Use You

Single?
No


"Use You" is the sixth track on Hourglass.

Lyrics

It's killing me to be in this room
I've gotta get out, I've gotta get out soon
I'm hurting you with everything I do
It's too long, too long in this place
We're counting down only seconds now
I've gotta hang on, hang on to you
I'm tearing at my cuticles
Too long, too long in this place
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use you
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use you
I'm hurting you with everything I do
I've gotta get out, I've gotta get out soon
It's killing me to be in this room
I don't belong, belong in this place
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use you
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use you
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use you
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use you
We have each other, you are my brother
Sitting here beside of you I just wanna use you
Use you, I just wanna use you
Use you, I just wanna use you


Dave's Take

"['Use You'] is in the same camp as 'Deeper and Deeper.' I don't have the luxury of...to get ideas as a writer from the time...after the hangover...the drug-induced ideas. I certainly can draw on past experience but I have to try and sit and think about what it is I'm using now to avoid being me, or to avoid being honest about the way I feel, and quite often that's people...in a good way and in a bad way."1



My Take

Rhythmically and sonically, this song has many similarities to Depeche Mode's "I Feel You." And the bass-only intro is just sweet, laying out the groundwork for the sleazy rhythm that the drums later punctuate so hard that it resembles the sound of being punched or slapped. As if feeling like being assaulted by the music wasn't enough, Dave comes in with his pugnacious vocals to tell you that he just wants to "use you." Is it not enough to be seen stripped down to the bone, Dave? Or take the pain you give to me, Dave? Or stand on a desolate hillside while you get all up in my face with bald Martin Gore nearby, ready to give me a guitar lesson, Dave? Now, I have to be trapped in a room with you while you're scratching at your own fingernails and staring hungrily at me like I'm a giant bag of dope? Well, I suppose there are plenty of worse positions to be in in this world. Anyway, I'm just trying to imagine the other party in this situation and also understand what it would be like to be so consumed with such a hunger (which by the way, is very reminiscent of the "vicious appetite" described in Depeche Mode's "Barrel of a Gun") that you'd literally want to do unmentionable things to the person next to you. But that appetite and subsequent inner struggle is exactly what this song is trying to convey and I think it does quite a great job.

P.S. Wow, Dave doesn't have a whole lot to say about this song and he almost seemed at a loss for words at times. By the way, transcribing Dave's audio speech is one of the hardest things I've ever done...he has a very stream-of-consciousness style of speaking so I have to remove a lot of "fluff" (e.g., he says "you know" a lot and often goes off on incomplete tangents), or rearrange things ever so slightly in order to succinctly summarize what appears to be a complete thought. But anyway, I get the sense that he didn't seem to want to delve too deeply into the meaning and origins of this song, for some reason, which is completely understandable and quite revealing in itself.



Music Video

There is no music video for this song.



References

  1. "Dave Gahan Hourglass Interview + Radio IDs", EMI Music, Greece (September 13, 2007)