We begin with a man telling us of his greatest desire: to leave everything behind, and find some job to be one with nature, being a brakeman on a train, or perhaps he could become a fisherman. He tells us that when he rides on the train, and when he becomes the fisherman (Which of course he will do! He promises!) he'll be "loosened from bonds that hold him fast." Despite this apparent liberation, the protagonist tells us the day will be "fine and fateful". It will be a decisve day in his life, but he fully recognises it may not be the romantic picture he painted in his head. It could be the decisive day of his downfall: maybe psychologically, financially, or even death. Proclaiming this romantic image and claiming it is fateful is a recognisable image across drama. From Romeo and Juliett to A Streetcar Named Desire, desire and danger are heavily interconnected. The same is true for our protagonist. Despite not revealing his motives for leaving everything behind, and only his plans, he reveals an awful lot about his own character. A hopeless romantic.
So now he tells us what's been up. It's a girl. A girl he's been pining over, and one whom he just doesn't quite understand. He loves being around this girl, but she lies, and curses, and he goes to another planet seeing her kiss, or when he kisses her himself. But he refuses. He tells her that they can't be lovers. They've broken up, and they're dirtying one another's name. They tear each other's world apart, the remnants are filled with "People scrambling, like dogs for a share." Despite this, the horrid world they've made for each other doesn't compare to how ruthless, how brutal they each had to be to do it to one another. Our protagonist is realising the real horror of what he's done, and he continues to his withdrawral. He gets on his unknown boat, and goes on his way to an unknown world. He's going somewhere, anywhere, away from here. All we know is his intention. He needs a spiritual journey, and a moment of clarity. "We're turning flesh and body into soul."
We cut ahead in time. And now the protagonist is being spoken to. Maybe by a comrade on his travels, or someone he's stopped to ask for directions. Either way the advice given to him here is unmistakable. In his pursuit of liberation from the horrors he left behind, he's told "It's nothing to do with anything that's real." and he just needs to "Believe in it and it's true." It becomes pretty generic advice from this stranger. Essentially saying to fake it till you make it, and that it gets better eventually ("You will live to see a sea of lights"). 'Just come an have fun' says our protagonist's acquaintance, and 'Get yourself along to the world party!" This somewhat meaningless, and often touted advice does nothing for our protagonist, and he moves on.
We return to our protagonist's romantic fantasy, apparently fulfilled. He finally has his sweet thing with him. Someone to love as they stroll though misty gardens and jump the hedges. It is a lighter more uplifiting tone of music too, but he appears to have left behind this romantic fantasy, He says he's done wondering and ready to dig in, never going to 'read between the lines' again. In the process of finding what he wants, he loses his drive to go on these journeys. Suddenly we see a shift in perspectives. He has reached his goal, but is all that he wanted the journey?
Now our protagonist tells us of his past. Now he's reconciled with all his past lovers. We learn that with all his loves, he thought of they would be forever, but it ended after a while. Now the lover he is with now, he's sure he's with his soul mate. They will marry one day, and live their lives together until death does them part. But it is clear he still wishes for his romantic image of getting away from everything - to be the fisherman again. He tells us these epic but concise stories of his past loves about the adventures he once had. "It started in Fife, it ended in tears" and "I fell for her one summer, on the road..." The song even ends on a more melancholic tone. He knows he loves his partner, and he gives her a bang on the ear with it, but it is clear he yearns for his journeys of old. He still values the journey, but will himself go again? As he did before, leaving a lover for the journey.
In seeking of reassurance, our protagonist goes out in search of an old friend. This is a friend who doesn't have the best reputation. "I don't care what he did with his women, I don't care what he did when he drank." This is a man our protagonist trusts. A rough cut man, but who helps him when he needs, and clearly has given him advice before. For the first time though, our protagonist can't find him. He's nowhere to be seen, and now our protagnist must make a decision on his own conscience.
One night, lying in bed, he asks a troubling question. "When will we be married?" Going so far as to say that she's got her eye on another man. Our protagonist is deeply troubled. He's primed to destroy this relationship. Another. In this apparently futile pursuit of nature and the great outdoors, our protagonist is ready to leave his life behind again. Eventually, his toxic nature towards his partner has taken a toll, and he just doesn't understand. Suddenly the story has filled with a dramatic irony. Our protagonist hasn't realised how destructive he was being to his relationship. Now, he doesn't understand why "You ain't calling me to join ye" and he'll do everything to "make you stay", but he'll "cry when ye go away."
With his soul mate gone again, our protagonist reaches a position of introspection. He tells the child, the young person to come away to the water. "The world's more full of weeping than you'll ever understand". The moment of clarity he set out for at the beginning appears to have finally come. "The world is full of troubles and is anxious in its sleep." He realises what he truly is, making the comparison to wandering water. Much like Mike Scott, our protagonist clearly has a love of the sea and the ocean. He needs to be stolen away by the sea once and for all. To stop hurting himself, to stop hurting others, he needs to be stolen away, to the sea, in solitude. He may not like it, but he convinces himself it is the only way. Although the first track may be the title track, this song is the true Fisherman's Blues.
Finally, we end in a distinctively ambigous moment. Singing This Land Is Our Land. It is either a jubilation of finally being at peace, or depressing melancholic moment on bitter resentment, towards himself, and his lovers for forcing him to leave the land.
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