Am recalling some of the songs I grew up with… Above is the video for ‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk’ (from the album ‘Nightlife’) – a poignant song on the problem of alcoholism, which seems to make people toggle between love and hate for their victims, which confuses loved ones as to whether the alcoholics really care or not. It’s one of the least pop of Pet Shop Boys’ songs and one of their most meaningful. Actually, their slow songs have always been ‘quite something’. I think everyone who knows an alcoholic should In the video, we see a sea of people lost in wild partying, before being lost in a drunken stupor. It’s an alternating ritual for some I suppose – both equally unreal – because they are states of mindfulness lost. Below are the most emotional yet rational lines from the song, I would think. (See full lyrics below.)
What’s the meaning
When you speak with so much feeling?
Is it over when you’re sober?
Is it junk?
Reminds me of how we usually pay attention to some songs due to their catchy melodies, or even their choruses. But when we look deeper into the lyrics, sometimes, it’s much ado about nothing much. Sometimes, we get intoxicated by music too, not just alcohol. The songs we let ourselves be haunted by – they form the soundtracks of our lives. Which haunt you? What’s the meaning, when we sing with so much feeling? Is it over when we’re sober? Is it junk? I hope not. May music and such help align us to truth and goodness, instead of mere fantasy. Just as True Love has to be mindful (and calm), expression of it too has to be mindful. Don’t tell your loved ones you care only when you’re drunk, when you’re choked with high emotions only for a while. Show it with your sober everyday actions too. True Love is sober, it is sobering. It is not intoxicated, not intoxicating. It is not confused, not confusing. It is being understanding, it is the heart of understanding itself.
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk
What a performance tonight
Should I react or turn off the light?
Looks like you’re picking a fight
in a blurring of wrong and right
But how your mood changes
You’re a devil, now an angel
Suddenly subtle and solemn and silent as a monk
You only tell me you love me when you’re drunk
It’s better than nothing, I suppose
some doors have opened, others closed
but I couldn’t see you exposed
to the horrors behind some of those
Somebody said: listen
don’t you know what you’re missing?
You should be kissing him
instead of dissing him like a punk
But you only tell me you love me when you’re drunk
You only tell me you love me when you’re drunk
All of my friends keep asking me
Why, oh, why
do you not say goodbye?
If you don’t even try
you’ll be sunk
’cause you only tell me you love me when you’re drunk
What’s the meaning
when you speak with so much feeling?
Is it over when you’re sober?
Is it junk?
You only tell me you love me when you’re drunk
You only tell me you love me when you’re drunk
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