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)."
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)."
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)."
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 spot on
thats exacty what the song is about and thats exactly how the man feels in it spot on