Saw Something

"Saw Something" was released as a double A-side single along with "Deeper and Deeper" and is the first track on Hourglass.

Lyrics

Dave's Take

According to Dave in the video below, he originally wanted to record this song for Depeche Mode. This video (of which there are two parts on YouTube) was originally on the DVD included in the Special Edition release of Hourglass.

My Take

This is up there among Dave's best songs ever, period. This song has the perfect mix of acoustic and electronic instruments, including synths, and the overall music seems to paint a powerful and majestic image, like that of a storm rolling through or big ocean waves. There is also a phenomenal electric guitar solo in the bridge played by none other than John Frusciante, guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers. And Dave's vocals are sublime. Amidst the perfect storm of music, he sounds extremely passionate, but with the right amount of restraint to convey a soft sort of passion. And I think he's harmonizing with himself in the bridge, in the part with "you and I we've come so far...", singing different octaves but the same notes, something that he and Martin Gore are best known for doing together with their voices in Depeche Mode. The lyrics are somewhat hard to decipher, but they are very poetic. I'm fairly certain that the "storm" passing is not a literal storm but perhaps referring to rough times on a personal level- maybe an interpersonal rift or argument, which I'm deriving from the lyrics in the bridge where he talks about wanting them back as they were his friend in the past-tense. And it sounds like it was somebody he admired very much because they possessed a quality about them (i.e., he saw something in them) that he wanted. That's all I can really get from it, but this is one of those songs where the exact meaning does not really matter- it's the poetry of the words and the emotion felt in the music that grabs me the most and holds me fast. And the overall experience is nothing short of absolutely mesmerizing.

Music Video

The entire video moves in slow motion and jumps among various short scenes, each featuring a different person doing something in what appears to be the same hotel. Of note is that none of the people featured are smiling or seem happy. One seemingly distraught young woman is seen running down the hall and getting into an elevator. A man is seen standing in a doorway. An old woman is standing in an elevator. There is also a short scene showing a drinking glass knocked over on a table and the liquid spilling all over it. Dave is also featured, as he is seen awaking in his bed, getting up, and getting ready to go out. He leaves the hotel as the desk clerk watches and goes outside onto the densely populated streets, pretty much getting lost in the crowd. The final scene shows Dave looking out the window of his hotel room.

My Take

Don't ask me what this video means because I honestly couldn't tell you. But I could tell you how it makes me feel. It reminds me of the first time I traveled alone to a different state. I had no family or friends to talk to or pass the time with on the airplane or in the hotel, so one effect of that solitude was that it made me more observant of every little thing around me- all of the different strangers that I saw around the hotel, the colors of the lights, the way the room smelled, etc. It made me notice minor details around me that I never would have paid attention to if I were there with someone. So every time I travel now, whether I'm alone with others, I try to take a moment and force myself to do that- to quietly observe and take in everything around me, even if it's just a short moment. I feel like it's good to do that every once in a while even when not traveling and just being in familiar surroundings. It offers a kind of "reboot" of the senses. What a strange takeaway from a music video, but it is what it is!

Another interesting note is that the video was filmed in the historic Hotel Chelsea in New York, a place known to have housed famous musicians like Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, and many others. It is also notorious for several mysterious deaths occurring there, including the murder of Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist, Sid Vicious, in 1978.¹. It was also recently discovered by Instagram user ChelseaHotelNYC that the video was actually filmed in the very hotel room where Nancy was murdered. Whether this was known to Dave at the time or not is unclear, but it does give a whole new dimension to the already-haunting video, doesn't it?

References

1. Built to Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York, p. 101 (2011)