James Blunt - 1973 Lyrics Meaning

James was born in Feb 1974, and he is singing about a relationship in the generation of his parents, which understandably has interest to the poet/author in him. I was aged 18/19 in 1973, a year when clubs for dancing, drinking and eating scampi out of baskets were starting to flourish, and if I had known a girl called Simona I’m sure I would have wanted to call her up every Saturday night for good, carefree times. The song is written today (nearly 40 years later) looking back. With love, but some regrets – “we’ve been there and gone”, “the journey’s been etched on your skin”.
Like most pop songs written by JB or anyone else, best not to over-analyse every single word – the best songs are created from the heart: fusing poetry, melody and fleeting thoughts and emotions rather than facts. So references to songs like “I can see clearly now the rain has gone” and “The same old song” are not from 1973 but may still be representative snippets from the singer’s memories of Simona in the 1970s (and could have played at discos in 1973).

When I first heard the song I thought it was maybe about James’ relationship with a much older woman, wishing they had been together during her prime of youth. But much more likely to be about a guy in his late 50’s wishing he could recapture the best moments of his life when he first fell in love with Simona.