This song is very deep for its time, and very intelligent. Rose McDowell revealed in 2015 that this song was written about nuclear war - interpretations about relationships and suicide are seemingly erroneous - and seeing as it was recorded in 1983, that makes perfect sense because nuclear annihilation was the western world's paramount fear during the Cold War, a fear which intensified around the early-mid 1980s with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, so this 3 minute poppy number is absolutely a backdrop to the political and societal climate of the time.
"And as we sit here alone, looking for a reason to go on" -- right out of the gates, sitting there "alone" implies that the narrator is of a small number of stray survivors following a destructive nuclear blast. I read that she is "looking for a reason to go on" because the explosion has laid waste to all she knew and loved, including those close to her, and she is trying to find a reason to carry on living.
"It's so clear that all we have now, are thoughts of yesterday" -- this is another line seemingly written from the POV of somebody who has survived a nuclear blast. The world as she knew it has been obliterated by a nuclear explosion, her family, friends, etc, as implied above have presumably perished and all she's left with is memories of past times.
This song is very deep for its time, and very intelligent. Rose McDowell revealed in 2015 that this song was written about nuclear war - interpretations about relationships and suicide are seemingly erroneous - and seeing as it was recorded in 1983, that makes perfect sense because nuclear annihilation was the western world's paramount fear during the Cold War, a fear which intensified around the early-mid 1980s with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, so this 3 minute poppy number is absolutely a backdrop to the political and societal climate of the time.
"And as we sit here alone, looking for a reason to go on" -- right out of the gates, sitting there "alone" implies that the narrator is of a small number of stray survivors following a destructive nuclear blast. I read that she is "looking for a reason to go on" because the explosion has laid waste to all she knew and loved, including those close to her, and she is trying to find a reason to carry on living.
"It's so clear that all we have now, are thoughts of yesterday" -- this is another line seemingly written from the POV of somebody who has survived a nuclear blast. The world as she knew it has been obliterated by a nuclear explosion, her family, friends, etc, as implied above have presumably perished and all she's left with is memories of past times.