I’ve written about various songs and their meanings, or at least what I interpret them to be, several times before. I really dig songs that have real meaning, and I think about various song meanings often. Today, while washing the dishes, on came James Blunt’s Goodbye My Lover.
This song has had me thinking about what it means for some time now. I’d thought, at various times, that it was about a girl who had left him, or one who had died. Now I’m not so sure.
The first verse, which I’m not sure I’d actually listened to in detail before, starts with:
Did I disappoint you or let you down?
Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown?
‘Cause I saw the end before we’d begun,
Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won.
So I took what’s mine by eternal right.
Took your soul out into the night.
Which really feels like he’s been the one to end it. However, it continues with a line that sounds like she’s finished it:
It may be over but it won’t stop there,
I am here for you if you’d only care.
Pretty much the rest of the song continues in this type of vein:
You touched my heart you touched my soul.
You changed my life and all my goals.
And love is blind and that I knew when,
My heart was blinded by you.
I’ve kissed your lips and held your head.
Shared your dreams and shared your bed.
I know you well, I know your smell.
I’ve been addicted to you.Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.I am a dreamer but when I wake,
You can’t break my spirit - it’s my dreams you take.
And as you move on, remember me,
Remember us and all we used to be
I’ve seen you cry, I’ve seen you smile.
I’ve watched you sleeping for a while.
I’d be the father of your child.
I’d spend a lifetime with you.
I know your fears and you know mine.
We’ve had our doubts but now we’re fine,
And I love you, I swear that’s true.
I cannot live without you.Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.And I still hold your hand in mine.
In mine when I’m asleep.
And I will bear my soul in time,
When I’m kneeling at your feet.
Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.
I’m so hollow, baby, I’m so hollow.
I’m so, I’m so, I’m so hollow.
One line in particular stands out as being about someone leaving him:
I cannot live without you.
But the bit I really don’t get is:
We’ve had our doubts but now we’re fine,
Because they clearly aren’t fine. It’s over, one way or another.
Tears and Rain • James Blunt • Back to Bedlam ★★★★
Other people have suggested this is about:
• A relationship being over but the two still loving one another.
• A Partner dying during childbirth.
• A relationship with someone who is already ill, and who subsequently dies.
19 minutes after the fact.
According to James Blunt himself (on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, last night) the song is about the girl he thought was “the one” and how she left him, but he still loved her.
2 weeks after the fact.
I think its about regret about what could have been,clearly the love of his life.I think he misses what could have been.
I think when he says I hold your hand in my sleep, means he dreams about the person, and when it says I will bear my soul in time when I am kneeling at your feet,means eventually, he will come to her and say sorry,I think the we had our doubts but now we’re fine, means whatever the conflict,he has risen above it.
1 year, 3 months after the fact.
Everytime i hear this song what says to me is that he’s letting it all out into the open (venting) so that he can give himself closure. In desprite hope that the girl in real life that he has written this song about will be touched well really know’s what she means to him.
Its a testamony to their relationship really.
2 years, 3 months after the fact.