Songfacts®:

• This song is a duet between James Blake and Rosalía, a Spanish singer-songwriter who mixes flamenco with modern production and beats. The collaboration came about when Blake's manager played him Rosalia's 2017 debut album Los Ángeles; Blake was immediately struck by her raw vulnerability. She came to the studio, and "Barefoot In The Park" was one of the songs they laid down.
• The Spanglish track is an ode to the obsessive feeling that comes with the early days of a relationship.
  
  When you're done with me
  I see a negative space
  Who needs to hallucinate?
  
  Blake explained to Genius the lyric is about "someone can make you feel so great that you are in almost a hallucinogenic state, the way you see behind the curtain of reality."
• The song was inspired by the premise of the 1967 romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park in which spontaneous Jane Fonda brings the uptight Robert Redford out of his shell.
  
  Barefoot in the park
  You start rubbing off on me
  
  During the movie, Fonda loosens up Redford enabling him to feel able to kick off his shoes and go "barefoot in the park." Blake explained the chorus references "That feeling of the better aspects of somebody's character rubbing off on you. That's a wonderful part of hanging around with someone so much, that you start to let go of some of your -isms."