Depeche Mode: Never Let Me Down Again Meaning

Never Let Me Down Again Lyrics

Im taking a ride with my best friend
I hope he never lets me down again
He knows where he's taking me
Taking me where I want to be
Im taking a ride with my best friend

We're flying high, we're watching the world pass us by
Never want to...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 25th 2011 !⃝

   The song is about drug use/abuse. It's about abusing drugs and conversely how the drug is like a partner in a relationship who gets you high but is in control. The singer is acknowledging that he is too weak to gain control of the drug yet he wants to be there taking the drug and flying high with it anyway.
   
   Never want to 'come down'
   We're 'flying high'
   
   These are obvious drug references especially when you consider the acknowledgement of drugs being powerful enough to take control of your life in the 'as long as i remember who's wearing the trousers' line. 'promises me i'm safe as houses' is an allusion to an abusive partner who always promises safety and security no matter if it's true or not, which can be argued is exactly what a drug promises when one is craving it.
   
   I think one must apply a certain amount of irony to the lyrics of this song to truly understand it.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 10th 2008 !⃝

   This is about drug abuse. Taking a ride with your best friend is most likely about Heroin. Never let me down means literally that the user does not want to "come down" from the trip. Very straightforward lyrics:
   
   Promises me I'm as safe as houses
   As long as I remember who's wearing the trousers
   
   He has to remember that Heroin is in control of him, and not vice versa.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 28th 2007 !⃝

   Heroin. I used to think this song was literally about riding with your best friend who has recently betrayed your friendship. But now, especially considering Dave Gahan's ol' drug problem, I think taking a ride is using, never being let down is never coming down from the effects, who's wearing the trousers is the dangers of hard drug use, i.e. It can kill you easily, and, of course, the best friend is heroin.
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 6th 2024 !⃝

   I’ve always thought of this song as a reference to the ego, it’s always with me and my best friend!
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 5th 2021 !⃝

   This song is beautiful in that it can be interpreted in many ways. Perhaps the way that you see it, is different than someone else see's it. I see this song as spiritual. He's taking a ride with his best friend. What is man's best friend? Dog, and mirrored backwards is GOD or the creator. "He knows where he's taking me
   Taking me where I want to be" He's putting his faith in the creator and just going with the flow and enjoying the present moment. In that moment everything is perfect. He's not escaping with drugs, He's is being present and see the higher picture from a birds eye view.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 28th 2021 !⃝

   Addiction and its illusions, plain and simple. To say it’s heroin rather than alcohol because “alcohol is never seen as an ally” is to admit you understand *nothing* about addiction. Go to any AA meeting: Alcohol is *always* seen as an ally - until it turns on you, just like heroin or cocaine or any other addictive mood-altering substance. You surrender to the substance - you admit who’s “wearing the trousers” - but the threat of reality horribly finding you is always lurking whenever you use. This song is dark and terrifying, just like being inside the maelstrom of addiction.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 29th 2020 !⃝

   Makes me think of the close relationship I have with my HD Heritage Softail. We are partners in crime;)
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 31st 2020 !⃝

   The song is about CREATIVITY. Everybody who does something creative knows creativity is a gift and a curse. First you want to express yourself and do something out of ordinary. Then it starts being expected of you and you are expecting from yourself to keep doing it. AND doing it GOOD. Before you know it, you are dependent on your best freind- cretaive flow. If he lets you down you know depression will eat you alive. The trousers is a metaphor about being humble and remeber that you are not in control of your creative process.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 20th 2020 !⃝

   The song could be interpreted as him talking about his “best friend” as his Penis....and he likes to chase women (or guys) but he has had erectile dysfunction in the past and could not perform and is afraid of it happening again

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Apr 4th 2019 !⃝

    Interesting interpretations, but probably it is not about drug addictions, gay relations, or anything like that. The song has obvious religious overtones, just like almost any other song of Depeche Mode. I mean that more mundane and obvious things, such as drugs or homosexual relationships, could be a metaphor for more transcendental things in this particular case. And not vice versa. That is, when Martin says "religion" or "god", he means exactly that. But sometimes it is expressed metaphorically.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 22nd 2019 !⃝

    It's about a car and how he manages to stay alive driving under the influence. The video gives it away...
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 20th 2019 !⃝

    Martin is not gay
    Dave was not on smack when this was written
    But
    It is pretty obvious that it is about narcotics. Either smack or LSD
    To avoid a bad trip you have to remind yourself it’s just a trip - you are wearing the trousers.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 19th 2019 !⃝

    Its about Addiction, booze? drugs? could be either, which is why its so brilliant! all the homosexual references are bollox! Some guy wrote a whole article on how it was a definite homosexual reference, and I could not find one thing in his whole painfully boring article to support this! Its great music, whatever its about, take from it what u will!!
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 1st 2018 !⃝

    Dude is literally taking a ride with his best friend to a private place where they can have sex with each other. The friend is the dominant one, is probably bi, and is the one who makes the decision when he wants to have sex. If the friend feels he's not the one controlling the tempo (wearing the trousers)of the relationship he might get angry and decide to look elsewhere for a shag.
15. JamesDee

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 29th 2017 !⃝

    It's two fold. First is the drug. Second is the gay relationship.
16. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Apr 19th 2016 !⃝

    It's about booze, none of you are paying attention to the imagery, the video starts out by drinking BOOZE from the old coffee pot. The old man represents an old habit, DRINKING. Later in the video, the singer is 'rescued' from a ditch like he passed out there from a binge. When you are a drunk, the world passing you by is exactly what happens. Also, 'safe as houses' is the lowered inhibitions and courage brought about by being drunk, as apposed to a usually meek sober person. It could be about any drug, really, no addict likes coming down as referenced by "never want to come down", but my vote is booze because of the imagery used.
17. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Sep 16th 2015 !⃝

    Those of you who say it's about alcohol need to realize that booze is never thought of as a friend. its always despised when someone is aware of their addiction to it. But heroine is ALWAYS considered an ally. Always. Its seen as the answer to all and even when you are a junky you can still function and maintain at a certain level. the "ride" is not drunk lol its "being high"
    
    Doesn't matter who wrote it when the one who writes it knows who will be singing it. and Dave's heroine addiction certainly affected the band enough for the writer to have a point of view enough to write this song for Dave to sing.
18. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Dec 25th 2014 !⃝

    It's no secret that Dave has had problems with drugs, including heroin. Examination of the lyrics of this song lean more towards heroin addiction than other suggested explanations. "Taking a ride with my best friend" - heroin. "Never let me down" - heroin. "Safe as houses" - heroin, no problem, we got you. "As long as I remember who's wearing the trousers" - heroin, the one in control (wearing the trousers).
    
    Others have suggested homosexuality as an underlying tone. While it's no secret that Martin Gore and Vince (Vincent) Clark are gay, Dave is not. He has had two wives and at least as many kids. If you want music with homosexual undertones, listen to Pet Shop Boys or, more obviously, Erasure (Vince Clark & Andy Bell). Besides, you have to REALLY stretch it to make this song about homosexuality - and that connection just isn't there.

Latest Articles

• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)
• 
  Let’s Go to the Hop - Ignore That Door’s Four Bunnies and a Beatbox