The mood changes as the song goes on - it's quite clever really. The first two verses ("I want to break free", "I've fallen in love") are very strong, positive and defiant in the desire to get out of whatever it is (a relationship, I think) that's gone wrong. There's nothing he wants more than to break free ("I've got to break free").
The "It's strange, but it's true" bit always threw me, but I think it's sung to the person he's fallen in love. The doubts are setting in now: "But I have to be sure, when I walk out that door" - does he really want to break free? Does he love this person enough to leave whoever he's with at the moment? Can he break free?
By the last verse, he's done it - he's left her/it/whatever. And now he's done it, he realises how much he needed her/it - "I can't get used to living without you/I don't want to live alone". The person he's left has such a hold on him that, although he knows he's got to complete the break, he can barely bring himself to do it.
And the last line, "So baby can't you see, I've got break free", re-enforces that: he hasn't broken free yet, not really. She's still got that hold on him so that he's truly not free.
Like I say, it's a bit more ambiguous than the title might suggest and it's a cracker of a song.
The mood changes as the song goes on - it's quite clever really. The first two verses ("I want to break free", "I've fallen in love") are very strong, positive and defiant in the desire to get out of whatever it is (a relationship, I think) that's gone wrong. There's nothing he wants more than to break free ("I've got to break free").
The "It's strange, but it's true" bit always threw me, but I think it's sung to the person he's fallen in love. The doubts are setting in now: "But I have to be sure, when I walk out that door" - does he really want to break free? Does he love this person enough to leave whoever he's with at the moment? Can he break free?
By the last verse, he's done it - he's left her/it/whatever. And now he's done it, he realises how much he needed her/it - "I can't get used to living without you/I don't want to live alone". The person he's left has such a hold on him that, although he knows he's got to complete the break, he can barely bring himself to do it.
And the last line, "So baby can't you see, I've got break free", re-enforces that: he hasn't broken free yet, not really. She's still got that hold on him so that he's truly not free.
Like I say, it's a bit more ambiguous than the title might suggest and it's a cracker of a song.