This song takes me back to 30 years ago when it first came out. It's heartbreaking. The most emotionally direct song Kraftwerk has ever issued.
To me, it tells a story, a sad one.
I hear it as someone who at the beginning of the song is reaching out to another person who is close in one way, by the ability of technology (the telephone) to reach them, but not in another, more important way, emotionally.
He gives them his affection and time, and perhaps he feels they do not give as much of theirs in return.
Throughout the song, we hear the "voice of reality" which keeps telling him "we're sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected." A part of him knows that no matter how hard he tries, the other person has withdrawn.
By the last verse, he's given up, and no longer calls them up "all night and day" and is no longer trying to "get a connection," but is rather calling them up "from time to time" merely to hear their voice.
Finally, at the end of the song, the listener hears "we're sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected" standing alone. The narrator has finally accepted the reality that the other person is beyond his grasp.
At that time of my life I was very unsatisfied in my love life, pursuing unavailable partners, and this song resonated.
This song takes me back to 30 years ago when it first came out. It's heartbreaking. The most emotionally direct song Kraftwerk has ever issued.
To me, it tells a story, a sad one.
I hear it as someone who at the beginning of the song is reaching out to another person who is close in one way, by the ability of technology (the telephone) to reach them, but not in another, more important way, emotionally.
He gives them his affection and time, and perhaps he feels they do not give as much of theirs in return.
Throughout the song, we hear the "voice of reality" which keeps telling him "we're sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected." A part of him knows that no matter how hard he tries, the other person has withdrawn.
By the last verse, he's given up, and no longer calls them up "all night and day" and is no longer trying to "get a connection," but is rather calling them up "from time to time" merely to hear their voice.
Finally, at the end of the song, the listener hears "we're sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected" standing alone. The narrator has finally accepted the reality that the other person is beyond his grasp.
At that time of my life I was very unsatisfied in my love life, pursuing unavailable partners, and this song resonated.