# Spandau Ballet's True **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365 "2010-06-15T23:07:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/1 "2010-06-15T23:07:45Z")
I’ll be learning this song to play with some people in a band. It’s a singer’s song, not much for the guitars, bass, and drums to do. I love the lyrics. > **[Spandau Ballet - True lyrics | LyricsFreak](https://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/spandau+ballet/true_20128500.html)** > > Read or print original True lyrics 2023 updated! So true funny how it seems / Always in time, but never in line for dreams. / Head over They hint without disclosing too much, they ache of drama and alienation. Does anybody here think they read like a suicide note? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/2 "2010-06-15T23:38:53Z")
I’ve always taken it to be about a biographer finding out something bad about his hero, and wrestling with the decision whether to put it in the book; _“Why do I find it hard to write the next line? Oh, I want the truth to be said … Take your seaside arms and write the next line”_ That’s just my take, what makes it such a great song is you can see it as a more traditional love song too. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/3 "2010-06-16T00:10:19Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Take your seaside arms and write the next line" Um…“Take your seats and I’ll write the next line…” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/4 "2010-06-16T00:16:11Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > Um…“Take your seats and I’ll write the next line…” You sure? Seems to be too many syllables sung for that, I swear I hear ‘seaside arms and write the next line’. [2:24](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e4WLdLNajs). Wouldn’t surprise me if I’ve heard it wrong all this time, though. Edit; SongFacts (so take that how you will) says it’s a line from Lolita. “A specific lyric that Kemp took from Lolita is “Take your seaside arms and write the next line.”” > **[True by Spandau Ballet - Songfacts](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/spandau-ballet/true)** > > True by Spandau Ballet song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/5 "2010-06-16T00:21:04Z")
Just going by the lyrics link in the OP and what I hear. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/6 "2010-06-16T00:26:10Z")
Ah, from the horses mouth: “Always slipping from my hands, Sand’s a time of it’s own. Take your seaside arms and write the next line, Oh, I want the truth to be known…” [http://www.spandauballet.com/discography/true-2/](http://www.spandauballet.com/discography/true-2/) Glad I wasn’t hearing it wrong all this time…would be Purple Haze all over again! ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/7 "2010-06-16T00:27:07Z")
Now that I’ve listened to it six times for the first time in years, it sounds like you might be right…though it makes less sense. It’s so nice to watch a video that actually lets you see the performer’s face for longer than a millisecond at a time! ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/8 "2010-06-16T00:29:13Z")
… ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/9 "2010-06-16T02:00:22Z")
Yep, sounds like a suicide note to me. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/10 "2010-06-16T02:23:20Z")
I don’t hear a suicide note. I hear a couple making sweet love to Marvin Gaye (all night long), and the man is having a hard time telling the woman he loves her. (Even though he knows it’s true-- he’s head over heels when toe-to-toe.) “I love you” is the line he’s having a hard time writing. My take anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/11 "2010-06-16T21:28:42Z")
“I bought a ticket to the world…and now I’ve comeback again”-what the hell is that about? Sounds like a drug-addled mind (“with a pill on my tongue”). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/12 "2010-06-16T22:23:49Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > “I bought a ticket to the world..and now I’ve comeback again”-what the hell is that about? > Sounds like a drug-addled mind (“with a pill on my tongue”). In my interpretation, he had gone out into the world to seek his fortune, but now he has come back to his hometown girlfriend. And he says he took the pill to calm his nerves. (_Dissolve the nerves that just begun_) I think he is trying to have a heart-to-heart with his girlfriend, but can’t get out the words “I love you.” (Or maybe “Will you marry me?”) He is finding it hard to write those “lines.” He is nervous. My take, anyway. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spandau-ballets-true/543365/13 "2010-06-16T22:26:01Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Or maybe “Will you marry me?” I never thought of it before, but “I want to marry you” does fit the rhythm of the “huh huh huh hu-uh huh” line.