According to a BBC article, the song was inspired by the revelation that her music teacher mother used to keep a “running away fund” in case she ever felt the need to flee the family.
[Verse 1]
You took out that money that your momma had saved
She told me she kept it for running away
Oh my, fortunes can change
[Verse 2]
You've picked up some tricks that you learnt on your way
For fear you'd be lonely if you never change
Oh my, you lost your faith
[Verse 3]
We landed on rocks and that's partly to blame
We wandered the landscape in this unbearable pain
Oh my, your fortune can change
[Verse 4]
At least we agree that we've wasted our time
We'll give up the hope that we'll meet down the line
Better off measured in coffee and wine
[Verse 5]
I think on it fondly now the truth can be told
Some love is ancient and it lives on in your soul
A fortune that never grows old
[Bridge]
You spent all that money that your momma had saved
Told me she kept it for running away
Never quite found the right way to say
"I'm sorry, my darling, my mind, it has been changed
Release me from this unbearable pain"
[Verse 6]
And so ends a story I had hoped to change
I had to release us from this unbearable pain
And promise we won't come here again
[Instrumental]
Fortune was written by Laura Marling.
Fortune was produced by Ethan Johns & Laura Marling.
Laura Marling released Fortune on Fri Apr 10 2020.
I was having dinner with my sisters one night and my eldest sister said, ‘Do you remember that our mother used to keep one pound coins in a pot above the washing machine?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ It added up to like £350 or something – by no means enough to run away with – but that was her colle...