased about me dropping out of school, but it was just the way things were moving."

Part of me thinks that the 'he taps at my window, willing that i let him in' is maybe a slight reference to wuthering heights, possibly with the roles of cathy and heathcliff reversed. Also the turbulence of the relationship in wuthering heights could be reflected in the 'until you calm me down, i race around this town, trying to find, an emotion you cannot deny, i will not have him treat me this way' i could be wrong but the first time i heard it that was my first instinct. as well as the quite obvious parental issues highlighted.

I think the lyrics posted here are wrong.

Instead of the line:

"And Mother, I blame you. Therein trying to be you again"

I believe it's:

"And Mother, I blame you With every inch of the being you gave"

This song directly says to me that this person is conflicted by their own emotions. In context of a relationship, she's saying that this boy pursues her, and she wants to refuse him because she's with another, but at the same time, she feels something for him. Empathy perhaps.

"Maybe I'll let you in" - "My heart's taken, I wont tell you again" But I think she does let him in, despite herself.

"Trying to find an emotion you can not deny" Searching her behavior for love. A desperate attempt to connect them undeniably, as though to prove that they belong together.

"I will not have him treat me this way" could be taken in different ways. I see it meaning, not that he treats her badly, but that she's becoming spoiled by his affections, or feeling more strongly towards him, because of the way he treats her. Again, despite her efforts to refuse, she can't.

The parental blame is saying "It must be your fault that I am the way I am." The reason she's so conflicted, why she's empathetic and why, though she knows she shouldn't, she does feel something towards him. She blames her mother, particularly, for the way her mind works and in turn, blames her father for letting her do that.

Beautiful

Laura Marling is pretty amazing!

good old blame the parents for messing up relationships. to me this song is less about the lyrics and more about how she sings it. great song.

good old blame the parents for messing up relationships. to me this song is less about the lyrics and more about how she sings it. great song.

I thought the same with the Wuthering Heights reference. The whole 'tap at the window' idea as well as the idea of the 'emotion you can not deny' always reminds me of the Cathy/Heathcliff relationship.

I think the song is about a woman falling for another man, she contradicts herself in thr first bit by saying 'i don't think i will though' and then 'my heart's taken, i won't tell him again' because she's thinking about letting him in and she seems to be reassuring herself that her heart's taken even though she's thinking about letting him in. I also think the imagery of letting him in the window is actually her letting him in to her heart, this would also make sense of 'my heart's taken' meaning maybe that there isn't room for 3 in her heart.. 'The emotion she cannot deny' is the love between she two of them and how she can't deny that she feels it.. i think perhaps the reference to the mother and father may mean that the mother had an affair and the woman knows this game.. she says though that her father pushed her away.. I believe it's not actually about Laura's parents. Saying she might wake up alone means that if she leaves her partner and goes to this bou that she could end up without either