Behind the Songs: So Run Down

A selection of quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on the song "So Run Down".

Duncan Kilburn: "[Talk Talk Talk] didn't come easily, but it did come naturally. The first one took two years to write. Talk Talk Talk we wrote in less than three months, with the exception of 'Mr. Jones' and 'So Run Down', both of which had been around for a while." (Hot Press 1981)

Interviewer: "Certain images keep cropping up in songs like 'So Run Down' and 'We Love You': blue cars, shoes, trains, cigarettes. Are cultural symbols really important to you?"

Richard Butler: "Yes, but they don't make that much of a difference. What the songs are basically trying to say is, 'Don't believe that anything is what you're told it is - don't believe the word love means holding hands and giving each other flowers, and talking to each other in baby talk and all that.' It's like you're told what love is through the media, through advertising. All the songs are saying is make up your mind as to what love is; all they're saying is don't believe what you're told to be." (Unknown source, 1981)

Tim Butler (on playing songs like "So Run Down" and "It Goes On" on the tour for Talk Talk Talk's 30th anniversary): "Those haven't been played since the original tour for the album in 1981. It's been fantastic." (CL Tampa Bay 2011)

Tim Butler: "Some of the songs that are in the Talk Talk Talk set [for the 30th anniversary tour], we haven't played since the album came out. It's quite refreshing. It's been more than thirty years since we've done songs like 'I Wanna Sleep With You' and 'So Run Down.'" (Musoscribe 2011)

Photo: Ebet Roberts.