See my true reflection
Cut off my own connections
I can see life getting harder
So sad is this sensation
Reverse the situation
I can't see it getting better

I'll walk you through the heartbreak
Show you all the out takes
I can't see it getting higher
Systematically degraded
Emotionally a scapegoat
I can't see it getting better

Perverse and unrealistic
Try to make it all stick
I can't see it getting better
Hollow now, I'm burned out
Oh, I need to break out
I can't see life getting higher
Love, life, makes you feel higher
Love of life, makes you feel higher
Higher, higher, higher, higher
Higher, higher, higher, higher
Love of life, makes you feel higher


Lyrics submitted by Brutin

The Sound of Music Lyrics as written by Ian Kevin Curtis Bernard Sumner

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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The Sound Of Music song meanings
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6 Comments

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  • +2
    General Comment

    This is Ian Curtis' suicide note.

    Bliss Freakon December 15, 2005   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    this is a great example of a song with very direct lyrics, that works well. sometimes songwriters keep things purposefully vague or flowery. this one is just so straightforward, no subtext needed. and as for the last lines, the irony here is the protagonist is acutely aware of how love of life can make one feel 'higher' but he himself is unable to get there. Thus he suffers doubly.

    love the guitar on this song, all rhythm and no melody, sounds like an industrial grinder!

    jimmylegson September 24, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I always thought it was funny that someone like Ian Curtis (knowing what later became of him) could write a song where the chorus is "love of life makes you feel higher." Then again, in the line before he says "I can't see life getting higher" which makes me think he has no more love for life. Hmm.

    I must say that

    I'll walk you through the heartbreaks Show you all the out-takes I can't see it getting higher Systematically degraded Emotionally a scapegoat I can't see it getting better

    is one of the most poetic expressions of angst ever committed to record.

    drmanhattanon May 02, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Yeah drmanhattan, it does seem weird that he would write "Love of life makes you feel higher," but i think it's an intentional use of irony. It's like at the end of "Colony" where he says, "Dear God in his wisdom took you by the hand/God in his wisdom made you understand" and you can tell by his tone of voice that he means the exact opposite.

    thebodiesobtainedon November 05, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think that the "Love life etc" is sort of like what Billy Corgan does with his lyrics, that being irony.

    Raiden014on January 02, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think that if you take this and New Dawn Fades as one piece (they were written around the same time, leading up to his death), then yes, it most definitely forms a suicide note. I actually think that this is probably the saddest of all Ian Curtis' songs, even though the music is actually quite upbeat (and what's up with that "BRRRRWOOOOOOOO!" at the beginning???), which of course adds a whole 'nother dimension of irony to it.

    It's also somewhat representive of the fact that if you can hide your soul-crushing, all-consuming depression under a veneer of happiness, you can leave a whole ton of people in the wake of your ultimate actions saying "I had no idea."

    tristan_son November 07, 2009   Link

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