Match (July)

Through July, a teenage line goes through my head “strike another match, go start anew”, even the powerful phrasing of the original recording. I don’t know why, perhaps just desire to start anew. He sings of “crying like a fire in the sun”, so striking a match could mean a new flame, a new conflagration, burnout. It’s about the end of the affair, the solitary strike of being solitary again. But could mean too striking a match with someone new. Like many of his songs, is he talking to himself, or his lover? Or is he counsellor, a knowing bystander?