Home

At first,I thought this song was about meeting "the one"and they were gonna take you home and take care of you.After years of listening,I'm convinced Mart wrote a little biography of Dave in this song.Ambiguous just enough,but I think it's about growing up without direction,becoming a rock star,getting caged into the lifestyle,getting hooked on heroin,the deadliest trap ever laid,despairing that death is your only true friend.Dave was having his hardest times when Mart was writing the songs for Ultra.My favorite overall DM song.

Martin Gore has said this was written during a time when he was drinking too much. The song deals with coming to terms with the situation.

Well, after hearing this song hundreds of times in the past 16 years, I had a different understanding of it today. All of the first lines describe some kind of despair, this is clear. But the chorus is thankful for something, and that someting is acceptance of the human condition and the inevitability of death, even if that death might involve suicide - "befriend the glorious end of the line" and "make amends" the next time around. Acceptance and owning one's demons and nature and sometimes, need for finality...that's it.

When Martin says "Home" I don't believe he's talking about his real, physical home. He's talking about a state of mind, a relationship or a drug (or getting off of a drug) most likely. Somebody or something makes him feel right, not a stranger.

"This is another religious influenced song. He's thanking Jesus for dying for humanity and our sins. So that when we die we can find that place that we can call home. "God send the only true friend I call mine pretend that I'll make amends the next time befriend the glorious end of the line"

I don't think it's really a religious influenced song, or that he's talking about Jesus per se' I believe he's talking about a person or a state of mind that makes him feel like home and just thanking God for it, despite all the other crap around him as reflected in the lyrics and in refrence to the song.. hence. ..

"Here is a page from the emptiest stage a cage or the heaviest cross ever made a gauge of the deadliest trap ever laid"

Actually, I think that this song is about the band and his friendship with its members. I think he's talking about his life before the band, how the circumstances were against him and his passion to make music (poverty, bad socio-economical state etc.). He felt like the place he came from and his "status" etc. were bound to keep him trapped in a state of poverty and despair for the rest of his life, and prevent him from developing and fulfilling his musical aspirations and achieving his dreams. But once he found his band mates, who gave him the chance and format to create music and help him realize his dream, he gives them credit for "saving" him from his destiny and giving him the chance of rising above it. The band members are his true friends and partners, and in the band he feels like "home"- that's where he felt like he should've been his entire life, that's what he was meant to do. And the band made it possible for him to achieve all that.

"Here is a song from the wrong side of town where I'm bound to the ground by the loneliest sound that pounds from within and is pinning me down"

It starts before the band was formed, where he started out: the "wrong side of town", lack of opportunities and possibilities created by a poor socio-economical state, perhaps. He's "bound to the ground by the loneliest sound", meaning he's got no ones to create his music with, and he hasn't found his real friends yet. He's feeling the sound punding within him, but he's got no one to play it with, thus it is a lonely sound. He hasn't found his true "home", thus the feeling of loneliness and being bound to the ground and pinned down- petrified and crippled by his feelings of loneliness and despair. The musical references make it more obvious to me that the song is about the band and his musical career- the "loneliest sound" "pounds from within" him, it's his passion and his true calling, but at this point he isn't able to discover it and make it happen.

"Here is a page from the emptiest stage a cage or the heaviest cross ever made a gauge of the deadliest trap ever laid"

Another reference to a musical career- an empty stage. He feels like he belongs on a stage, but again- he's got no one to make that dream come true with. He's alone on the stage. I think that the references to a "cage", "heavy cross" and "the deadliest trap ever laid" aren't necessarily talking about drugs, but about the circumstances in which he was brought up, where he started out his life. Coming from a poor, "bad" neighborhood is a deadly trap, and a cage- as many people never manage to escape these circumstances and end up poor and bourish just like their parents. They never manage to escape "the wrong side of town" and rise above it.

"And I thank you for bringing me here for showing me home for singing these tears finally I've found that I belong here"

I think it's directed at his bandmates, and Dave in particular ("singing these tears"- Martin writes most of DM's lyrics, thus his tears are in his lyrics. Dave sings these tears). He feels like the band is his home, like that's what he was meant to do his entire life.

"The heat and the sickliest sweet smelling sheets that cling to the backs of my knees and my feet I'm drowning in time to a desperate beat"

Perhaps the reference is either to the sheets at his old home at the "wrong side of town", or perhaps those are the sheets at some hotel room during a band tour. Those sheets remind him of the poor times at his childhood home- "I'm drowning in time to a desperate beat").

"God send the only true friend I call mine pretend that I'll make amends the next time befriend the glorious end of the line"

Perhaps he's referring directly to Dave. Dave is from the same place Martin is, Essex, so perhaps he is "from the wrong side of town" just like Martin is. Maybe that's the meaning of the lines "Pretend that I'll make amends the next time / Befriend the glorious end of the line"- this time his only true friend is Dave, who's just "as bad" as Martin is. He pretends like "the next time" (perhaps his next incarnation, his "next chance"?) he's "make amends" and befriend "the glorious end of the line"- on his next incarnation he'll "be better" and befriend someone from a better status. That sounds very cynical to me.

I dont know what the song is trully about but all I know is that it reminds me of coming down off of something. As do a lot of depeche mode songs.. they are very sexual and druggish!

this song is about how you can't escape your roots and home will always be home

The best Martin-sung song. And definitely one of my DM favorites.

Has anyone seen the video for this song? It's pretty cool, though I don't really understand it too much...

I'd say Home, In Your Room, and Only When I Lose Myself are DM's best videos.