1989

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Track info

From the PIAS-press text:

On ‘1989’ dEUS sounds typically dramatic and full of ideas. All Linn drums, synths, and nods to yacht rock, the track sounds very, well, 1989. It also sees singer and leader Tom Barman channelling his inner Leonard Cohen; smoky, seductive, and just a little gruff. “I’ve never sung so low, so it was exciting to do,” he says.

Music
Tom Barman, Klaas Janzoons, Alan Gevaert, Stephane Misseghers
Words
Tom Barman
Credits
  • Vocals: Tom Barman, Lies Lorquet
  • Guitars: Tom Barman, Bruno De Groote, Sjoerd Bruil
  • Acoustic guitar: Tom Barman
  • Bass: Alan Gevaert, Tom Barman
  • Drums, percussion: Stephane Misseghers
  • Piano: Klaas Janzoons
  • Synths : Klaas Janzoons, Tom Barman

Back to the lyrics overview


Oh back in 1989
You must have been there at the time

To feel the weightlessness of old

Failing history in class, you could smile at that I guess
If you think it happened

Some still have a piece of wall, or aimed too high before the fall,
Others simply failed to show

Cause it was 1989
If it was any other time.
I’d know.

Touch my skin
Where you been
Say I’m in

It feels like it is just a simple halo

II

I know it should take a little less
To find a little rest
From the moon and from the tide

But back in 1989
I fought the battles that were mine
I think they happened

Cause I was first and I was last
to read too much into the past
Through ashes and through embers

Was it now in the snow or early spring
Did I break a thumb or another limb
I don’t remember

Touch my skin
Where you been
Say I’m in

It feels like it is just a simple halo

We’d go to where the sailors go, salute the unmoored

We’d be the ones who say goodbye, that’s what we’re here for

III

All the azaleas in their prime
an imaginary shrine
They are frozen in their bloom

Cause back in 1989
Is when I learned to look behind
Like nothing happened

You know it always comes too soon
Not even halfway to the moon
You burn excuses on your lips
Yeah it was such a marble time
The year of 1989

You know

The time that I can’t put behind
The time that I can’t leave behind

Let it spin
Lose or win
Next of kin