Victims

This is my first writing, and this is a great place to start for me. One of Culture Club's absolute best songs that speaks of loss, longing, and yes betrayal. I am going to skip around on the lyrics to bring together some themes.

"The victims we know so well They shine in your eyes When they kiss and tell"

Third person, but very concise way of explaining betrayal for baring a deep emotion to another human being.

"We love and we never tell What places our hearts in the wishing well Love leads us into the stream And it's sink or swim Like it's always been"

I always liked the vision of water as the basics for life, and in this case hopes in a wishing well or love taking us to that essential stream element, has a double edge to it. Love places us in a vulnerable position where it is not just wishes or being lead to a place, but the fact that your heart is put in that vulnerable position and you are left to work at it or feel it, but even in doing so, you could still drown!

"Strange places we never see But you're always there like a ghost in my dream"

Again, coming back on this same theme where you are placed in perhaps a futile conclusion but yet that dream is oh so alluring, even if unrequited. The hard part is the fact that it only came to this point by tapping into that exposed state that was perhaps only one sided. The worst part (or best part depending on how you look at it) is that haunting feeling over and over again. Boy George often sang in terms of submission which I have always had a problem discerning. If a person is a willing submissive participant, is that really submissive in the grand scheme? In this lyric he is in a kind of hell, but as can be read later, it is a hell of his choosing.

"And I keep on telling you Please don't do the things you do When you do those things Pull my puppet strings I have the strangest void for you"

This part has always got to me. Because on one hand it is a plea to be treated well or at least change into something more positive, but on the other hand it also is a realization that you are being controlled and you miss that lack of freedom. So many times over I have read it both ways. Is he saying that please don't do those things because it pulls my puppet strings...or is he telling the person to pull the puppet strings to release the void.

"And I keep on loving you It's the only thing to do When the angel sings There are greater things Can I give them all to you"

This is the problem with getting your heartbroken by a good person. Normally you can just write them off in hatred, and while you may be hurt by it, you can at least use those negative reasons to cope and try to move on. However, in this case, there is a refusal to acknowledge there is anything better out there even when the very heavens are telling you that fact. So in the end, the writer is saying, can't I just put all those characteristics back to you and just love you anyway? Even if it means that the love is only bundled in hope and not returned in kind.

"Pull the strings of emotion Take a ride into unknown pleasure Feel like a child on a dark night Wishing there was some kind of heaven I could be warm with you smiling Hold out your hand for a while The victims we know them so well"

Now this is where it starts really coming together. In my mind, the mindset is to say that if you are going to pull puppet strings do it from an honest position of true emotion. He is telling the person that they need to let go of the vulnerability to a point that it takes them back to the innocence of childhood. It is a place of being scared and understanding that this fear comes from a place of the possibility of a satisfying safe relationship i.e. heaven. Also he is saying that his comfort and safety comes from the other person's happiness. He can extend that comfort and that person can be the "victim" just like him, which can come from reciprocated vulnerability.  I also take these lines as somewhat sexual. It is letting go of innocence and partaking in the unknown. It may be sex, but it also is attached to a deeper emotional bond.

"Show my heart some devotion Push aside those that whisper never Feel like a child on a dark night Wishing we could spend it together"

This is a clear statement of optimism. Not only is he clearly stating that action of commitment is essential, but he is also stating that people outside the relationship cannot understand that vulnerability. Furthermore, a kind of confidence exudes from the writer because he is stating that the people are gossiping without commitment hence them "whispering" instead of having the balls to say it out loud. In the end he is telling that person that, feeling IS showing (like swimming or the converse which is drowning), and that you must take yourself back to that childhood innocence that comes with the action of an equal longing that is the foundation of making the relationship work. Be a victim just like him and that way at the least they both have the same stakes to lose.

Excellent song and perhaps their pinnacle.