I love the concept of the song. The lyrics depict a very special and memorable time in a relationship in much more color than the average "newfound love" song. While at first the gap in the story confused me slightly, I now see it as quite clever, especially if there were an instrumental solo to provide some more time after the second verse.

My favorite part of the tune by far is the bridge ("Left over taste of love...). The 6/8 feel works great with the country-western feel of the masterful studio production. The two 4-bar phrases make for a nice bridge length and the fact that the chord structure is non-repetitive, beginning and ending on a 5 chord, really makes it go somewhere, leading you away and then back to the verse.

The verses seem to be in a slow 9/8 time signature, other than what seems to be a single 6/8 bar ("I can't erase this smile from my face"). You could also think of the verses as being in 9/4, or even in 3/4 using 3 bar phrases (which would be quite odd). I’ll refer to them as being in 9/8 since that makes the most sense to me, musically.

The slow 9/8 just doesn't work for me. Paired with the opening chords (Fm - Bb - Eb,C/E,Fm), I struggled to hear the key of the piece on my first listen. I kept hearing a ii-V-I in Eb. It wasn't until after the first fermata when I finally knew the song was in f minor. It wasn't until a bit after that point that I began to realize the song was in 9 and had my rhythmic bearings. After the first listen of course, I am able to anchor myself more easily. But, the first listen can be quite important.

No doubt there have been famous pieces with odd and alternating time signatures. For 9/8 pieces, Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo a la Turk comes to mind for Jazz as well as Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring on the classical side. However, these and others generally have a faster tempo that helps the listener group the odd-numbered beat pairing more easily.

Additionally, the emphasis placed on the last 3 beats of each measure (or the last bar of each three bar phrase if you consider the song to be in 3/4) with the Eb,C/E,Fm chords at first made me think this was the start of a new measure (or phrase), rather than the end of a triple beat measure (or the end of a triple-bar phrase). In retrospect, it reminds me a little of the end of each 7/4 bar of Money by Pink Floyd. Again, the tempo of that song is much faster than this one (and the bar is shorter).

Even on subsequent listenings, the slow odd meter feels to be a very unnatural pairing with the lyrics and musical style of the piece. The song seems to want so badly to be fully in 6/8.