Badge

Eric Clapton/George Harrison

1969

Thinkin' 'bout the times you drove in my car.
Thinkin' that I might have drove you too far.
And I'm thinkin' 'bout the love that you laid on my table.

I told you not to wander 'round in the dark.
I told you 'bout the swans, that they live in the park.
Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to mabel.

Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down.
Don't you notice how the wheel goes 'round?
And you better pick yourself up from the ground
Before they bring the curtain down,
Yes, before they bring the curtain down.

Talkin' 'bout a girl that looks quite like you.
She didn't have the time to wait in the queue.
She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle.

This magnificent, beloved, classic, startling song was written

for Cream’s album, Goodbye. Originally untitled, the song

was named after Clapton misread Harrison’s notation “bridge,”

upside down from across the table, as “badge.”

.

The song tells of a man who meets with an "Old Love," many years later. 

He begins to reminisce with her about old times:

Thinkin’ ‘bout the times you drove in my car.

He acknowledges their relationship and the time they spent together.

Thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far.

He also admits that he “might” have put her through bad times.

And I’m thinkin’ ‘bout the love that you laid on my table.

Oh, what a telling line this is!  She gave him all her love, laid it on his table.

This line also implies that they lived together, that she cooked for him,

fed him.

 .

I told you not to wander ‘round in the dark.

I told you ‘bout the swans that they live in the park.

These lines seem to say that she was naïve, trusting to the point

 of needing to be taken care of, informed, protected.

Then I told you ‘bout our kid, now he’s married to mabel.

They had a son together, whom she didn’t raise.  He informed her

 that he is now married to mabel.  One wonders if that is fact, or said

tongue-in-cheek to tug at her guilt.    

Yes, I told you how the light goes up and down.

Don’t you notice how the wheel goes round?

He has told her of the ups and downs of life,

Still, life goes on, the sun rises and sets every day.

The wheel goes round. Life comes full circle; what goes around,

 comes around.

And you better pick yourself up off the ground

Before they bring the curtain down.

Yes, before they bring the curtain down.

He warns her that she needs to straighten out,

get her act together, before it’s too late.

These lines seem to say that she may have had

a substance abuse problem, apparently having hit rock bottom.

Talkin’ ‘bout a girl who looks quite like you.

He looks at her after all these years;

to him, she still looks the same,

implying that he may feel a glimmer of the same

feelings for her as before.

She didn’t have the time to wait in the queue.

This line says to me that she left him after

 a string of his affairs.  She was but one in the line

 of other women competing for his love.  She got tired

 of waiting.

She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle.

This final line abruptly ends the song on a rather

accusatory note. He tells her why it could

never have worked out between them.  She has

been feeling sorry for herself all her life. 

She is just too needy.

I hope you will enjoy the video I have included.

"Badge," written when it was, in 1969, reflects the times

 and social mores to a tee.  The late 'sixties ended the hippie, free

 love generation, and brought in the 'seventies, the “me” generation,

 where there was little permanency.   Relationships lasted

 only “as long as we both shall love.”