I like the Sheryl Crow cover of this song. But I can’t figure out what it means. It seems to be a metaphor used in a “relationship” context. But not only can’t I figure out what it means figuratively in the song, I can’t even figure out what it means in general. Can anyone help?
I’ve never paid much attention to this song before, but looking over the lyrics I assume it’s talking about the first heartbreak a person suffers being the most intense. That first “cut” has wounded the narrator deeply, but s/he’s trying to move on and trust again.
I’m not sure if this is an entirely new relationship or if the narrator is trying to trust the one who broke his/her heart the first time, since either would work.
I never analyzed it that closely. I always figured it meant that the first big love/heartbreak always hurt the most and stuck with you longer and affected other relationships.
It certainly has nothing to do with suicide because the first cuts are always shallower hesitation cuts, or so I learned from CSI.
Well, after my own first heartbreak (back in the early '80s, when I was dumped by my first love), I listened to the Rod Stewart version of this song obsessively.
My perception of it was that first love was the deepest love – that no matter how I tried, I’d never feel again the purity of love I felt that first time.
Years of experience have taught me its falseness, but that’s still how I interpret the song.
Thanks for the responses. But I still don’t get the reference to “cut”.
You’re going to try to analyze a Cat Stevens tune? Good luck. I’m a big fan of the Cat, but I learned long ago to forget the analysis and just sit back and enjoy the tunes, the (mostly) soulful lyrics and the really odd rhymes.
The first time someone hurts you, it’s the most painful. After that you get used to it.
I’d guess just a reference to getting your heart hurt or “cut”.
“When she left me it felt like my heart was cut with a knife.”
It’s a double entendre. The process of making a recording on a vinyl disc(as they were at the time the song was written) involves using a cutter to remove the surface of the disc to create waveforms corresponding to the sound. It was common parlance to call a song a “cut” in the radio industry, a DJ may say “I’m going to play a cut from X’s new album.” Since the song is about deep feelings, and the song is a cut, it could be said to be a deep cut. I don’t know if anyone ever had this be the first track/cut on an album, but I wouldn’t be suprised if they did.
A similar reference to record production shows up in “The New Style” by the Beastie Boys.
“And on the cool check in
Center stage on the mic
And we’re puttin’ it on wax
It’s the new style”
“Puttin’ it on wax” is a reference to recording on wax blocks to create the master recording, as described more fully in the record production link given above…
Enjoy,
Steven
That’s odd. I don’t find him particularly obscure. “Wild World”, “Another Saturday Night”, “Peace Train”, “Morning has Broken” and this song are pretty straightforward to me - with the odd line seeming out of place or maybe misheard.
CaerieD, I’m pretty sure he’s talking to a new girl and warning her that someone else broke his heart.
eta: Mtgman, just because it COULD be a double entendre doesn’t mean it was ever meant that way. Certainly a double meaning here doesn’t add to the meaning of the song, unless Cat Stevens is saying “Sorry if this song isn’t that great, I wasted my good stuff on the first track” or “this is the first track, so it’s gotta have deep meaning”. I don’t see it.
That’s my interpretation, too (though I guess it includes both the first love and the first heartbreak).
Yeah, I find Cat Stevens to be a pretty straightforward songwriter, and this song was pretty clearly saying that the first time your heart is broken is the most painful/powerful/memorable.
The song is about as clear as it could be. Look at the first verse:
I would have given you all of my heart
But there’s someone who’s torn it apart
And she’s taken just all that I had
But if you want I’ll try to love again
Baby I’ll try to love again but I know
The first cut is the deepest…
It’s actually a fairly trite sentiment - I lost my true love, I’ll never love again, I’ll try to love you, but it will never be the same as it was, yada yada yada.
“Another Saturday Night” was not written by Cat Stevens. Cat’s version is a remake of Sam Cooke’s original.
Eeeek! My ignorance is showing! 
Yeah, it is a little trite, Sam, though I’m sure a few people have felt it. I have to say whenever I hear that song I think “Well, screw off then and let her find someone who ain’t a shell of a man. Geez.”
I’m pretty sure Cat didn’t write Morning Has Broken, either. According to Wiki, the lyrics were written in 1922 and the music is a Scots melody.
StG
Maybe it has something to do with “the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
Agreed with all the others that the song is talking about that first heartbreak hurting the most.
Ages ago we learned what I had assumed were the traditional Scots lyrics, but someone should correct me it that’s not so. This is the only verse I remember:
This day God gives me strength of high heaven
Might to uphold me, fire in my hearth
Flashing of lightning, wind in its swiftness
Deeps of the ocean, firmness of earth