Contract

"You dreamed of scenes Like you read of in magazines"

I'm not sure how it was back in 1979, but today you only have to look in lads' magazines to find pictures of stupidly hot models, or in women's magazines to find exciting sex stories and "tips" to "put in practise in the bedroom".

I'm thinking this song is a comment about the false expectations the media (such as gender-specific magazines) gives people about sex, putting pressure on the other to meet such expectations. Perhaps the most natural and sacred act that could occur between two people has become hijacked by the influence of media and society, who over the past 50 years have become ever more present in our lives and not exactly in a benign way either.

The line "A contract in our mutual interest" I suppose is GoF telling us the blame lies with capitalism.

I mostly agree with RdeC. The repeated line "is this so private/our struggle in the bedroom" gives it away. The struggle they're having is in reconciling the reality of each other's bodies with the ideal they've been presented in magazines. The struggle is 'public' in two ways- one, that everyone is struggling with the same wild expectations and the gaps between them and reality. Two, the subject of goings-on in the bedroom is very popular. That kind of cements it for me, at least.

I think the jibe about 'contracts' is underlining the fact that relationships and sex in our culture aren't seen so much as outgrowths of love but power or money or something else entirely unromantic. It also might be an expression of frustration, like "are we making love or is this some sort of business ritual?"

An anti-marriage song, perhaps?

It sounds like one of those marriages that are sexless and unhappy but look perfect on the surface. Two people who married for the wrong reasons and now the speaker is asking if this is the way marriage really is or is there something wrong with this one.

Or two people who really do love each other but for some reasons are having serious problems in their sex lives that they can't control.

There is something here about the public/private distinction and the way in which it is used to maintain the political status quo. I think the song is arguing against the concept of the establishment of a social contract that operates in terms of mutual interest, and pointing out the way in which capitalism commodifies desire, and intrudes into our most personal and intimate moments, whilst at the same time placing "the personal" (marriage, religion, the family, etc.) beyond of political criticism. Paradoxically, one answer to this problem is to accept what bothers us, and embrace our embodiment on its own terms...