A'rebours

Info

A'rebours is track #3 on Babyshambles' debut album, Down in Albion, with the track credited to Doherty. The song takes its lyrics from two older songs written by Doherty, "Curtain Call"[1] and "If You Fall"[2] (also known as "Dalliance", or "He Will Fall").

A'rebours shares its name with the cult 1884 novel by French novelist and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans[3]. The novel, À Rebours (translated into English as Against the Grain or Against Nature) tells the story of a reclusive aristocrat with a decadent passion for exoticism, flowers, decoration, perfume, and art. One of the Books of Albion has the words "À rebours" written on its cover.

Appearing on

Down In Albion	Babyshambles	Album	2005-11-14
Royalty Songs	Babyshambles	Demo	2005

Concerts

The Halo, London	Babyshambles	London, UK	2009-11-06
Roundhouse, Camden	Peter Doherty	Camden Roundhouse, London	2009-09-19
Live At Waterford - Water Flaming Shambles	Babyshambles	Heineken Green Spheres, Ten, Waterford	2006-09-28
Topvar Rockfest, Slovakia	Babyshambles	Slovakia	2006-07-01
Hultsfred	Babyshambles	Hultsfredsfestivalen, Sweden	2006-06-16
Paradiso, Amsterdam	Babyshambles	Amsterdam, Netherlands	2006-05-01
The Scala 1st Night	Babyshambles	Pentonville Rd, London	2004-10-06

Lyrics

You sent for me
I was knock knock knocking on death's door
You ignore, adore, a rebours me
You leave me washed up begging for more
If you really cared for me
Ah you'd let me be
You'd set me free
But what you robbed me of is my...
Oh is my liberty

The curtain was calling
You were there blewn away and a rebours
In the mirror bawling
If you want it so much you are gonna have it all
Ah if you really cared for me
Christ knows you'd let me be
You'd set me free
I'm too polite to say...

I defy you all
You know twice as much as nothing at all
It's still nothing at all
I can defy us all
Tides are now turned and hammered it all
Hammered it all

Ah, no, ah no, ah no...

I've been running round this world too much, girl
Pretending not to see
What's drilling me, it's killing me

Oh no, I think I understand
What I misunderstood before
How your love gives me so much more
I am free again, I can see again..

But if I should fall
Would you vow today to pay tomorrow
The fucked off big debt I owe to sorrow...
Ah, oh... sorrow... sorrow...
Ah, oh... sorrow

Ah, no, ah no, ah no...