I Need You

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"I Need You" was released as a single (as a remix by Alan Moulder) and is the seventh track on Paper Monsters.

Lyrics

Dave's Take

"The words are pretty cutting. It's all about relationships. It's all about life. It's all about my experience in life, what I have experienced so far."¹

My Take

This song has a very similar vibe to "Enjoy the Silence," sonically speaking. Like "Enjoy the Silence," it has an easygoing, yet danceable beat, and the synths are relaxed and cool-sounding. It even has the same mellow type of guitar strumming which is used to add atmosphere to the song more than to provide a lead melody. With all that said, though, this song has a more urban feel to it than "Enjoy the Silence" does. But anyway, on to the lyrics...the lyrics seem to speak about a very one-sided relationship that Dave has with someone. What's funny is that, like another song on this album, people have speculated that these words might be referring to Martin Gore, as their relationship was somewhat strained during this time. I have to say, while that's totally plausible, I'm not sure I really believe it to be true. He could be talking about anyone with whom he feels like the relationship is mostly one-sided. I also think he misses this person, though, as even though he takes shots at them like "you never did nothing for me" and "you live in the past," the words, "I need you" are repeated in isolation, as if, yes, despite you needing me more than I need you, I still need you...and would like you to be around, possibly.

As a postscript, I don't think "strained" is the right way to characterize Dave and Martin's relationship in the early 2000s, after all. It was more like they just were never very close friends, so it's not like they were overtly supporting each other's solo careers with enthusiasm or anything like that. While Paper Monsters was Dave's first outing as a solo artist, Martin had already done it once before with the Counterfeit e.p and was doing it again with Counterfeit². But they never openly bad-mouthed one another (as far as I'm aware). To sort of illustrate this, the two videos below are both from individual interviews with Dave and Martin in 2003, respectively (with the same interviewer, Adam Weissler from Extra), where, among many other things, they talk about each other's solo projects that were going on at the time.

Music Video

Dave is in an observatory and looking through a massive telescope into space. Stars can be seen in the telescope, and soon they start moving and forming a human-like shape, much to Dave's bewilderment. As he continues to peer into it, it indeed looks like the stars resemble a person dancing. Later, Dave is seen looking at video monitors with images from space. He then notices on one monitor is the image of the moving stars he saw earlier through the telescope. As he watches, the stars turn into a woman dancing. Dave gets up and we see him walking and looking around the observatory, riding on a moving platform, sitting in the telescope itself, and these scenes are alternating with the scenes of the "dancing star lady," as well.

My Take

This video was filmed at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles, CA. The telescope featured in the video is called the Hooker telescope, and its 100-inch diameter made it the largest aperture telescope in the world at the time it was completed until 1949.² Thus in a way, the video is almost like a promotional tool, showcasing the sheer size and wonder of the telescope and observatory, but it also provides an interesting backdrop for showcasing the song, as well. The way it's presented, it's as if Dave has come there looking for answers to big questions he has about the universe or something and expecting to find them there. I am honestly not sure what role the "dancing star lady" really serves, though. She seems to be almost distracting Dave from his primary purpose for being there, whatever that is, but she adds an interesting visual, nonetheless. Is she, perhaps, a personification of the carnal or earthly? And thus, she is why Dave is distracted from getting in touch with the spiritual or divine? I have to admit, that was a lot farther than I intended to go with that and has nothing to do with the lyrical content of the song, but oh well!

References

1. "An Interview with Dave Gahan", radio.wazee (February 20, 2003)
2. https://www.mtwilson.edu/about-mwo (retrieved January 13, 2021)