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Blue Monday
New Order Lyrics


Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴  Line by Line Meaning ↴

How does it feel
To treat me like you do?
When you've laid your hands upon me
And told me who you are?
Thought I was mistaken
I thought I heard your words
Tell me, how do I feel?
Tell me now, how do I feel?

Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They'll turn away no more
And I still find it so hard
To say what I need to say
But I'm quite sure that you'll tell me
Just how I should feel today

I see a ship in the harbour
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn't for your misfortune
I'd be a heavenly person today
And I thought I was mistaken
And I thought I heard you speak
Tell me, how do I feel?
Tell me now, how should I feel?

Now I stand here waiting

I thought I told you to leave me
While I walked down to the beach
Tell me, how does it feel
When your heart grows cold?

Overall Meaning

New Order's Blue Monday is a song that is open to interpretation depending on the listener's perspective, but it appears to speak about a power play in a relationship. The song begins with the singer questioning the way they're being treated and asking the other person to confirm whether their actions align with their words. The next verse talks about how the singer struggles to communicate their thoughts and feelings. They're hoping the other person will acknowledge their feelings and guide them on how to feel.


In the third verse, the singer sees a ship in the harbor and says they'll obey it, possibly referring to fate or a call to action. They acknowledge that they could be a better version of themselves if not for the other person's misfortune. The last verse is more confrontational - the singer tells the other person that they thought they had asked them to leave and walks away, leaving them to deal with their own cold heart.


The song is full of emotional turmoil and conflict, which is reflected in its unique sound. The use of electronic instruments, specifically the Roland TR-808 drum machine, creates a futuristic, almost dystopian feeling that perfectly captures the mood of the song. The song was released in 1983 and became a dancefloor hit. Its popularity was due in part to its innovative sound, which made it stand out from the other music of the time.


Line by Line Meaning

How does it feel
Asking the listener how it feels to treat the singer in a negative way


To treat me like you do?
Questioning the way the singer is being treated


When you've laid your hands upon me
Referring to physical contact from the person who is mistreating the singer


And told me who you are?
Asking the person who is mistreating the artist to reveal their true identity


Thought I was mistaken
Feeling unsure about what is happening


I thought I heard your words
Believing that the person who is mistreating the singer is saying certain things


Tell me, how do I feel?
Asking the listener how the singer should feel in this situation


Tell me now, how do I feel?
Repeating the previous question for emphasis


Those who came before me
Referring to people who lived their lives before the artist


Lived through their vocations
They were identified by their work


From the past until completion
Throughout their lives


They'll turn away no more
Acknowledging the struggles of people who were mistreated because of their work


And I still find it so hard
Admitting that the singer is struggling to communicate something important


To say what I need to say
Having difficulty expressing what needs to be communicated


But I'm quite sure that you'll tell me
Expecting to be told what to say by the person who is mistreating the singer


Just how I should feel today
Expecting to be told how to feel as well


I see a ship in the harbour
Observing a ship in the distance


I can and shall obey
Willing to follow orders


But if it wasn't for your misfortune
Suggesting that the singer is only following orders because of the other person's problem


I'd be a heavenly person today
Implies that the mistreatment has caused the artist to feel less than their best self


And I thought I was mistaken
Continuing to feel unsure about the situation


And I thought I heard you speak
Believing to have heard something that the other person did not say


Tell me, how do I feel?
Repeating the previous question


Tell me now, how should I feel?
Asking the other person how the artist should feel instead of the previous request for how the artist actually feels


Now I stand here waiting
Being forced to wait for something to happen


I thought I told you to leave me
Asking the other person why they are still present when the singer asked them to leave


While I walked down to the beach
The singer is recalling a previous request to be left alone


Tell me, how does it feel
Turning the question back onto the person who is mistreating the artist


When your heart grows cold?
Asking the person who is mistreating the artist how they feel about their actions




Lyrics © Kanjian Music, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Gillian Lesley Gilbert, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Paul David Morris

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@UrosBjedov

0:00-0:16 - Kick
0:16-0:30 - Kick & Synth
0:30-0:59 - Drums, Synth & Synth Bass
0:59-1:03 - Hi-hats
1:03-1:18 - Drums & Synth Bass
1:18-1:33 - Drums, Synth Bass & Bass Guitar
1:33-1:36 - Drum fill
1:36-2:09 - Drums, Synth Bass, Choir & Strings
2:09-3:07 - Vocals, Synth Bass, Synth, Drums, Bass Guitar
3:07-3:21 - Drums, Synth Bass, Synth, Trumpet
3:21-3:34 - Drums, Sampling
3:34-4:02 - Vocals, Bass Guitar, Synth, Synth Bass
4:02-4:17 - Bass Guitar, Synth, Synth Bass, Drums
4:17-4:32 - Vocals, Synth Bass, Synth, Drums
4:32-4:47 - Drums, Bass Guitar, Synth, Synth Bass
4:52-5:24 - Drums, Synth Bass, Synth, Trumpet, Slapping
5:24-5:46 - Drums, Kick, Drum fills
5:46-6:08 - Drums, Synth Bass, Choir
6:08-6:22 - Drums, Synth Bass, Bass Guitar, Choir
6:24-7:30 - Drums, Synth, Strings, Synth Bass, Bass Guitar



@Xenwarrior5

So you know, this video is based off of how the original single was sold.

It was sold in a sleeve designed to look like a floppy disc, with the band and song's name printed on one edge with a colored block code. Due to the way the paper sleeves had to be made, how many colors were in the code, and the total lack of faith in this song selling any copies, it was actually sold for less than it cost to print. So, of course, it got so popular that it nearly bankrupted the printing company.

EDIT: In case you were wondering if the code is exactly the same in this video as it is on the album, the answer is YES. The code was used by the artist Peter Saville, who used it on four albums:

Power, Corruption and Lies; by New Order: FACT75 (also comes with decoder ring seen on this video's opening shot)
Blue Monday; by New Order: FAC 73 BLUE MONDAY AND THE BEACH NEW ORDER
Confusion; by New Order: FAC 93

It was also used on the cover of From the Hip by Section 25, unfortunately, the only picture I can find of the cover is so blurry I can't actually make out the code.

Also worth mentioning; they initially wrote this song because the band never did encores (which might explain the lyrics), and they wanted a song that they could just push a button on the synth machine and leave the audience to it. But they started having too much fun getting this weird, experimental (for the time) song to work, so they packaged it as a single, and have since become known to play this song as an encore.



@sephalon1

1:37: Based on the letter codes in the rest of the video, the text on the side of the floppy reads "FAC? BLUE MONDAY AND". The question mark is the fourth character from the top, which doesn't appear anywhere in the song. It should be noted that between the first space and the letter "B" there appears to be a letter that is black on the left and gray on the right, but that isn't a letter at all. It is the orientation notch of the floppy disk itself. So no letter was placed there at all.

Throughout the song, all letters are represented except X and Z. When putting the codes next to the letters in order, a very obvious pattern emerges. The letters are encoded in base 10. A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on. The colors are:

0=White
1=Green
2=Yellow
3=Pink
4=Orange
5=Cyan
6=Pink
7=Navy Blue
8=Magenta
9=Blue

For the first nine letters (A through I), they are simply solid blocks with their number's color. All subsequent letters are two rectangles, the left being the tens digit and the right being the ones digit. Example: U is the 21st letter of the alphabet, so its icon is Yellow on the left, green on the right.

From this pattern we can deduce that, although never shown, the letter X (24th letter of the alphabet) would be yellow on the left, orange on the right. And Z (26th letter) would be yellow on the left and pink on the right.

The mystery character is Navy Blue on the left and purple on the right, which would correspond to letter number 73 - far outside the range of possible letters. So this is either a mistake or a simple artistic choice. While the center portion of the message "BLUE MONDAY" makes perfect sense, the words before and after, "FAC?" and "AND" don't seem to make sense, even though the latter is a word.

A final note: There is a typo in the video. At 3:06 in the line "Just how I should feel today", the "T" in "just" is represented by a solid green square (which is "A"). In all other cases, T is correctly represented as Yellow on the left, White on the right.

And finally, the codes at the very beginning of the video read, unsurprisingly, "NEW ORDER BLUE MONDAY"

I have a lot of free time.

UPDATE: The record label that produced "Blue Monday" was named "Factory 73". This explains the "FAC" followed by the 73 character. The "AND" at the end is explained because the full name of the single was "BLUE MONDAY AND THE BEACH". Because it was released as a 45rpm record and the B-side was the New Order song "The Beach".



@simonzabell9770

@@chonkz5858
Goose bumps, goosebumps or goose-pimples[1] are the bumps on a person's skin at the base of body hairs which may involuntarily develop when a person is tickled, cold or experiencing strong emotions such as fear, euphoria or sexual arousal.[2]

Goosebumps
Other names
Goose-pimples, goose-skin, goose-flesh, cutis anserina, horripilation, horripilatio

The formation of goose bumps in humans under stress is considered to be a vestigial reflex.[3] Its function in other apes is to raise the body's hair, and would have made human ancestors appear larger to scare off predators or to increase the amount of air trapped in the fur to make it more insulating. The reflex of producing goose bumps is known as piloerection or the pilomotor reflex, or, more traditionally,[4] horripilation. It occurs in many mammals; a prominent example is porcupines, which raise their quills when threatened, or sea otters when they encounter sharks or other predators.
Wikipedia

Hope that helps :-)



All comments from YouTube:

@UrosBjedov

0:00-0:16 - Kick
0:16-0:30 - Kick & Synth
0:30-0:59 - Drums, Synth & Synth Bass
0:59-1:03 - Hi-hats
1:03-1:18 - Drums & Synth Bass
1:18-1:33 - Drums, Synth Bass & Bass Guitar
1:33-1:36 - Drum fill
1:36-2:09 - Drums, Synth Bass, Choir & Strings
2:09-3:07 - Vocals, Synth Bass, Synth, Drums, Bass Guitar
3:07-3:21 - Drums, Synth Bass, Synth, Trumpet
3:21-3:34 - Drums, Sampling
3:34-4:02 - Vocals, Bass Guitar, Synth, Synth Bass
4:02-4:17 - Bass Guitar, Synth, Synth Bass, Drums
4:17-4:32 - Vocals, Synth Bass, Synth, Drums
4:32-4:47 - Drums, Bass Guitar, Synth, Synth Bass
4:52-5:24 - Drums, Synth Bass, Synth, Trumpet, Slapping
5:24-5:46 - Drums, Kick, Drum fills
5:46-6:08 - Drums, Synth Bass, Choir
6:08-6:22 - Drums, Synth Bass, Bass Guitar, Choir
6:24-7:30 - Drums, Synth, Strings, Synth Bass, Bass Guitar

@phantom1715

Ok

@brunocriar

👏👏👏👏👏

@marklee1376

Thanks for this👏👏👏👍

@benjaminriveramorales5205

god has abandoned us

@p8ntballrDemon6667

@@phantom1715 This is useful even if it isn't to you. If one wanted to sample this is a good guide where to find the bit you wanted very easily for example.

118 More Replies...

@charlessomerset9754

As a club dj in the eighties, my fondest memory was the moment I could drop this masterpiece into my set. People would freak the fuck out, nearly tearing their clothes in an effort to get to the dance floor. I have never before and rarely since seen dancers experiencing such moments of total kinetic bliss. The word "floorgasm" was coined just to describe that scene. One of the highpoints of my 25+ years working as a DJ.

P.s. It's a year since I wrote this. Just wanted to thank all those who have shared their experiences and memories of this legendary track. The stories that you've told me are as varied as they are amazing. In clubs, on the radio, in the car. It still amazes me to this day that one track could change so many lives and fill people with such joy. So thanks again.

@FloodlightGamingReal

Did djs use aliases back then or is that a more recent thing, and if you did what was yours I'm legit curious

@charlessomerset9754

@@FloodlightGamingReal Not really. That was before the whole superstar dj Keoki sort of thing. People appreciated what I did, but few really cared what my name was. I just used my last name, which was Summers. A few clubs, a lot of private house parties, and a ton of Sci fi and fantasy conventions. Thanks for asking. I have some great memories. A little hazy, to be sure. It was a crazy sexy decade. Lots of blow, the introduction of E, and every person under 30 partying like we weren't going to survive the millennium. But I wouldn't change anything.

@jesescareno4498

Best comment of 2021! Got my laughing in my seat.

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