Slight Return

The Bluetones, Expecting To Fly

"Where did you go?
When things went wrong for you
When the knives came out for you

Where did you go?
All you needed was a friend
You just have to ask and then

You don't have to have the solution
You've got to understand the problem
And don't go hoping for a miracle
All this will fade away
So I'm coming home

What did you learn?
Locked away all on your own
Chance and your head all blown

What did you learn?
It was unfortunate
You missed you chance to find out that

You don't have to have the solution
You've got to understand the problem
And don't go hoping for a miracle
All this will fade away
So I'm coming home
I'm coming home

You don't have to have the solution
You've got to understand the problem
And don't go hoping for a miracle, yeah
All this will fade away
So I'm coming home
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
But just for a short while"

"Slight Return", The Bluetones, Expecting To Fly

This song starts off with a slow, simple strumming of guitar. "Where did you go?" A simple motif, repeated in the first couple of stanzas. Hung off this are some clues as to what's going on -- where did you go when things went wrong, when you were threatened (multiple threats, "knives"), when you were alone.

Upon first listen, this beginning is easy to instantly comprehend. But then we get thrown into an opaque bit, and for that the song speeds up ("You don't have to have the solution…"). It's a small thing, but provides a dramatic twist, because with the speeding up of the tempo, there's also a bottle-neck of new, and more abstract, ideas. "You don't have to have the solution / You've got to understand the problem / And don't go hoping for a miracle". When sung at a quick tempo, and contrasted with the slow, simple ideas in the first two stanzas, the song becomes more complex and less instantly comprehensible.

It turns slightly aggressive with "And don't go hoping for a miracle" which I always read as slightly sneering. This is a surprise because the first two stanzas are sung with such tenderness and seeming empathy. Perhaps the singer is trying to shake the person out of their malaise? Then we're greeted with "all this will fade away" -- this big problem or mess has become oppressively large, blotting out anything else on the landscape. The singer is back to comforting: let's put this thing in perspective. It'll all fade away.

We return to the motif in the second half of the song, but now it's "What did you learn?" Can something be salvaged from this mess?

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like anything was learned.

Locked away all on your own
Chance and your head all blown

This revisits the isolation and violence of the first stanza (knives came out for you / all you needed was a friend).

And here's a part I always enjoy. The singer suddenly gets bureaucratic:

What did you learn?
It was unfortunate
You missed you chance to find out that

To drop in the phrase "It was unfortunate", especially in the context of the rest of the song, is jarring. The singer suddenly takes on an officious tone, distancing himself from the mess. This is then followed by a judgemental and accusatory "You missed your chance to find out that…"

Conclusion

What I really like is how this song lets things remain unspecified, forcing you to create a narration. And I like how it lets one off the hook from finding a solution. Things sometimes have to remain unresolved. With this understanding, the need to find a solution melts away. A burden is lifted.

While the pressure to find a solution is de-emphasized, the reunion is constantly emphasized ("I'm coming home"). The subtext is, "This whole mess is not important, what's important is our renewed relationship."

"I'm coming home" is sung with triumphal notes, but just so you're not left too high, there's a final line that destabalizes everything before it: "but just for a short while". Which leads us to the title, "Slight Return". A "safe" return, a return that's permanent and lasting, can't happen in this song.

Now that's my kind of song.