Song About Loss: “Ordinary World,” by Duran Duran
1993 single “Ordinary World” is an homage to loved ones who have died. The song serves as a remembrance of foregone times, and details the occasional yearning for those times that everyone experiences when dealing with the death of a loved one.
Duran Duran
Credit: grantland.com
The lyrics start after a mystifying, almost dream-like instrumental. A soothing guitar riff leads into the opening lines:
Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly
I turned on the lights, the TV and the radio
Still, I can’t escape the ghost of you
The singer, Simon Le Bon, here is experiencing a common phenomenon. He thinks he has heard the voice of his loved one who has died. He does a double-take around the room and checks the TV and the radio to make sure he is alone.
It may seem crazy to think that a loved one who has died is still around us. However, this is quite a normal occurrence. To sense the presence of someone who has died is often part of the normal grieving process.
The singer tries to make sense of what has happened. He attempts to think of other things. But the death of his loved one continues to plague him.
Le Bon continues to try and normalize his reactions. He wants to make sense of the whirlwind that has engulfed him, and tries to face this world-changing event head-on. The chorus continues:
But I won’t cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world
Somehow I have to find
And, as I try to make my way to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive
There is no question that learning to accept your loved one’s death is a delicate and intricate process. Everyone doesn’t grieve in the same way. There is no cut-and-dried, easily followed route to follow when it comes to handling the loss. And although most people are well-intentioned, those who offer advice to someone grieving the death of someone they love rarely know how to help. It’s a personal process, and “Ordinary World” points out that idea.
Le Bon continues mellifluously onto the next stanza:
What is happening to me?
Crazy, some’d say
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away
Here he describes something that many grieving people know well: the belief that they must be going crazy. The wide range of emotions experienced after loss can feel like a wild roller coaster ride. And sometimes the person who has always helped you through the rough times may be the person who has died.
“Ordinary World” intimately details the experience of loss. The song seeks to make sense of losing someone dear to you. It’s difficult to continue the ordinary way of life after profound loss, to be sure. Every person deals with it differently.
Death is a part of life, as we all know. Despite this, it’s still difficult to wrap our heads around it. Sometimes music can aid in our healing, by sharing what others have experienced in similar situations.
If you are dealing with the death of a loved one, “Ordinary World” will likely strike a chord with you. You can find the rest of the lyrics here.
Support Healthy Aging By Maintaining Balance — On One Leg
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
I heard this today…My partner of 30 years died of a heart attack exactly three months ago. This song really hit me! It captures so many feelings..I am still so heartbroken but know that I need to and will find my way to the ordinary world.
Report this comment
I am so sorry for your loss. I appreciate your feedback on our article.
Report this comment
last year i lost not one,but two of my only brothers. My heart is broken forever. Thank You Simon for linking me to Louie,and Gasper………..
Report this comment
Last year i lost not one, but two of my only brothers. My heart is broken forever. Thank You Simon for linking me to Louie,and Gasper with this masterpiece xoxox
Report this comment
So sorry to hear your brothers died. Music is a beautiful way to help one heal as part of the process.
Report this comment
I lost my wife 3 weeks ago and remember this song from many years ago. I never fully grasped the meaning of song until now. It really hits home
Report this comment
“Ordinary World” is a profound song. It is saying that when one experiences the loss of a loved one, the world seems more ordinary. So true. I lost my beloved friend Daniel over 25 years ago and my heart still aches. I cope by remembering all the fun we had. Daniel lives on in my heart and my memory.
Report this comment
For me this song perfectly captures what it’s like to liv with PTSD.
Report this comment
Alex, I hope you are finding healing in dealing with your PTSD . . . May you find peace.
Report this comment
It’s absolutely overwhelming to read all the beautiful interpretations on this amazing song. Thank you all for sharing your inspiring thoughts and my sincere condolences to all those who are grieving. I wish you all the very best and hope you can find peace and solace despite your immeasurable heartache.
For what it’s worth, as a victim of childhood abuse myself, I get something slightly different from this song. And, accordingly, it’s actually a source of enormous hope and optimism for me. I take it as being about moving on from one’s horrific and traumatising past; and, humbly, aspiring for an “ordinary world” in which the terrors with which I live daily are manageable and don’t intrude quite so aggressively into my day to day life. It’s about unequivocally choosing not to “cry” for a “yesterday” that was, now I’m realising, inexcusably brutal (though grieving it is obviously a necessary part of healing); and instead realising that something that resembles “ordinary”
(which would be an enormous blessing!) is in fact possible, and within one’s grasp.
Love to you all
Report this comment
I lost my beloved husband and soulmate nine years ago, and not five minutes passes that I don’t think of him and miss him. But I do think I have finally learned to survive in this ordinary world.
Report this comment
Having just been taken down by Covid despite vaccinations and precautions, isolating in my room alone as I look out on the world it hit me our ordinary world will never be the same. As one who at risk for complications/death thankfully on Paxlovid right away seems to be working.
This song of grieving a loss can definitely be an anthem and comfort for those whose loved ones succumbed to this virus.It is an intergenerational trauma we will all carry with us in one way or another.
The way to honor those lost is to live!
Report this comment
I am so sorry… covid had indeed changed our lives… less than it should be. Lost my husband of 47 years 3/3/2021 to Covid. This song I heard for the first time tonight… was performed on The Voice … so I looked it up. Touched my heart very profoundly. I hope this Covid does not get you down. Let the music continue to take you, us to another place.
Report this comment
Having just been taken down by Covid despite vaccinations and precautions, isolating in my room alone as I look out on the world it hit me our ordinary world will never be the same. As one who at risk for complications/death thankfully on Paxlovid right away seems to be working.
This song of grieving a loss can definitely be an anthem and comfort for those whose loved ones succumbed to this virus.It is an intergenerational trauma we will all carry with us in one way or another.
Report this comment
I lost my beloved wife 3 years ago next month to cancer. We met 42 years ago when we were both stationed in Gelnhausen, Germany while serving in the US Army. We were reunited 38 years later after making contact on Facebook thru a mutual friend and were married 5 months later and enjoyed 2 years of a wonderful deep love and friendship. Our families were a perfect fit and we had a beautiful blended family with several grandkids. We had it all and life by the tail. One fateful day she had a pain in her back. Three months later my baby was gone. I have had a hard time with it since. I heard Ordinary World for the first time in many years late on might in a dream. I awoke and looked it up, listened to it and learned the meaning behind those words and was astounded. It really is spot on of the emotional wrenching I’ve gone through. I realized I wasnt really crazy after all.
Report this comment
how about meaning of video
Report this comment
This song has engulfed my memory ever since my soulmate departed my world for Jesus’, yet I still hate his ass that he has my girl! Selfish bastard . . .
Report this comment
There are so many different kinds of loss that I’ve suffered over the 67 years of my life. This song always seems to ground me. I have loved an lost. I have lost both my parents who have passed on. I am estranged from my only sibling and we don’t speak. Having been recently pushed into an ungraceful early retirement has left me so disoriented that all I can see is an ordinary world that I must survive. I look to God for the strength to endure this transition. I hope that it is just a transition.
In the mean time I hold on to songs like this like a drowning man holding a life raft in a sea of uncertainty.
Report this comment
My youngest daughter died January. 31, 2023. Nine and a half months later my only son killed himself on November 16, 2023. I cannot even function anymore. I can’t remember what an ordinary world is. All I find myself doing is praying to make it through today. I want this pain to just go away.
Report this comment
Never interpreted this song with ‘death’. Loss yes, but loss of a loved one after a relationship breakup.
“Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say, pride will tear us both a part. Well now, pride’s gone out the window, across the rooftops, runaway…”
Two stubborn and headstrong people in a relationship have dumped heads long enough and the girlfriend has had enough and left. He’s upset and broken about the split although didn’t show it when she was leaving because of pride.
“I thought I heard you talking softly, I tilurned in the lights the TV and radio”
He doesn’t ‘check they’re turns the on to fill the void of conversation he can no longer have with his gf.
“Still, I can’t escape the ghost of you”
But no matter what he does the memory of his ex is always there.
The ordinary world he wants to reach is one where he can get over the split and carry as normal…
Report this comment
Is there anything more haunting and beautiful than this song. I think not. Thank you for this!
Report this comment