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"
I want to tell you a story
About a little man
If I can
A gnome named Grimble Crumble
And little gnomes stay in their homes
Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine
He wore a scarlet tunic
A blue green hood
It looked quite good
He had a big adventure
Amidst the grass
Fresh air at last
Wining, dining, biding his time
And then one day, hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Ooomray
Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn't it good?
Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn't it good?
Winding, finding places to go
And then one day, hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Ooomray
Ooomray
About a little man
If I can
A gnome named Grimble Crumble
And little gnomes stay in their homes
Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine
He wore a scarlet tunic
A blue green hood
It looked quite good
He had a big adventure
Amidst the grass
Fresh air at last
Wining, dining, biding his time
And then one day, hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Ooomray
Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn't it good?
Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn't it good?
Winding, finding places to go
And then one day, hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Ooomray
Ooomray
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae, edited by ajlholt
The Gnome Lyrics as written by Syd Barrett
Lyrics © T.R.O. INC.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Syd Barrett was the fuckin' greatest...
Syd is awesome! No big meanings here, it's just a fun song, about the Bilbo Baggins of the gnome community who's out having an adventure when everyone else is just sitting at home drinking wine (I guess gnomes don't like ale).
I think you people are looking WAY too deeply into this song, it's an allusion to the Hobbit. Very plainly, and, in fact, he had said that.
Citation?
this song gets really creepy when Syd starts whispering:
"Look as the sky. Look at the river. Isn't it gooooood?"
it gives me shivers. The good kind of shivers.
Really don't know if it is Syd actually. I thought it might be Roger Waters. He is listed as doing backing vocals together with Rick Wright.
my nickname is the gnome (not from this song, thou....im small.... lol). i bow down to this song, it is the most awesomest thing EVER.
This is the news on the Gnome. The gnome is Syd or at least someone else a little short on the old dopamine (satisfaction chemical).
It's easy to see when you acknowledge that it is a story that progresses through the seperate verses.
The Gnome is absolute and without limits, so he is discontent in the world because the world doesn't belong to him, to be outside would mean compromising which is limitation & surrender - not good. So in the first verse he stays in doors keeping himself content with wine etc and he ignores the world by shutting it out. He lives in his world that he controls.
In the second verse he discovers Pot and he can finally go outside (a bit) and be easy going and ignore stuff close up. But then, one day... he discovers LSD (King of Dopamine) and he's more than outside, he's free. He doesn't have to ignore stuff because it all exists in his world that he has created - his trip.
The sky is generally God or death, and the river is his life, going down by the route of least resistance, see through and formless in itself it still cuts a deep groove that it owns and it is still a beautiful & powerful force of nature. The Gnome is about taking control & escaping the limitation of reality & other people - liberation through self destruction. And as well, it's a song about a Gnome.
Its amazing. End of story, and yes it is probably about a gnome, but then again it might not be about a gnome.
I'm guessing that the drug meaning is partly true, mostly because Syd did do a lot of drugs. It is either just a song about the gnome, or a song about drugs and the gnome. Anyone thinking it has some connection to Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, there is no doubt that this very closely resembles the Hobbit, but I think, if anything, it is a loose reference to it. Anyway, it's a great song.
This song is about a gnome. A gnome named Grimble Gromble.
This is a good song to listen to when you're on a sweet mellow high. Very happy, cute song, but I can't help feeling like there's more to it. Like we're ALL the gnome or something.....