Since Yesterday

The song is based around one of the most beautiful pieces of music from the 20th Century, all time even: The Swan motif which closes Sibelius' 5th Symphony.

I think this song is about exlovers or childhood loves meeting for the first time in ages. I think they split up amicably maybe because one moved away and one still holds a flame for the other. They are both in unhappy relationships with other people and are reflecting on the happy times they once had together.

Taking each bit...

"Just close your eyes and then remember The thoughts you've locked away When tomorrow comes you'll wish You had today "

Is like saying "Hey remember when we did this?" "Oh yeah we did that didnt we? Oh what wags we were!!" kind of thing.

"And as we sit here alone Looking for a reason to go on It's so clear that all we have now Are our thoughts of yesterday"

So theyre sat alone musing about their current situations and reflecting on the fun they had together. But the singer is saying "Yeah we had a good time but theyre best left as memories"

"If you're still there when it's all over I'm scared I'll have to say That a part of you has gone Since yesterday"

So the singers now saying "If you're still in the same situation when this is over then you're not the person you once were". Maybe the person she is singing this to once had more vie for life, ambition or confidence. Things that tend to suffer at end of a relationship.

"Well, maybe this could be the ending with nothing left of you A hundred wishes couldn't say I don't want to "

Then she is saying "But ok, you might be a pitiful wreck of the person you once were but if our situations were different I'd get back with you. I couldnt wish for anything else."

Then again I might be talking utter crap. Cracking song though. Love the video.

This has been up on SongMeanings for over a year yet I'm the first to comment it. Na ja, I'd say it's a beautiful lyric and that it's basically about how people's experiences and memories become shaped so quickly, though 'yesterday' could refer to the past than literally 24 hours ago.

I've always thought this was the final collapse a struggling relationship. They were long-time friends who became romantic, and the breakup threatens to take the everything down with it. She (the singer) is just trying to reclaim the friendship they had before.

"Just close your eyes and then remember The thoughts you've locked away When tomorrow comes you'll wish You had today"

It wasn't always bad, and you shouldn't carry forward only negative memories.

"And as we sit here alone Looking for a reason to go on It's so clear that all we have now Are our thoughts of yesterday"

Things have changed, and we don't feel the same about each other anymore. Maybe it was a mistake to fall in love.

"If you're still there when it's all over I'm scared I'll have to say That a part of you has gone Since yesterday"

I'd like to believe we can remain friends, but you're distant/elsewhere. Even if we are friends, it won't be like it was.

"Well, maybe this could be the ending With nothing left of you A hundred wishes couldn't say I don't want to"

You're going to discard everything we've experienced over one part proving to be incompatible. I just wish we could salvage the friendship we had, but it looks like that's not going to happen.

"It's so clear that all we have now Are thoughts of yesterday"

Acceptance that they "can never go home again".

This is another of those songs which seems on the surface to be reminiscing on a past relationship, but it actually has a stranger even more literal meaning, this time with the narrator afraid she won't get her friend back in one piece after he or she goes through a risky mind-erasing mind control experiment.

This song is very deep for its time, and very intelligent. Rose McDowell revealed in 2015 that this song was written about nuclear war - interpretations about relationships and suicide are seemingly erroneous - and seeing as it was recorded in 1983, that makes perfect sense because nuclear annihilation was the western world's paramount fear during the Cold War, a fear which intensified around the early-mid 1980s with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, so this 3 minute poppy number is absolutely a backdrop to the political and societal climate of the time.

"And as we sit here alone, looking for a reason to go on" -- right out of the gates, sitting there "alone" implies that the narrator is of a small number of stray survivors following a destructive nuclear blast. I read that she is "looking for a reason to go on" because the explosion has laid waste to all she knew and loved, including those close to her, and she is trying to find a reason to carry on living.

"It's so clear that all we have now, are thoughts of yesterday" -- this is another line seemingly written from the POV of somebody who has survived a nuclear blast. The world as she knew it has been obliterated by a nuclear explosion, her family, friends, etc, as implied above have presumably perished and all she's left with is memories of past times.