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Broken Promise Lyrics
Oh I don't know why people lie
And I don't know why people die
Every time I see you, you shout at me
`Cause of all the things in the world that I can't see
But what I think goes on in this world
For a mother and a father and a boy and a girl
Is that the more you earn, the less you learn
There's a fire in life where we will burn
And I never could believe it
And I never could be true
For the things that mean so much to me
Don't mean that much to you
And I never could believe
The way you told me I was wrong
If I'm right and you are sinful
Then for God's sake I was wrong
Oh, I don't know how I think this way,
And yet you sit there looking at me all day
There's more to you than I can see
There's a shadow of another hanging over me
But what I think goes on in this world
For a mother and a father and a boy and a girl
Is that the more you earn, the less you learn
There's a fire in life where we will burn
And I never could believe it
And I never could be true
For the things that mean so much to me
Don't mean that much to you
And I never could believe
The way you told me I was wrong
If I'm right and if you're sinful
Then for God's sake I was wrong
Oh, I'd tear you out of heaven
And I'd tear you out of hell
And I'd see your life in ruins
Because mine lies there as well
And I'd cry out in my loneliness
While you sleep in your peace
But you'll never see my face again
While I need words like these
Someone that you used to love so much dies and after some time this death makes you feel guilty since you promised to this one you would be a 'better' person from then on, but you simply cannot keep your promise just because you love to live in 'sin' while he/she always tried to live on the 'right' way when he/she was alive. So now you are forced to face for the first time a fear of being punished by God for living at this way ("There's a fire in life where we will burn"), specially because your dead fellow seems to follow you wherever you are ("yet you sit there looking at me all day/There's more to you than I can see/There's a shadow of another hanging over me") and this makes you feel so ashamed of yourself.
To me this song is a relapse to Joy Division, in the same vein as Low Life's Sunrise. The composition, the mood and the instrumentation are all throwbacks. There'a lot of anger and frustration directed at someone, and when I hear Bernard Sumner singing I suspect it's Ian.
There's a sense that there is a vast distance between him and the other person, that they are so different from one another ("things that mean so much to me/don't mean that much to you").
There's a sense that he is being watched and judged by them: "you sit there looking at me" and "you told me I was wrong".
He wants to attack the other person, to tear them down and "see their life in ruins".
Joy Division's music explored so much desperation, loneliness and depression that any song with this kind of mood has to stir up the band's feelings towards him. To me this song is about being tormented by someone who has left your life.
I doubt it's about Ian when it's so far into their career (1986 this was released on the brotherhood album) it's more of a break up song to be honest.
I doubt it's about Ian when it's so far into their career (1986 this was released on the brotherhood album) it's more of a break up song to be honest.