Week Ten: Depeche Mode - "Lie to Me" - Some Great Reward

So I am writing this as I peacefully lounge on the balcony of my beachfront hotel, which just so happens to provide the perfect setting for what I am about to say in regards to this particular tune.  I realize that this song is supposed to be about an adulterous relationship.  However, for me, it has always kind of reinforced the idea that many people lie to themselves for various psychological reasons.

For instance, I watch some of these people on the beach with their spouses and children, and they look miserable - at the beach, of all places!!!  I wonder if their lives are what they really hoped for and were expecting or if they lied to themselves and convinced themselves that three bratty children and an overweight spouse was what would make their lives perfect.

I might have already mentioned this in an earlier post, but I will say it again because I always had a hunch about this from watching parents of newborns, especially those who had never previously had children.  A study determined that many parents, especially mothers, had to psychologically convince themselves that motherhood was truly what they desired and that they were happy and fulfilled, in order to prevent themselves from having severe psychological disorders from the disappointment that they felt when reality did not match fantasy.


So, for me, this little DM tune is about the "grass not always being greener", especially when you have to think that "at the end of the day, some great reward will be coming [your] way..."  It doesn't happen that way, people!!  When will we ever learn?!?!

Come on and lay with me
Come on and lie to me
Tell me you love me
Say I'm the only one

Experiences have a lasting impression
But words once spoken
Don't mean a lot now
Belief is the way
The way of the innocent
And when I say innocent
I should say naive
So lie to me
But do it with sincerity
Make me listen
Just for a minute
Make me think
There's some truth in it

Promises made for convenience
Aren't necessarily
What we need
Truth is a word
That's lost it's meaning
The truth has become
Merely half truth
So lie to me
Like they do it in a factory
Make me think
That at the end of the day
Some great reward
Will be coming my way.