‘Hold Me Now’ is a song by British band the Thompson Twins. It was written as the first single from their fourth studio album, Into the Gap which was released in 1983. The song was written by the English singer, songwriter, composer, musician, record producer and lead vocalist Tom Bailey and the New Zealand musician Alannah Currie, along with the multi-instrumentalist, stylings guru Joe Leeway who provided the falsetto backing vocals. The song was produced by Alex Sadkin and Tom Bailey, and it peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart and it went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band’s highest charting single in the US, and it was certified gold. The song is a mid-tempo new wave song that uses a varied instrumentation, including keyboards, a xylophone, a piano and Latin percussion.
Bailey and Currie were on-again, off-again couple and like all couples they went through different stages. Certain things can tear a couple apart and others stuff can bond them together. They got married in 1991 and they had two children together. This wrote song was written after a heated argument that they had resolved. They decided that this was an interesting emotional subject, discussing what it feels like to get back together again after a separation and this song contains the kind of ideas that come up and the way that emotions and physical attraction are brought together. Inevitably problems come up, stress rises and arguments happen, so nothing ever stays perfect forever. For some lucky people love is eternal, but for others life wins out over love.
This song has a permanence about it because it was triggered by a real relationship. This song is full of memories of when this couple was in a happy relationship and it discusses simple things like a picture hanging on a wall that will generate these thoughts again. In the song, the singer Bailey makes a desperate plea, although he’s not even sure what caused the damage or what he is trying to apologize for. He seems eager to work through their problems and move on, asking Currie to hold him, stay with him and love him again. When someone really needs to be comforted, they ask for a hug or to be held and there is nothing like the warmth and safety of being held in comforting arms to make a person feel better. Holding on to someone that you care about can help them feel closer to you, it can make the pain disappear and let the love begin again.
Well, I have a picture
Pinned to my wall
An image of you and of me and we’re laughing
And loving it all
Look at our life now
It’s tattered and torn
We fuss and we fight and delight in the tears
We cry until dawn
Oh, hold me now
Oh, whoa, warm my heart
Stay with me
Let loving start, let loving start
You say I’m a dreamer
We’re two of a kind
Both of us searching for some perfect world we know
We’ll never find
So perhaps I should leave here
Yeah, yeah, go far away
You know that there’s nowhere that I’d rather be than
With you here today
Hold me now
Oh, oh, warm my heart
Stay with me
Let loving start, let loving start
Oh hold me now
Oh, oh, warm my heart
Stay with me
Let loving start, let loving start
Oh
You ask if I love you
What can I say?
You know that I do and if this is just one of those
Games that we play
So I’ll sing you a new song
Please don’t cry anymore
I’ll ask your forgiveness though I don’t know
Just what I’m asking it for
Hold me now (hold me in your loving arms)
Oh, whoa, warm my heart (warm my cold and tired heart)
Stay with me (ooh, stay with me)
Let loving start, let loving start
Hold me now (hold me in your loving arms)
Oh, whoa, warm my heart (warm my cold and tired heart)
Stay with me (ooh, stay with me)
Let loving start, let loving start
Hold me now (hold me in your loving arms)
Oh, oh, warm my heart (warm my cold and tired heart)
Stay with me (ooh, stay with me)
Let loving start, let loving start
Hold me now (hold me in your loving arms)
Oh, oh, warm my heart (warm my cold and tired heart)
Stay with me (ooh, stay with me)
Let loving start, let loving start
The challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for a short story, a piece of flash fiction, or a poem that you can share with the WordPress writing community. There is no need to stick with this song, as if you like to write about another Thompson Twins song, or a song done by Duncan Sheik, or another song by a New Wave group, or one that was played by a Mainstream Pop group, then go with that. You might also go with a song that is about a couple getting back together. Maybe you could write a post about a song about someone that makes you feel good when you see them. If you would like to write about holding someone in your arms, that would also work.
The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate. This challenge is very loose, so pretty much whatever you come up with will be acceptable. I try to throw some ideas out there for you and if they seem right, then go with it. You could write about a different song that features a xylophone, or you could write a song that has something to do with a picture.
Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie brings you a dose of fetish, good friends and an incomparable muse and Dylan Hughes will be here next Friday on December 4 with her First Line Friday and she will provide the first line for your post and then you get to write whatever comes afterward, with the length, genre, and structure being completely left up to you. I will be back on Friday, December 11 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘Delta Dawn’. When you are finished writing your post, create a ping back to this post, but you can also place your link in the comments section below if you desire. This Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Music Challenge has a special feature called Mr. Linky, which will allow you to instantly link your post after you click the Mr. Linky Button, and permit everyone to read your post sooner that way, and then follow the directions that are given.
I remember when this came out as I was living in Bath at the time. The relationship was on velcro but I had nowhere else to go, was committed to a mortgage and also felt a responsibility for two young children who weren’t mine. Promises of change were frequent, and things would be good for a while, then revert to how they were. Being held close was important until suddenly I couldn’t bear his touch at all.
Thanks for sharing your story Di and I am happy that things turned around for the better in your life.
I wouldn’t change it Jim.
Reblogged this on A Unique Title For Me and commented:
The Thompson Twins were named after the two detectives in the Belgian cartoonist Hergé’s comic strip The Adventures of Tintin. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011) was Steven Spielberg’s motion capture 3D film based on three Hergé albums: The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941), The Secret of the Unicorn (1943), and Red Rackham’s Treasure (1944). The group had seven members when they recorded their first album, but pared down to three for their second. In 1986, Joe Leeway left the group and Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie continued as a duo, releasing three more albums. ‘Hold Me Now’ may not be the right thing during this global pandemic, but it found its place on mainstream radio helping the Thompson Twins to make an impact with their music. I believe that there is a story inside of every song that is waiting for the right person to tell it, so stop by and listen to ‘Hold Me Now’, or better yet join in with your own contribution.
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