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"
You talk like Marlene Dietrich
And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Your clothes are all made by Balmain
And there's diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes, there are
You live in a fancy apartment
Off the Boulevard St. Michel
Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
And a friend of Sacha Distel, yes, you do
But where do you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do
I've seen all your qualifications
You got from the Sorbonne
And the painting you stole from Picasso
Your loveliness goes on and on, yes, it does
When you go on your summer vacation
You go to Juan-les-Pins
With your carefully designed topless swimsuit
You get an even suntan on your back, and on your legs
And when the snow falls you're found in St. Moritz
With the others of the jet set
And you sip your Napoleon brandy
But you never get your lips wet, no, you don't
But where do you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed?
Won't you tell me the thoughts that surround you?
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do
Your name it is heard in high places
You know the Aga Khan
He sent you a race horse for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha
They say that when you get married
It'll be to a millionaire
But they don't realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn
Where do you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do
I remember the back streets of Naples
Two children begging in rags
Both touched with a burning ambition
To shake off their lowly-born tags, they tried
So look into my face, Marie-Claire
And remember just who you are
Then go and forget me forever
But I know you still bear the scar, deep inside, yes, you do
I know where you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
I know the thoughts that surround you
'Cause I can look inside your head
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na
And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Your clothes are all made by Balmain
And there's diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes, there are
You live in a fancy apartment
Off the Boulevard St. Michel
Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
And a friend of Sacha Distel, yes, you do
But where do you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do
I've seen all your qualifications
You got from the Sorbonne
And the painting you stole from Picasso
Your loveliness goes on and on, yes, it does
When you go on your summer vacation
You go to Juan-les-Pins
With your carefully designed topless swimsuit
You get an even suntan on your back, and on your legs
And when the snow falls you're found in St. Moritz
With the others of the jet set
And you sip your Napoleon brandy
But you never get your lips wet, no, you don't
But where do you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed?
Won't you tell me the thoughts that surround you?
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do
Your name it is heard in high places
You know the Aga Khan
He sent you a race horse for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha
They say that when you get married
It'll be to a millionaire
But they don't realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn
Where do you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed?
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do
I remember the back streets of Naples
Two children begging in rags
Both touched with a burning ambition
To shake off their lowly-born tags, they tried
So look into my face, Marie-Claire
And remember just who you are
Then go and forget me forever
But I know you still bear the scar, deep inside, yes, you do
I know where you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
I know the thoughts that surround you
'Cause I can look inside your head
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na
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Great version of a great song,
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I have always loved this song, but have seen it differently from other people who have commented here. Whilst I have always seen it as a love song, it has seemed to me to be a quite angry song in that the girl as managed to "shake off her lowly born rags" and join "the jet set", the boy she grew up with in "the back streets of Naples" hasn't risen as far, and he seems very bitter about this fact. He has lost the love of his life to a materialistic world of European money, and desperately wants to confront her to tell her how much he loved her all those years ago, but he also wants to hurt her in that he wants to force her to "remember just who she is" and that she is not any better than him, just because of the world she now lives in. I love this song because there are so many emotions rolled into it, both good and bad. I know Peter Sarstedt has said that he didn't have anyone in mind when he wrote it, but I find that hard to believe due to the real feeling in the lyrics. All in all one of my favourie songs of all time, a great tune with haunting and thought provoking lyrics.
Old post, I know...but if anyone's interested, according to wiki: "...In reality, Peter Sarstedt wrote the song about a girl he fell madly in love with in Vienna in 1965. She died in a hotel fire. The song was written in Copenhagen (confirmation of this fact can be found on the CD cover of The Best of Peter Sarstedt, EMI, nr. 8297622, Australian CD)."
thats exacty what the song is about and thats exactly how the man feels in it<br /> spot on
In the first three verses the narrator (who I'm guessing is a man, although it may be a woman) is describing Marie-Claire's lifestyle and he seems to imply that she is living in a materialistic and superficial fashion. however in the chorus the narrator implies that her background is very different from her present situation, and with the words 'I want to look inside your head' I think he means he wants to know if she can remember the past, and also, is she any happier now than she was then. In the fourth verse the narrator tells us that the two of them grew up together in a poor part of Naples, but they both hated the stigma attached with being poor - so they tried hard to 'better' themselves. In the fifth verse, the narrator meets Marie Claire and looks into her eyes. He then knows that she does remember the past and that she is in a constant state of denial about the past. Hence the lyric 'then go and forget me forever'. Becase she is in a constant state of denial she cannot be happy ('But I still know you bear the scar, deep inside'). After all, she goes to bed alone and is not married. And also, she surrounds herself with people who are superficial who don't really care about her: 'But they don't care where you came from. And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn.'
I think the song is about the importance of being true to your roots, and not forgetting about those who one knew and loved you. Marie Claire seems to be ashamed of her roots, which means she doesn't have a firm sense of her own identity and will struggle to find happiness.
ohhhhhhhhh! I always wondered about the two children begging in rags part. So that was them was it? Very good.
can anyone tell me who this song is about?
hey willard, this song is more or less certainly about sophia loren... she's the illegitimate child of a father who's surname's clare n a mother named marie.... her rise from rags to staggering riches is very famous... she is supposed to have been bulimic from lack of food and her success story of struggle n strife is very well known...
for corroboration: inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,2663.0.html pophistorynow.com/popculturefiles/askmrpophistory_q154.htm
"And i wounder if they really care..." I have always thought it was that they thought she was so perfect and it didn´t really matter where she came from.
Sophia Loren has always been thought of as the subject of this song, but she is not. Peter himself stated in an interview once sometime ago, that the song was about a girl he knew in Denmark... Not Loren at all...
wes anderson used this song in his short film, "hotel chevalier." it's quite perfect: hotelchevalier.com/
This was so great on Hotel Chevalier and The Darjeeling Limited. I can't get it out of my head, which is a good thing...