Red, red wine
Go to my head
Make me forget that I
Still need her so
Red, red wine
It's up to you
All I can do, I've done
Mem'ries won't go
Mem'ries won't go
I'd have sworn
That with time
Thoughts of you would leave my head
I was wrong
Now I find
Just one thing makes me forget
Red, red wine
Stay close to me
Don't let me be alone
It's tearin' apart
My blue, blue heart
I'd have sworn
That with time
Thoughts of you would leave my head
I was wrong
Now I find
Just one thing makes me forget
Red, red wine
Stay close to me
Don't let me be alone
It's tearin' apart
My blue, blue heart
Red, red wine
Stay close to me
Don't let me be alone
It's tearin' apart
My blue, blue heart
About This Song
"Red Red Wine" is a melancholic reggae-pop ballad about using alcohol to cope with heartbreak and the inability to move on from a lost love. The lyrics reveal a narrator who turns to wine as emotional anesthesia, desperately seeking to numb memories of someone who still haunts his thoughts despite his efforts to forget. UB40's distinctive British reggae style, featuring laid-back rhythms, melodic basslines, and Neil Campbell's plaintive vocals, transforms what could have been a simple drinking song into a deeply emotional confession of vulnerability. The song's universal theme of seeking escape from pain, combined with its accessible reggae-influenced sound, helped it become one of UB40's biggest international hits and a defining track of 1980s pop-reggae fusion. The repeated plea for the wine to "stay close to me" emphasizes the narrator's profound loneliness and his reliance on alcohol as his only companion in heartbreak.
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