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"
It's a fine time to fall in love with you,
I ain't got a single thing to do.
It happened before I knew what was going on.
I fell out and knew that I was gone.
Stages keep on changing,
stages rearranging love.
Then you left me standing all alone,
I couldn't even get you on the phone.
Were you just confused and didn't know
if you should stay or if you had to go?
Stages keep on changing,
stages rearranging love.
Now you're back and say you're gonna stay.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Tell me it's for real and let me know
why does lovin' have to come and go.
Stages keep on changing,
stages rearranging love.
I ain't got a single thing to do.
It happened before I knew what was going on.
I fell out and knew that I was gone.
Stages keep on changing,
stages rearranging love.
Then you left me standing all alone,
I couldn't even get you on the phone.
Were you just confused and didn't know
if you should stay or if you had to go?
Stages keep on changing,
stages rearranging love.
Now you're back and say you're gonna stay.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
Tell me it's for real and let me know
why does lovin' have to come and go.
Stages keep on changing,
stages rearranging love.
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae
Stages Lyrics as written by Frank Lee Beard Billy Gibbons
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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,
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ZZ Top traditionally are more about their SOUND than their LYRICS. IMO, no sane person would say that the overall sound of their music is less than amazing.
Afterburner, the album on which this song appeared, marked a turning point. ZZ Top used synthesizers quite a bit on this album. Some purists say that synth's are not a part of rock...but songs like 'Stages', 'Rough Boy', and Van Halen's 'Jump' all prove this to be incorrect.
Prior to Afterburner, their lyrics were seemingly primarily centered around sex appeal and/or partying. This song in particular is either a clever disguise of that, or is in fact about real love.
Either that, or they're taking the same route as with 'Gimme All Your Lovin', whereas 'lovin' refers to sex.
In any case, this song is good. It's quick paced in the ZZ Top tradition, features plenty of guitar (the ZZ Top trademark), as well as enough synth to keep any 80s music fan entertained.