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"
Kestrels breed,
Looking further than I can see
Without tact to read
She'd take a shine to me
Beacon don't fly too high
Beacon don't fly too high
For all your time
Playful crime in rain
Worth it being cold
Roofing for the lanes
A lesson lost again
A lesson lost again
Cute but I'll take the bus
With fees and favours gone
Cracks in savers pass
And a white that sometimes shone
Wanton borrowed gun
Wanton borrowed gun
Kestrels breed
Looking further than I can see
Without tact to read
She'd take a shine to me
Beacon don't fly too high
Beacon don't fly too high
Looking further than I can see
Without tact to read
She'd take a shine to me
Beacon don't fly too high
Beacon don't fly too high
For all your time
Playful crime in rain
Worth it being cold
Roofing for the lanes
A lesson lost again
A lesson lost again
Cute but I'll take the bus
With fees and favours gone
Cracks in savers pass
And a white that sometimes shone
Wanton borrowed gun
Wanton borrowed gun
Kestrels breed
Looking further than I can see
Without tact to read
She'd take a shine to me
Beacon don't fly too high
Beacon don't fly too high
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I looked up 'lindesfarne' to find that 'lindisfarne' (slightly different spelling) is an island off of England. I took this to mean 'isolation' for Blake's context to the song. My interpretation is that someone is leaving Blake's life, and he is fearing becoming 'isolated' again because of it. The person is of 'kestrels breed' with huge ambition and vision. He thinks she is rushing into getting somewhere, and without proper thought or time to analyse ('tact to read') she'd take a liking towards him. He then repeats 'beacon don't fly too high' throughout this and the next song, as a plea - don't get too popular/successful that you have no need for me. The next stanza is dubious. I read it as '[thank you] for all your time,' spending time with him is nothing more than a 'playful crime' and 'a lesson lost again' refers to his poor social skills, and lack of getting better. This line reminds me a bit of Blake frequently referring to the fact he was an only child ('I never learned to share') and as such doesn't have the capacity to share feelings. The next stanza I takes a turn, in that she has left now. He feels pedestrian and anonymous - 'cute but I'll take the bus' just to be close to strangers. I find 'and a white that sometimes shone' a reference to the afterlife, and the speakers contemplation of suicide (mordbid yeah but I cant unread that haha). The song is beautifully come full circle with the first stanza being repeated again, encapsulating and containing everything that is said in the song. It's like he is going in circles, which would mirror reality - you meet someone, they leave at some point, you meet someone else.
@romano21 I'm a few years to late here, but I mostly agree with your interpretation. However, I think instead of someone leaving Blake's life, he's referring to a part of himself ambiguously. As the period when this song was released coincided when he was properly announced to the public as an artist in the mainstream sense given the song is from his debut self titled album. So he may have felt he was loosing touch with his personal self as he was giving it to us "She'd take a shine to me" --> which possibly refers to a representation of mother nature, as an embodiment of the world's reaction to his music.
Beautiful!
Kestrels breed, Looking further than I can see Without tact to read,
She'd take a shine to me
Beacon don't fly too high Beacon don't fly too high
For all your time, Playful crime in rain
Worth it being cold, Roofing for the lanes
A lesson lost again A lesson lost again
Cute but I'll take the bus, With fees and favours gone Cracks in savers pass,
And a white that sometimes shone
Wanton borrowed gun Wanton borrowed gun
Kestrels breed, Looking further than I can see Without tact to read, She'd take a shine to me Beacon don't fly too high Beacon don't fly too high