In Spandau Ballet's "True" was writer's block when he sings "Why do I find it hard to write the next line"?

This is the one that puzzles me: With a thrill in my head an a pill on my tongue. I assume this was coming out of the Northern Soul tradition where apparently amphetamines were the drug of choice? It's too early to be ecstasy, I'm thinking...could be Sid Vicious?

But surely listening to Marvin all night long would more likely require a stimulant?

Regarding the original question: the implication is that he finds it hard to write the next line because he doesn't want to come up with any old line (why do I find it hard to write the next line when I want the truth to be said).

So true
Funny how it seems
Always in time, but never in line for dreams
Head over heels,when toe to toe
This is the sound of my soul
This is the sound
I bought a ticket to the world
But now I’ve come back again
Why do I find it hard to write the next line
When I want the truth to be said
I know this much is true
With a thrill in my head an a pill on my tongue
Dissolve the nerves that have just begun
Listening to marvin all night long
This is the sound of my soul
This is the sound
Always slipping from my hands
Sand’s a time of t’s own
Take your seaside arms and write the next line
Oh I want the truth to be known

I think the meaning of this couplet may be unpacked as follows: It's funny because it's 'True'.

Yeah, but fuck does that mean?

More likely a seaside soul weekender, eg Caister

"Gold" is really the masterpiece in this regard

the long version is my life's work and will not be finished even if I live to be a thousand

Funny how 'my godforesaken industrial hometown' seems, always in time [funky] but never in line for dreams [high unemployment].

Spandau Ballet is the sound of northern soul boys who got a scholarship to get out of their hometown, blew all their money on bling clothing, and could never fit in at home again, sitting at the kitchen table in their second-hand pearl-gray camelhair topcoats.

xpost

What, Islington?

xpost for sure it is "seaside arms"! I have the lyric sheet right here!

Yeah, but fuck does that mean?

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), January 1st, 2006.
this means queueing up "dreams" by fleetwood mac .lol
the strange thing is the album is called "rumours" but martin thought it was called dreams".lol

Regarding the original question: the implication is that he finds it hard to write the next line because he doesn't want to come up with any old line (why do I find it hard to write the next line when I want the truth to be said).

And then he ends up with "Aaaaaah Ah Ah Aaaaah Ah Ah" because he knows that much is true at least.

de doo doo doo de da da da

The most shimmery band ever!

He's singing about his feet: Head over heels, toe to toe, this is the sound of my sole. This describes a difficult and intricate yoga position in which you use both hands to press your feet against each of your ears. So it's hard to write the next line because his hands are wrapped around his ankles.

Because he's taking it up the arse from the record company?

Keeping head over heels isn't very difficult indeed. I mostly do when not asleep.

It's virtually inpossible if you live below the equator, Geir, where heels over head is the order of the day.

heard this song the other day and thought 'this is NAFF'

esp. the part where the singer kinda chokes up: i know this much is...TRUE

haven't used the term "naff" since about 1984 either

It's all about soulboys going down to Brighton.

GKemp got into a heated arg with a "Face" reporter about how doing the seaside run was some sort of "anti-establishment" action. (The Face guy thought this was bobbins)

8(((( to you mr coleman

OTOH i think "cut a long story short" & "chant #1" have aged pretty well, actually

Better MOR than "True":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J1APZ0y1J0

I think it must be very hard indeed to come up with a line like "slowly being eaten away" when the previous line was "these are my salad days", but it's evidently not hard enough.

But I shouldn't complain, that lyric is a joy forever

Spandau Ballet and Tears for Fears are touring Australia in a few months. At well over $200 a ticket, I should bloody well hope he can find it in him to write the next line. On ancient ricepaper, with an inkpot of HIS OWN BLOOD.

(no, I'm not bitter that I cant afford the gig. Not at all, not me...)

Speaking of bizarre Spandau lyrics, the one that always tickled me was "she used to be a diplomat/but now she's down the laundromat". I mean, really, Tony.

$200 is really a stupid amount for that show.

i mean, two years ago i could see air supply at the gulfstream racetrack for free.

and, i mean, AIR SUPPLY. come on.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/may/14/how-we-made-true-spandau-ballet

I wrote the song at my parents' house, where I was still living at the time. As a working-class boy, I wouldn't think of moving out till I got married. I was infatuated with Clare Grogan [the Altered Images singer and star of Gregory's Girl]. I met her on Top of the Pops and, at one point, travelled up to Scotland to have tea with her and her mum and dad. Although my feelings were unrequited and the relationship was platonic, it was enough to trigger a song, True, which became the name of our 1983 album, too.

True is about how difficult it is to be honest when you're trying to write a love song to someone. Hence: "Why do I find it hard to write the next line?" The lyrics are full of coded messages to Clare. I'm still berated for the line "Take your seaside arms" but it's straight out of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which she had given me as a present – although in the book, it's "seaside limbs". The line "With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue" is also a bastardisation of Nabokov. I don't want to embarrass Clare. I was 22 and she was 18. True was really a song about me and my idea of love.

Related posts:

Also talked to Clare G about Gary Kemp writing True about her, as he recently wrote in The Guardian. She used to joke about it being about her to her husband, but the fact that it was indeed "true" was only confirmed to her the other week!

Well, wellwellwell.

haha that's great

I don't mind the lines – I mind Tony Hadley oversinging them.

This is...amusing.

The bit that goes "Listening to Marvin all night long" was a reference to me and Steve Norman, the band's saxophonist. We were massive soul boys: we loved MTV, the Face magazine and all that glossy stuff, so this was us taking an anti-rock stance. The inky press loved blues and reggae because they were about suffering. They didn't like soul because it was aspirational, all about dancing, wearing great clothes and having sex. They saw it as vacuous. So namechecking Marvin Gaye was a defiant statement aligning us with the London soul boy culture stretching back to mod. And I'd loved Mott the Hoople singing about T Rex in All The Young Dudes so was pleased to reference another artist in a song.

This reminds me of my freind in HS. We used to sneak up on each other between classes and croon this song to each other in Elmer Fudd's voice.