Album: Power, Corruption And Lies (1983)

Charted: 3 68

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• 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? Writer/s: Bernard Sumner, Gillian Lesley Gilbert, Peter Hook, Stephen Paul David Morris
  Publisher: Kanjian Music, Royalty Network, Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 25

• Pj Dublin from IrelandCan any song beat this in a 80's nightclub ..the base and riff pumping through your head pure class ,I feel lucky to have grown up with this music...o m d .. d/mode .visage...the list goes on......
• Josh Souvannakasy from Tumwater I like orgy cover version
• Jp from Illinois I've been narcissistically abused trauma bonded in a 10-year relationship with my wife and I'm telling you this song sounds like he is referring to a narcissistic partner in a toxic relationship
• Chris from Germany one of the greatest Songs of all time. And this song comes all the years back like in shape of a commercial of MARS CANDY BARS etc.
  
  I like this song so much and of course it is based on KRAFTWERKs URAN and many other songs.
• Bunhyung from Poland, MeI gotta agree with Peter Hook, Thieves like us is a much better song, IMHO.
• Scott from Baton Rouge, LaThis is definitely one of New Order's more popular songs,but not their absolute best in my opinion. By the way,does anyone here know any song facts about "Ceremony",one of my fav New Order songs?
• Daniel from Rio De Janeiro, BrazilAnother theory: "blue monday" as in a depressed mood after a weekend of taking drugs at wild parties in Manchester?
  I know *I* use this expression somewhat often :) sometimes it gets to be Blue Tuesday too, depending on how wild the weekend was.
• Alfred from Jersey City, NjFrom Wikipedia: Their name is taken from the WWII historical novel ?The House of Dolls,? wherin author Yehiel De-Nur described "Joy Divisions"--separate units within concentration camps where Jewish women were housed for sexual slavery.
• Blake from Placentia, CaGreat band. 24 hour party people, the movie about them and a few other bands, is my favorite movie now.
• Devin from Chicago, IlDoes anyone know what Peter is saying at the beginning of the song? It is a low, synthesized, almost evil voice saying something and ending with a laugh as the song's bass line begins. This was the first New Order song I heard in high school in the 80's, since I have collected every bit of music New Order has delivered. They are truly phenomenal artists.
• Matt from Pinetown, South AfricaProbably the best song ever, that only contains 4 keyboard notes.
• Matt from Pinetown, South AfricaNew Order were inspired by Kraftwerk. Later, Kraftwerk's ex-member Karl Bartos released an album called Communication. The release from there, "15 Minutes Of Fame" is EXTREMELY similar. How ironic!
• Martin from Groningen, NetherlandsRolling Stone 15/9/83
  Interview by Debby Miller
  
  New Order: life after death
  
  May 19th, 1980, was no ordinary Monday for the members of Joy Division. Bags were packed and goodbyes had been said. They were ready to leave
  for America, on their first rock & roll tour abroad. They had finished a new single, its title etched across a gravestone on the sleeve: LOVE WILL TEAR US APART.
  But Joy Division - such a weird name for a group known for gloomy music and the forlorn voice of its singer - never left England that blue Monday.
  
  There was something about the promise of the trip that made lead singer Ian Curtis put a noose around his neck and hang himself the evening before. More goodbyes.
• Kira from Edmonton, CanadaOrgy did a pretty good remake of this song, making it faster and more modern. The song title is unusual since it is not mentioned in the song lyrics at all.
• T. Michels from Venlo, NetherlandsGreat song! Surely the 12" version! Great synths!
  To me, it's always been the discription of a blue monday from a boy (His girl has left him and he feels blue on monday) and so on het tells his feelings about how his girl treated him and so on.
  But now that I see it's a about the self-hanging of Ian Curtis, I'll listen to it a bit better.
  Question is then: Why would you make a very boppy song around such a sad subject? :S
• Nelson from Melbourne, AustraliaIn the same year, producer Bobby Orlando pinched the music from Blue Monday to create "Love Reaction" which was performed by Divine, Glenn Milstead who was a drag queen.
• Tom from Newark, DeThe song is indeed about Ian Curtis. This was written about discovering that he had killed himself - he hung himself Sunday night, the band found out the next day
• Elson from Los Angeles, CaThe original 12" single for the song was meant to look like a large floppy disk.
  
  I always though the "...shall obey" line was "shallow bay," especially after he mentions a "harbor" in the previous line. Nice play on words.
• John from Levittown, NyI agree with Gener, it seems to be in part about Ian Curtis. I always found it odd that Sumner did the little Curtis sounding part, but in context, I guess it makes sense.
• Clare from Hmilton, CanadaThis song was used in a 2005 Mars Bar advertisement
• Rock from Mke, Wi"The Beach" was a popular nightclub in Manchester at the time of this songs' writing.
• Anthony from Tokyo, JapanI always assumed this was describing a mans feelings as he ponders the death of another man he had just killed in war. 'I see a ship in the Harbour, I can & shall obey' is a reference to a warship which he is ordered to fire at. If he doesn't/didn't, he would be killed by that ship hence 'If it wasn't for your misfortune, I'd be a heavenly person today'. Yet this killing causes him to ask his conscience 'How should I feel?' as well as question what its like to die 'Tell me how does it feel, when your heart grows cold?' It could be the ghost of the man following him down the beach, 'I thought I told you to leave me', haunting him about the killing he just committed.
• Dee from Indianapolis, InI was introduced to New Order in the late 80's and bought everything they ever put out. They never got the credit they should for the music they produced. I know many a band was influnced by them, and there has been different incarnations of their music, but New Order will always be thought of as a one hit type wonder group for most, which is to bad.
• Gener from Las Vegas, NjI thought it also loosely dealt with Ian Curtis's suicide. Especially when he breaks into the Ian Curtis impersonation for a sec.
• Steve from Chino Hills, CaThe band Orgy had a hit with a cover of this song back in the 90's.

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