Spandau Ballet’s Through the Barricades

Somehow I don’t know why I’m reminded of this song today. I’ve always like the song since I first heard it as a small kid. This was the age of the New Romantics, but this song is not typical of that age.

Through the Barricades

Mother doesn’t know where love has gone
She says it must be youth that keeps us feeling strong
I see it in her face that’s turned to ice
And when she smiles she shows the lines of sacrifice
And now I know what they’re saying as our sun begins to fade
And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades

It’s a song about growing up in poverty, something I (and many people out there) could relate to. From the opening acoustic chords, it just brings me back to another place…

Father made my history
He thought for what he thought would set us somehow free
They taught me what to say in school
I learned it off my heart but now that’s torn in two
And now I know what they’re saying in the music of the parade
And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades

My dad of quite cool in the face of hardship. He never once flinched, I guess I take after him in that sense…

Born on different sides of life
We feel the same and feel all of this strife
So come to me when I’m asleep
We’ll cross the lines and dance upon the streets
And now I know what they’re saying as the drums begin to fade
And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades

As I grew older I realized the song was also about falling in love with someone very different from you, someone from a different life.

Oh turn around and I’ll be there
There’s a scar right through my heart but I’ll bear it again
Oh I thought we were the human race
But we were just another borderline case
And the stars reach down and tell us there’s always one escape
I don’t know where love has gone
And in this troubled land desperation keeps us strong
Fridays child is full of soul
With nothing left to lose there’s everything to go
And now I know what they’re saying it’s a terrible beat we made
And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades

But perhaps why the song speaks so much to me at that time was the bit about broken love…

And now I know what they’re saying as our hearts go to their graves
And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades

Through the barricades, indeed…

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