‘Another Day’ is a song written by Roy Harper and released on his album Flat Baroque And Berserk (1970). It is a short song, a story of an old affair recollected in the home of an ex-lover. It is a song full of regrets on both sides seen through their memories, about things that should have been said but were not. Desires, including for children, that never came to pass. For a brief moment it seems old passion is being rekindled, but instead the story unravels before the listener’s ears.

The song was covered by Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, performed during the Christmas Special in 1979. For a while, a single release was considered, but this idea was abandoned in 1980.

Kate about ‘Another Day’

This track is incredible. In fact, I asked Roy what he wrote the song about, and he said the whole thing is true. It’s a completely true story about a lady he’d met, and who he really loved, and he was after her. And she kept putting her nose in the air and running away from him. Then he met her a few years later, and suddenly realised that she was chasing him, and he saw the irony of the situation, and wrote this song about the rooms that they’d been in together. It’s a very personal song, and I think that’s why it works so strongly. It’s a very emotional, intimate song.

Radio programme with Paul Gambaccini, 30 December 1980

Lyrics

The kettle’s on, the sun has gone
Another day
She offers me Tibetan tea on a flower tray
She’s at the door, she wants to score
She dearly needs to say

I loved you a long time ago
Where the winds own forget-me-nots blow
But I just couldn’t let myself go
Not knowing what on earth there was to know
But I wish that I had ’cause I’m feeling so sad
I should have had one of your children

And across the room inside a tomb
A chance is waxed and wanes
The night is young, why are we so hung up
In each others chains
I must make her, I must take her
While the dove domains
And feel the juice run as she flies
Run my winds under her sighs
As the flames of eternity rise
To lick us with the first born lash of dawn.

Oh really my dear I can’t see what we fear
Sat here with ourselves in between us

And at the door she can’t say more
Than just another day

And without a sound
I turn around
And I walk away

References