Lyrics to
Candidate

This version of Candidate was released by Joy Division in 1979.

Our About Joy Division page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Candidate from 1979 as well as all of the other lyrics from Joy Division that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Joy Division or about the 1970s in general.

Forced by the pressure,
The territories marked,
No longer the pleasure,
Oh, I’ve since lost the heart.

Corrupted from memory,
No longer the power,
It’s creeping up slowly,
That last fatal hour.

Oh, I don’t know what made me,
What gave me the right,
To mess with your values,
And change wrong to right.

Please keep your distance,
The trail leads to here,
There’s blood on your fingers,
Brought on by fear.

I campaigned for nothing,
I worked hard for this,
I tried to get to you,
You treat me like this.

It’s just second nature,
It’s what we’ve been shown,
We’re living by your rules,
That’s all that we know.

I tried to get to you,
I tried to get to you,
I tried to get to you,
I tried to get to you.

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Joy Division has released many songs over the years besides Candidate. Joy Division released songs from 1979 to 1988 spanning across albums like Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Still, and Substance. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Joy Division.

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About Lyrics and Candidate by Joy Division

The lyrics to Candidate are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Joy Division in 1979. Elements of the lyrics to Candidate are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Joy Division and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for Candidate back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to Candidate by Joy Division in a number of ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Candidate" means the words set to the music of Candidate, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Joy Division. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Candidate and the lyrics to Candidate are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Joy Division who came here looking just for the lyrics to Candidate, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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