2 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
No, I Don't Remember Guildford Lyrics
No, I don't remember Guildford
What, was there something? Jog my memory
Not the cathedral or the pool
If there was a pool
I'm a little past it
I'm near enough to be scorched, not blasted
But no, I don't remember Jenner Road
Even though we lived there
And things came through the letterbox thick and fast
It's in the past
It's in the bracken
Did something happen? The sky just blackened
Now there's a butterfly on my face
And I'm a number in a drawer
Ba da dup
Ba da da da dup
Ba da dup
Hang up your net, child;
Show some respect to the ghosts that are ruining your life
It's your life
No, I don't remember falling
From a flagpole onto a taxi
To leave my imprint and my entrails
For you to kiss
In the morning sun
Ba da dup
Ba da da dup
Ba da dup
No, I don't remember Guildford
What, was there something? Jog my memory
Not the cathedral or the pool
If there was a pool
I'm a little past it
I'm near enough to be scorched, not blasted
Even though we lived there
And things came through the letterbox thick and fast
It's in the past
It's in the bracken
Did something happen? The sky just blackened
Now there's a butterfly on my face
And I'm a number in a drawer
Ba da da da dup
Ba da dup
Show some respect to the ghosts that are ruining your life
It's your life
From a flagpole onto a taxi
To leave my imprint and my entrails
For you to kiss
In the morning sun
Ba da da dup
Ba da dup
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I'm absolutely mesmerized by this song as of late. I have the Store Front Hitchcock dvd so I'm only acquainted with the live version, as stunning voice, guitar and harmonica rendering of the song. It's very sublte an poignant especially the short spoken intro/explanation he gives before he sings it. Even his facial expressions (mostly his eyes) are very telling of the songs meaning to me. It seems to be about outgrowing the people and places you come from and definetly the fear and sadness that comes when you realize you have to leave them if you wan't to be sane and whole. At that point you can either try to completely blot the past out of your memory (which is the point of the song...and which is impossible in my opinion) or you can look back on it fondly ala "Penny Lane". Either way you have to leave. I especially like the way the narrarator even tries to use surrealism to dismiss the whole thing as some type of absurdist dream "now there's a butterfly on my face...and I'm a number in a drawer". You can imagine a child trying to escape something painful by daydreaming of something peaceful and benign to ease the pain. Anyway without getting to artsy farsty (too late) this is a perfect song to mope too while drinking a glass or two of inexpensive wine.
I completely agree with you. It's about erasing the past from your memory. The character even fantasizes a suicide, where he's not there anymore to feel the pain he has transferred to his past love.
I completely agree with you. It's about erasing the past from your memory. The character even fantasizes a suicide, where he's not there anymore to feel the pain he has transferred to his past love.
I don't completely know what the song is about, and I don't remember the Storefront Hitchcock intro. But, I always assumed this song was sung from the perspective of somebody who has just died.
"Did something happen? The sky just blackened."
Narrator is stunned to find he can no longer remember his life, after a recent event where the sky blackened.
"Now there's a butterfly on my face"
Butterfly is a symbol of death. Also, butterflies are matured maggots. Also, just having any kind of insect on your face suggests death.
"And I'm a number on a drawer"
Bodies in a morgue are stored in numbered drawers.
"Hang up your net, child..."
Admittedly, this is pretty ambiguous in the context of my interpretation. Perhaps the narrator is speaking to his surviving children. The "net" may refer to a butterfly net.
"No, I don't remember falling..."
Narrator describes his own death, in fairly literal terms.