A Dull and Witless Boy.

My sister accused me of “stealing” Depeche Mode from her; she got into them first and I was the late-comer (at 10).  Sometimes duelling versions of ‘black celebration’ would volley through the wall that divided our rooms.  She told me I wasn’t sophisticated enough to like them; that I likely didn’t even know what “a question of time” was about.  I studied the lyrics, I evinced a meaning, and came back to her.  As far as I could tell, it was about someone wanting to save someone else from falling in with the wrong crowd.  RIght? My sister scoffed and shook her head.  “That’s not what it’s about at all.”  To this day, every time I hear the song (which I heard last night during the band’s set at lollapalooza) I’m always looking for that elusive secret meaning that somehow my sister just knew.