It isn't what it used to be
I wake up every night
On the stairs
Waiting for the dawn to come
Every drop of wine
You can be my time
Only tomorrow knows
Why do we beg when we can borrow
This time we knew
No more or less
There's nothing left
It was always special
It was like water down the drain
I'm intoxicated
Every time I hear your name
I try to remember
But nothing is the same
It wasn't that I didn't try
It's not the kind of thing, that you buy
Written in my destiny
Life is but a dream
Covered by the sky
Stop saying that you're calling time
Look at your life before you start on mine
I'm not the kind of person that you need
I'm sick of trying
I mean that it's over
It was always special
It was like water down the drain
I'm intoxicated
Every time I hear your name
I try to remember
But nothing is the same
It was always special
it was like water down the drain
Patiently you wait for me
You're so blind
I thought it couldn't be
Then changed my mind
Drowning in the endless sea
Line follows line
The traces of your memory
Don't belong with mine
Like many of Bernard Sumner's lyrics, initially this one can be interpreted as being about either drugs or a relationship (check out the lyrics to World off this same Republic album for a stronger example of that)
However, many of the songs on this album are referencing the demise of Factory Records which happened during the recording process and the sense of betrayal that Barney felt from his longtime friend Factory empresario Tony Wilson.
This one seems to be focused more so on that failure and the band's reaction to it. Some of the lyrics seem to be personally addressing the problem ("Patiently you wait for me, You're so blind...") and the rest add to the feeling of melancholy at a dream destroyed.
Bones points for the almost poetic nature of some lines....
"Written in my destiny Life is but a dream Covered by the sky"
"Drowning in the endless sea"
And if they were going to break up after this album - which was a considerable possibility at the time as the band pretty much stopped talking to each other, bickered in the press, etc - this would've been a fine song to sing at the end of a band's career.
One of my favorite New Order tracks (if you couldn't tell).
@atlbobr69 "Bones" points?.....heh, meant to type "Bonus".
@atlbobr69 "Bones" points?.....heh, meant to type "Bonus".