I always thought this was meant to be creepy? I first heard it on the cassette version of the Singles 81-85 album where it's immediately followed by Shake The Disease which repeats the 'understand me' lyric but in a context where it's more obviously a threat/demand, and a reiteration of the 'I don't want to be tied to anyone's strings' sentiment - I'd actually thought until just now that the two songs were released as a double A side, but I was mistaken and it's Blasphemous Rumours/Somebody that was the double A-side. Shake The Disease is surely an intentional companion song to Somebody though?
― soref, Saturday, 14 April 2018 22:04 (six years ago) link