[Verse 1] I tried explaining that restaurant The terrible music The waiter who forgot us twice How you laughed until you couldn’t breathe Because I dropped my fork It sounds ordinary When I tell it now It was only funny Because you were there [Chorus] You had to be there That’s the problem with memory It never travels properly When you explain it to somebody new You had to be there For the look For the timing For the stupid little things I can describe exactly what happened And still not give them What it meant [Verse 2] There was that petrol station At two in the afternoon When the card machine stopped working And somehow we ended up dancing To a song from the ceiling speaker Nothing happened That anybody would remember But I remember everything [Pre-Chorus] Maybe that’s what intimacy is Private context [Chorus] You had to be there That’s the problem with memory It never travels properly When you explain it to somebody new You had to be there For the pause For the glance For the way I knew what you meant Some moments lose their entire language When the other person Isn’t present [Bridge — piano only] I don’t want you back That isn’t what this is I just miss having somebody Who already knows Why certain things are funny Why certain streets matter Why I hate that particular song Why I still order that particular dessert There are parts of my life That only make complete sense In your memory [Final Chorus] You had to be there And you were That’s enough You had to be there For a version of me Nobody else will ever meet I don’t need to recover it I don’t need to repeat it But sometimes I wish For thirty seconds I didn’t have to explain You had to be there And somehow You still are [Outro — breathy harmonies building upward] There There There… [Pristine whistle note]
