Come Home

MaskOfSanity, I disagree with your interpretation. I think that this song is about a particular type of desire. This desire being: a desire for somebody who is not your partner. This song is also about the way that this adulterous desire makes you feel about yourself.

I love this song because I think that any red-blooded person has suffered from an adulterous desire. There exists a myth that once you are in a relationship you can just turn of your passions, as if you were turning of a water-tap. For me, and many others, this is not true. I have often felt an adulterous desire that has made me want to 'scream, come home!'.

I have never succombed to these desires but that does not mean that they do not exist in me. A great set of lyrics and a great song.

This song is about the uncontrollable nature of passion. But, I also think that there is a coming of age in this song, it's a buildunsroman where the lyricist realises his own hypocrisy. I think that the lyricist felt that he was different to adulterers, in that he could never even desire another person, once he was in a relationship.

However, the lyricist finds himself confronted by adulterouss desire and, consequently, by his own hypocrisy.

I think that ' the need to feel that you are not holding me' is his wish not to be bondaged to his adulterous desire, however, he has come to realise that it is not possible to control sexual desire and that he is attracted to this person and, therefore, feels the same way as adulterers. The people he'd loathed and thought he had nothing in common with.

The lyrics quoted above don't match the version in this video (which I believe is the album version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWd9mqC80BU

The lyrics in that video are: <quote> It's that time again when I lose my friends Go walkabout, I've got the bends from pressure This is a testing time when the choice is mine Am I a fool for love or foolish for desire

And I don't believe you're all I'll ever need And I need to feel that you're not holding me But the way I feel just makes me want to scream Come home, come home, come home Come home, come home, come home

After thirty years I've become my fears I've become the kind of man I've always hated I am in love insane with a sense of shame That I threw stones at the condemned and now I'm slated

I may have paid for sex But I was blessed by love In this land that's ruled by gods of lust and money

And I don't believe you're all I'll ever need And I need to feel that you're not holding me But the way I feel just makes me want to scream Come home, come home, come home Come home, come home, come home </quote>

I believe that those are the lyrics to the 7" version of the song.

And I believe that these are the lyrics to the long version of the song (which I have on Gold Mother): <quote> It's that time again when I lose my friends Go walkabout, I've got the bends from pressure I am pulled apart, and my swollen heart Has flipped out of the pan into the fire

And I don't believe you're all I'll ever need And I need to feel that you're not holding me But the way I feel just makes me want to scream Come home, come home, come home Come home, come home, come home

After thirty years I've become my fears I've become the kind of man I've always hated I am in love insane with a sense of shame That I threw stones at the condemned and now I'm slated

I may have paid for sex But I was blessed by love In this land that's ruled by gods of lust and money

And I don't believe you're all I'll ever need And I need to feel that you're not holding me But the way I feel just makes me want to scream Come home, come home, come home Come home, come home, come home </quote>

I don't know where these two lines come from: <quote> You can throw him out, you can spit on him Call what he does a sin if it makes you feel better </quote>

Many of James' songs include themes of 'madness', especially mood swings. But also, it's about a guy who can't resist the temptation of lust, and feels guilty about that. Songs don't have to be just about that. They are often a mish mash. Especially when the writer is as as good as TB.

Surprised there haven't been any comments on this yet... IIRC this song has a double meaning; it's partly about the decline of Tim Booth's relationship with the band's ex-manager Martine McDonagh and how he was feeling like the bad guy in the relationship... and also about Tim's escape from the sect Lifewave that he succumbed to in the mid-80s; he was completely devoted to this group until it collapsed after the guru was found to have slept around.

Either way, the song is about pure self-loathing and paranoia, the need to 'come home' being the return to one's self and sanctity. Tim has said in interviews that it was through performing this song live that he realized the shamanic impact of James' songs when the crowd sang his lyrics back at him in euphoria, a total release of negative emotions.

In which year did it become law that students must wear a long sleeved James t-shirt at all times?

I do recall the law being abolished in 1991 in favour of the controversial "Rule Of 3 Amendment" where normal students were allowed to wear a Ride - Nowhere t-shirt.

The more wacky types, you know the sort....the "Coming down the SU bar" at 7.00am in the morning sort? The "God i was so wasted last night....i thought i was dead" types. The more studenty, front of the gig, moshing, beer spitting, types...They were only allowed to wear Neds Atomic Dustbin - God Fodder t-shirts....but only once their hair touched their shoulders. Those whose hair was suitably long were given Wonderstuff t-shirts but only if they didn't know where Stourbridge was.

Anyone that had bought a red James long sleeved shirt that year, got to exchange it for a Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine t-shirt. These were also given away as prizes in the NUS "CUNT of The Year" awards as well as the "(We Know They're Shit But...) We Like Carter Because NME Said We Should & C'mon, They've Got "Fun" Names....I'm Going To Call My Daughter Fruitbat" awards.

Order was mostly* restored the following year when all students had to wear a Nirvana t-shirt. In fact, students not wearing a Nevermind t-shirt were denied entry to their final exams.

Small pockets of rebellion grew as a handful of students wore Manic Street Preachers t-shirts. Those involved were told to go home and return in 1998.

There were un-confirmed reports of students pleading with the authorities to let them wear t-shirts of Scotlands answer to The Mock Turtles....Teenage Fanclub. This was rejected unanimously once parliament saw the cover of Bandwagonesque.

Ain't No Use In Prayin', That's The Way It's Stayin' Bayayby.

Regards

Jimbob

NB I am not suggesting that any of the above weren't good bands*. Just poking fun at those that wore the t-shirts.

*Apart from Carter. They were piss.

** Just had an irate email from Piss, furious at being compared to Carter.