Pink Floyd Lyrics, Themes & Meanings: Don't Leave Me Now (Wall album)

Don't Leave Me Now 4:08
(written by Roger Waters)

Lyrics:
Oh, babe, don't leave me now
Don't say it's the end of the road
Remember the flowers I sent
I need you, babe
To put through the shredder in front of my friends
Oh, babe, don't leave me now
How could you go?
When you know how I need you (echoed)
To beat to a pulp on a Saturday night, oh, babe
Don't leave me now
How can you treat me this way?
Running away
Oh, babe, why are you running away?
Oh, babe (3x)

TV1: . . . been out a long time . . . on Thursday, November 8, eleven to five one day at the . . .
TV2: . . . shaft her for fifty cents, a hundred and forty cents, a hundred.
TV3: . . . oh, let's get right there level; the Bulls are already out there, the Lakers have had the ball . .
TV4: . . . Total Wheat!
TV5: . . . I wanna keep these signs . . .
TV6: . . . I was in a Ford 'n' I heard a song . . .
Last TV: This Roman Meal Bakery thought you'd like to know.

The angry violence of Pink's 'turn' does nothing to alleviate the hurt he feels, and this song, on the surface, is his agonized plea for the return of the wife he loves. (Not, as some suppose, for the groupie, whom he has already forgotten.) However, the song cannot be so easily explained. The lyrics refer not entirely to a specific personage, but rather seem to echo memories of past partings.

Roger Waters: "The groupie leaves at the end of One of My Turns and then 'Don't leave me now' he [Pink] sings which is to anybody, it's not to her and it's not really to his wife, it's kind of to anybody; if you like it's kind of men to women in a way, from that kind of feeling, it's a kind of very guilty song as well."

The lyrics are couched in heavily ironic terms, for this piece is Roger Waters' bitter take on the nature of many contemporary relationships. The self-pity which many critics disliked in this song is obviously ironic, especially when you notice that lines like 'I need you... to beat to a pulp on a Saturday night' are immediately followed by 'How can you treat me this way?'

Roger: "Yes, it is a very depressing song. I love it! I really like it!"

Roger talks to Tommy Vance about the wider meaning of the song: "A lot of men and women do get involved with each other for lots of wrong reasons, and they do get very aggressive towards each other, and do each other a lot of damage. I, of course, have never struck a woman, as far as I can recall... and I hope I never do, but a lot of people have, and a lot of women have struck men as well, there is a lot of violence in relationships often that aren't working. I mean this is obviously an extremely cynical song, I don't feel like that about marriage now."
Vance: "But you did?"
Roger: "Er, this is one of those difficult things where a small percentage of this is autobiographical, and all of it is rooted in my own experience, but it isn't my autobiography... like any writing, some of it's me and an awful lot of it is what I've observed."
Vance: "But there's also a lot of fundamental truth in it."
Roger: "Well I hope so, if you look and see things and if they ring true, then those are the kind of things, if you're interested in writing songs or books or poems or writing anything, then those are the things that you try and write down, because those are the things that are interesting, and those are the things that will touch other people, which is what writing is all about, you know. Some people have a need to write down their own feelings in the hope that other people will recognize them, and derive some worth from them, whether it's a feeling of kinship or whether it makes them happy, or whatever, they will derive something from it."

This is one of Roger's most interesting quotes concerning the reasons and motivations behind being a creative artist, and an indication of his desire to reach through the defensive wall of his listener, and touch him or her in some way.

At the end of the song can be heard a variety of TVs being turned on, combining to make a jumble of audio babble, and then each TV is smashed one by one, which becomes the lead in to the next song.

TRACK LISTING
Disc One