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"
My sweet Lady Jane
When I see you again
Your servant am I
And will humbly remain
Just heed this plea, my love
On bended knees my love
I pledge myself to Lady Jane
My dear Lady Anne
I've done what I can
I must take my leave
For promised I am
This play is run, my love
Your time has come, my love
I pledge my troth to Lady Jane
Oh, my sweet Marie
I wait at your ease
The sands have run out
For your lady and me
Wedlock is nigh my love
Her station's right my love
Life is secure with Lady Jane
When I see you again
Your servant am I
And will humbly remain
Just heed this plea, my love
On bended knees my love
I pledge myself to Lady Jane
My dear Lady Anne
I've done what I can
I must take my leave
For promised I am
This play is run, my love
Your time has come, my love
I pledge my troth to Lady Jane
Oh, my sweet Marie
I wait at your ease
The sands have run out
For your lady and me
Wedlock is nigh my love
Her station's right my love
Life is secure with Lady Jane
Lyrics submitted by oofus, edited by MrMikeS, DuncanIdaho
Lady Jane Lyrics as written by Mick Jagger Keith Richards
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Abkco Music Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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"Jane" is Jane Seymour, Henry's favorite wife (as she gave him a son). "Anne" is Anne Boleyn, who preceded Jane as queen consort and who's "time came" on the block in 1536. "Marie" is a reference to Henry's daughter, Mary. If you listen closely, he sings not about Marie but about how the "the sands have run out/for your lady and me" - Marie's lady was her mother, Catherine of Aragon. Also, "life is secure with Lady Jane" may refer to the historical fact that Jane was a good stepmother to Mary and Elizabeth or to the fact that Henry now had a son to succeed him, sickly though the son was.
@UKHIST This was my interpretation as well. It is strange that he uses the French name for Mary though because she was Spanish - it was Anne that was French. Everything else seems to fit though.
@UKHIST makes sense, and that he changed Mary to Marie, as "Mary" would be an awkward fit, as the first syllable is emphasized rather than the second.
i just always thought that this was talking about marijuana (jane), even though marijuana is actually called "mary jane". i thought that "life is secure with lady jane" meant that he can always count on his weed, ,but women come and go. they don't give him quite as good of a high as "lady jane"
What leads me to think the guesses about historical 'figures in the monarchy are correct, is his usage of medieval words, like servant, pledge, troth. Also the guitar and melody has a decidedly medieval vibe.
@junkbondtrader7 Those words are modern English (post Chaucer). Old or Middle English would have pronounced the ending vowel ruining the rhythm. The Dulcimer Jones plays is medieval, but the harpsicord is Elizabethan .and Keith's guitar would have only been played in chords until the 18th century. Rhythm is Chaucer and rhyme scheme (AABCCA) is post Elizabeth. I have no idea when the six-note scale was popular. <br /> Great song to dance to imaging the man wears a wig and the lady is wearing 16 petticoats and a corset. Don't forget to bow to each ither often. "Pray me, My Lady, would you honor me with a position on your dance card?"
Ladies Jane, Anne, and Marie seem to all be references to each murdered aristocrat-- Lady Jane was beheaded by her sister Queen Mary when she (Jane) was crowned Queen for maybe a couple of days, Queen Anne was beheaded by her husband, and Marie is Queen Marie Antoinette, also beheaded.
What's funny is that the only one he stays with in the song is Lady Jane... I sort of wonder why that was...
Wow I like that theory a lot Acey. I just though it was about a huy who can't make his mind up between these three ladies that he is banging.
@kfe2
I agree with you totally! :-)
Acey Dearest is right
This song is great. Mick Jagger sang it in Italian for in Milan, Italy. First show after Keith got his brain surgery. It sounded alot better in Italian to be honest, but none the less, a deep and great song. That was one hell of a show by the way ;)
poor keith man..he has had so many problems, mental and physical. great great song tho.
Ok, sorry Acey Dearest has his history a little messed up. If the song is in fact referring to those figures of Tudor Times, it does not refer to Jane Grey Nine Days Queen and COUSIN of Mary, not sister but in fact to Jane Seymour, whom Henry called his "True Wife" because she gave him a son. In order to take the actions he wanted with Jane he had to divorce and then subsequently behead Anne Boleyn. The only confusing reference is "Marie" as Marie Antoinette did not have anything to do with the Tudor court, but i suppose it is a reference to her beheading.
UKHIST might well be right about Marie being The Lady Mary, but is certainly wrong about Jane being a good stepmother to Elizabeth and Mary. Perhaps she was kind to Mary, but she was uterlly rude to Elizabeth, and called her "Mark Smeaton's bastard", and would not call her back to court. "Lady Anne" is Anne of Cleves, as there is no hint of former romance or hatred in his words as there would have been for Anne Boleyn.