The Metro (Berlin cover)

The Metro. A famous Paris subway system which is a part of a bigger collection of train/sub systems called the Eurail (which spans over seven European countries and into others last I knew).

This makes the possibility of "I was on a Paris Train/I emerged in London rain" rather literal, where The Metro refers not to just one train, but that whole system of trains.

So. This is a story within a story. The singer is sitting, alone, probably at home, remembering the train ride that just took place. Perhaps the same day, probably the day, even a week before. The walls seem to close in on him, he's plagued with memories, strong and vivid. He'd been holding an empty glass in his hand, staring at it, probably squeezing it unconsciously as he <i>remembers</i>. Can't you visualize the glass breaking in his grasp?

This train ride he's remembering? He gets a call to meet an "old friend", perhaps for coffee or lunch, to talk about old times. This old friend is a lover, someone that he's never really gotten over... and maybe she's at a point in her life where she's contacting old exes and looking for closure (many of us go through that phase).

<i>"I was on a Paris train/I emerged in London rain/and you were waiting there/swimming through apologies."</i>

He gets on the Metro in Paris, switches over as necessary, and gets off the train in a damp and rain-ridden London, and there she is, looking as beautiful as ever, probably <i>glowing</i>. Hell, she's probably seeing someone, let's go so far as to say engaged, either way, she's much happier than he's been since she left.

<i>"Minutes passed with shallows words/Years have passed, and still the hurt."

They have coffee. He's putting on a brave face there, smiling as she hugs him, even though it probably hurt to touch her again, after so long. They exchange a stiff and superficial conversation, in which she expresses apologies over the way things ended-- which was, apparently, with her saying that she was leaving... him trying to find the right words to make her stay (I imagine him begging, and she still doesn't--that's <i>gotta</i> hurt), and her eventually ending it all with a LETTER for Christ's sake.

And not just ANY letter-- the infamous "I'll Love You Always" letter. The "This isn't about you, it's about me," letter. <i>Shudder</i>.

And as he got back on the train at the station, there she was, smiling and waving him off. The train ride on the way back was filled with memories; memories of begging her to stay, memories of the night they walked along the Seine (probably out on one of many hand-holding, star-gazing, every-finger-kissing, This Is My Soul Mate dates).

The soldier? Literal character. Y'know how those really painful moments seem to have two varieties--where everything is blurred, out of focus-- or where everything is crisp, and painfully detailed? I think this is an example of the latter; lost in memories, he notices everything. The soldier sleeping next to him. An absent piece of paper lying on the floor. A ticket stub tucked into the clip three seats ahead of him. A baby five isles over suckling a blue-and-yellow-striped pacifier.

The ride's over. The soldier gets up and exits the train. A wisp of engine smoke passes the window; beyond, people coming and going, exiting and climbing aboard. He exits the train, heads back home, and once there? Perhaps he takes this glass out of a cabinet to get something to drink... but he never quite gets there. Memories plague him.

It's... a really sad song-- to me, it's about not finding closure.

"FUCK. YOU. FOR LOVING ME."

That line makes me shiver. <i>Sigh</i>. Oh, yeah, I do think this is something that happened, for real (to the person who wrote the original version, or someone she knows). And I could be wrong! Completely! It's just how I envision it.