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"
Little light shining
Little light will guide them to me
My face is all lit up
My face is all lit up
If they find me racing white horses
They'll not take me for a buoy
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Oh I'll wake up to any sound of engines
Every gull a seeking craft
I can't keep my eyes open
Wish I had my radio
I'd tune into some friendly voices
Talking 'bout stupid things
I can't be left to my imagination
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Ooh, their breath is warm
And they smell like sleep
And they say they take me home
Like poppies, heavy with seed
They take me deeper and deeper
Little light will guide them to me
My face is all lit up
My face is all lit up
If they find me racing white horses
They'll not take me for a buoy
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Oh I'll wake up to any sound of engines
Every gull a seeking craft
I can't keep my eyes open
Wish I had my radio
I'd tune into some friendly voices
Talking 'bout stupid things
I can't be left to my imagination
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Ooh, their breath is warm
And they smell like sleep
And they say they take me home
Like poppies, heavy with seed
They take me deeper and deeper
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by Mellow_Harsher
And Dream of Sheep Lyrics as written by Kate Bush
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
And they say they take me home Like poppies heavy with seed They take me deeper and deeper...
In 'And Dream Of Sheep,' KB uses the simile 'like poppies heavy with seed'. Opium is the name for the latex produced within the seed pods of the opium poppy. Morphine, the principle ingredient of opium, is named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Heroin is a processed derivative. The first period of large scale heroin smuggling into the United States since its 1923 prohibition occurred during the years 1967-71 (opioids.com/jh/index.html). After injecting heroin, the user reports a surge of euphoria. Most people feel 'a warm glow' ("My face is all lit up..."), and any concerns become insignificant. After the rush, they enter an alternately wakeful and drowsy state, with substantially reduced psychological pain. In ADOS, the protagonist is wanting to sleep rather than be left to her distressed imagination. She longs to dream cotton wool dreams; and the poppy simile clearly reveals that she understands opiate effects as a drug addict would. ('White Horse' is street slang for heroin or cocaine.)
In 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' (Philip K. Dick; filmed as 'Blade Runner,' 1982) there are three distinct groups: humans, "specials," and androids. Specials are damaged humans, no longer considered real humans; they are looked down upon as sub-human. The novel questions what is human and "humanness." Key here is empathy. At the outset of the novel we see Deckard tending to his fake sheep and wishing for a real one... Since the war that caused the radioactive fallout, real animals are scarce and have become status symbols. Caring for an animal means displaying empathy, humanness, signalling that people with pets are not androids. But during the novel, we see that Deckard who is considered human by society is very cold and unfeeling, while Isidore (Sebastian) and Rachael who are considered sub- or non-human display much more emotion.
KB's ADOS could thus be a longing for empathy and warmth, a longing to show empathy and warmth, and a compassionate longing to feel human.
In 'Sheep in Fog,' Sylvia Plath creates a complex extended metaphor where the subject is her own spiritual experience. "Fog" is an important catalyst in this process because it indicates a state of perception and comprehension where the definite borders between concepts break down allowing the concepts to merge into each other, becoming a higher unifying concept. The higher concept necessarily causes an expansion of consciousness in the reader. The poet explicitly states the images "sheep" and "fog" only in the title. The first stanza mentions "hills" and "whiteness". These concepts already blend into "sheep" and "fog". Then the sheep are further metamorphosed into "people" and "stars" indicating a further personification and a reaching into the cosmos. (See 'Sheep in Fog,' Ariel, Sylvia Plath, 1966.)