What does this song mean? I tried looking it up on Songmeanings.net and the only post somebody made just insulted the song.
So, I know that there are plenty of you who know what this song is about, please let me join your ranks 
thanks.
I always took it pretty much at face value - about a couple whose relationship was souring and one member was trying to recall good times past and inspire newfound meaning. However, since you asked, I had to go back and look at the lyrics. The following (copied from the rare lyrics website):
seems to belie my interpretation. Thinking about it more, coupled with my understanding that Erasure has (at least some) gay members, perhaps it’s a commentary on gay culture? Perhaps the popular recognition of AIDS? (Album published in 1988, which is about the right time.)
Of course, I have to disclaim that I’m making a WAG…
Andy Bell is indeed gay. Vince Clarke is the other half of Erasure. Not sure of the meaning for ‘Chains of Love’.
Are bears catholic? Does the pope go in the woods?
I’d go along with that. Though it’d be a mistake to read too much depth into a Erasure song. They did totally disposible pop.
Still do. New album out early next year to follow up on their 2003 covers album.
Although it could be argued that some of their songs (notably “The Circus”) are somewhat deeper than your average disposable pop song and were intended to be at least somewhat thought-provoking.
Great band, great song. I’ve always assumed the meaning as Digital Stimulus does.
When I first heard it, I thought that maybe they were singing about people in general, then, when I found out that they, or at least one of them, is/are gay, then maybe they’re singing about the gay community, but either way, what confuses me about the song has nothing to do with that.
In the song you hear them singing about how great things were, and then comes
the chorus
Come to me, cover me, hold me
Together we´ll break these chains of love
Don´t give up, don´t give up
Together with me and my baby
Break these chains of love
So, love is the problem? That doesn’t sound right…
I don’t think that love is the problem…it’s the chains. The guesses I’ve put forth are that the “chains” are either relationship stagnation or some result of AIDS.
Still, they seem like sketchy explanations to me…
How would you view ‘Piano Song’? A soulful ballad, or?
I’ll have to assume that’s an Erasure tune, but I’m not familiar with it. The Innocents is the only album of theirs I’ve listened to…
I remember listening to it when it came out. The way I interpreted it, it was about how AIDS had returned society back to an era where it was “okay” or acceptable to persecute gays - in other words, homosexuality was gaining in societal acceptance, then AIDS emerges and is cast as a “gay disease” (remember one of AIDS’ first names was GRID - “gay-related immunodeficiency”) and that scared the populace as a whole, which led old-style gay persecution. Awful.
I remember the lyrics:
Do you remember - there was a time
When people on the street
Could go hand to hand together, talk about the weather, making plans together
Comfort me cover me hold me- together we’d break these chains love…
etc…
My $.02
Not like they don’t know that the concept is hard to express…
“How can I explain when there are few words I can choose?
How can I explain when words get broken?”