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"
Look out the left the captain said
The lights down there, that's where we'll land
I saw a falling star burn up
Above the Las Vegas sands
It wasn't the one that you gave to me
That night down south between the trailers
Not the early one
That you can wish upon,
Not the northern one
That guides in the sailors
Oh star bright, star bright
You've got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
You got the touch so gentle and sweet
But you've got that look so critical
Now I can't talk to you baby
I get so weak
Sometimes I think love is just mythical
Up there's a heaven
Down there's a town
Blackness everywhere and little lights shine
Oh, blackness, blackness dragging me down
Come on light the candle in this poor heart of mine
Oh star bright, star bright
You've got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't hove got on this flight tonight
I'm drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind
They're playing, Goodbye baby, Baby Goodbye,
Ooh, ooh, love is blind
Up go the flaps, down go the wheels
I hope you got your heat turned on baby
I hope they finally fixed your automobile
I hope it's better when we meet again baby
Star bright, star bright
You got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
The lights down there, that's where we'll land
I saw a falling star burn up
Above the Las Vegas sands
It wasn't the one that you gave to me
That night down south between the trailers
Not the early one
That you can wish upon,
Not the northern one
That guides in the sailors
Oh star bright, star bright
You've got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
You got the touch so gentle and sweet
But you've got that look so critical
Now I can't talk to you baby
I get so weak
Sometimes I think love is just mythical
Up there's a heaven
Down there's a town
Blackness everywhere and little lights shine
Oh, blackness, blackness dragging me down
Come on light the candle in this poor heart of mine
Oh star bright, star bright
You've got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't hove got on this flight tonight
I'm drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind
They're playing, Goodbye baby, Baby Goodbye,
Ooh, ooh, love is blind
Up go the flaps, down go the wheels
I hope you got your heat turned on baby
I hope they finally fixed your automobile
I hope it's better when we meet again baby
Star bright, star bright
You got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
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I believe she is going back to him. I'm in this situation right now. After a year apart I'm contemplating a flight to Germany to see my love...possibly a big mistake. God I love Joni Mitchell.
@cindalou I see it's now been over 5 years since you wrote your comment. Did you fly to Germany? If so, did it turn out to be a mistake?
double ditto i think its really cool how the part "good-bye baby, baby good-bye, ooh ooh love is blind." sounds like its on a radio
this song is amazing! i love it!!
ditto. the guitar is especially good.
So is she leaving him or going to him? My guess is she's leaving him, but I could see it the other way, too, that she's going to see him but that the relationship isn't good.
i think she's going back to him, but she's scared about how very much she is in love with him
I very much appreciate Nazareth's rendition of this song. It's amazing how poignant such basic lyrics can be. The gift of a true writer is saying what you mean in the simplest terms. An apt sentiment for this poem.
What kind of star would be the one that you gave to me that night down south between the trailers??
@DrivingMeCrazy <br /> That’s a good question! I’d like to venture a guess... I’m not sure exactly what two people might do at night between two trailers, but I imagine it’s the kind of thing you don’t do out in the open. ;)
@DrivingMeCrazy It would be any star as seen from New Mexico where the film 'Two-Lane Blacktop' was being filmed. She'd gone there to visit James Taylor during the shoot --where there were trailers.<br />
It seems fairly clear that the song’s central theme is about strong regret of leaving a lover and wanting to return. “Turn this crazy bird around” I read she wrote it during the period where she was on a trip (vacation?) in Europe. It may be about a lover there, (perhaps Cary) and based upon a return flight to LA, where she clearly spent much of her time. It could be about torn feelings between James Taylor and someone else. It could be an amalgam of the like.
At first take it sounds like someone about to have a white trash Vegas wedding-style party weekend in a trailer park somewhere in/around Vegas.