You Know Who I Am

I cannot follow you, my love,

you cannot follow me.

I am the distance you put between

all of the moments that we will be.

You know who I am,

you’ve stared at the sun,

well I am the one who loves

changing from nothing to one.

Sometimes I need you naked,

sometimes I need you wild,

I need you to carry my children in

and I need you to kill a child.

You know who I am...

If you should ever track me down

I will surrender there

and I will leave with you one broken man

whom I will teach you to repair.

You know who I am...

I cannot follow you, my love,

you cannot follow me.

I am the distance you put between

all of the moments that we will be.

You know who I am...

Included on Songs From a Room (1967), and also on Live Songs (1973), this song fails to avoid the danger inherent in using the “I” voice – the danger of becoming ego-bound and failing to generalise an individual experience so as to make it relevant and interesting to others. His need for his lover “to kill a child” is selfish if it refers to abortion, and frankly obscene if it doesn’t. Perhaps appropriately for his first album, it is an immature song.