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"
When he first cried his mother died
I had tried to be his guide
When he was born I was too young
The father searches for the son
In Istanbul, give him back to me
Oh Istanbul, give me back my brown-eyed son
Moonlight jumping through the trees
Sunken eyes avoiding me,
From dawn to dusk, the hunt is on,
The father searches for the son
In Istanbul, give him back to me
In Istanbul give me back my brown-eyed son
On secret streets in disbelief
Little shadow shows the lead
Prostitutes, stylish and glum
In amongst them you are one
Oh, what have I done?!
Rolling breathless off the tongue
The vicious street gang slang
I lean into a box of pine
Identify the kid as mine
I had tried to be his guide
When he was born I was too young
The father searches for the son
In Istanbul, give him back to me
Oh Istanbul, give me back my brown-eyed son
Moonlight jumping through the trees
Sunken eyes avoiding me,
From dawn to dusk, the hunt is on,
The father searches for the son
In Istanbul, give him back to me
In Istanbul give me back my brown-eyed son
On secret streets in disbelief
Little shadow shows the lead
Prostitutes, stylish and glum
In amongst them you are one
Oh, what have I done?!
Rolling breathless off the tongue
The vicious street gang slang
I lean into a box of pine
Identify the kid as mine
Lyrics submitted by discriminant
Istanbul Lyrics as written by Martin James Boorer Steven Morrissey
Lyrics © DOMINO PUBLISHING COMPANY, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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To me it's about a young father whose wife/partner dies during childbirth and he feels he can't raise the son on his own, because he's too young, so gives him up for adoption but he feels regret and tries to find him in later years. Something along those lines anyway.
The sentiments are similar to PJ Harvey's song Down by the Water (songmeanings.com/songs/view/40500/):
I lost my heart Under the bridge To that little girl So much to me And now I moan And now I holler She'll never know Just what I found That blue eyed girl She said "no more" That blue eyed girl Became blue eyed whore Down by the water I took her hand Just like my daughter I'll see her again
Oh help me Jesus Come through this storm I had to lose her To do her harm I heard her holler I heard her moan My lovely daughter I took her home
Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water. Come back here, man, gimme my daughter. Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water. Come back here, man, gimme my daughter.
Surprised no one understands this is about bacha bazi boys. They are forced into prostitution, sold to elites, dressed liked girls and sodomized...so sad, and another reminder of horrorific aspects of Islamic culture.
@Xrayvision. Not sure about your theory involving those basha bazi boys. I do believe it's all about male prostitution in the parks and on the streets of Istanbul, really.
I strongly believe it's a song about male prostitution in Turkey. It's such a huge underground business in Turkey. If you open any webpages with live webcams on the internet you'll an immense number of Turkish men exposing themselves for tokens ($$$). As a gay man, Morrissey certainly know the gay scene of Istanbul and the type of masculine men one can find in that environment came to his attention as long as he has visited the country numerous times. This is a real story witnessed by the singer, who surely knows those cruising parks of Istanbul.
Yeah, I like your interpretation about the mother dying at birth. He obviously had the kid when he was too young, and wasn't ready for that type of commitment. He tried to raise him right but he himself hasn't grown up yet. He's rolling through the streets looking for his son, who is presumably now involved in a gang. At the end of the song, he looks down into a coffin, or "pine box", to identify the body of his dead son. Fucking sad ending, I must say.
@kid1 Friend, your candid and soft interpretation has no echoes in regards what Morrissey is trying to reveal. It's all about a rough trade. Words such as 'son' or 'kid' is poetry. He's obviously omitting the word 'man', 'bloke'. Sorry, but that's my opinion.