Meaning of “Pure Morning” by Placebo

This song dates back to Placebo’s sophomore album, “Without You I’m Nothing”, with Virgin Records issuing “Pure Morning” as its lead single on 3 August 1998. At the time of that dropping, Placebo consisted of singer Brian Molko, bassist Stefan Olsdal and drummer Steve Hewitt (with Molko and Olsdal now holding down the brand into the 2020s). 

So it is also those three individuals who are credited with writing the song (with Molko being the primary author), and its producer is Phil Vinall.

Some More Facts

Nick Gordon directed the music video to “Pure Morning”, which was filmed in Placebo’s hometown of London and was inspired by an old film featuring Grace Kelly titled Fourteen Hours.

This song charted in about 10 nations, performing most admirably on the UK Singles Chart and Scottish Singles Chart, in both instances peaking at number 4.

“Pure Morning” was certified silver in the United Kingdom in 2017.

Placebo apparently didn’t anticipate that “Pure Morning” would be their breakthrough hit or even a single at that, rather intending it, upon recording, to be a B-side.

This song has had a notable pop media presence, showing up in the number of commercials (especially in the UK), TV shows and movies.

Placebo did have one solid hit prior to “Pure Morning”, that being 1997’s “Nancy Boy”, which also reached fourth place on the UK Singles Chart but has yet (as of this writing) to be certified.

Brian Molko and co. ultimately grew weary this song (as well as “Nancy Boy”) – so much so that they stopped performing “Pure Morning” for approximately a decade, despite it being their signature tune.

Lyrics of “Pure Morning”

Molko has offered a pretty poetic explanation of this song, such as its title pointing to a nightlife-based lifestyle, one in which “you’re coming down”, i.e. being about to rest, while “everybody else is getting ready to go to work”. 

“Day’s dawning, skin’s crawling
Day’s dawning, skin’s crawling
Pure morning
Pure morning”

He references the above modus operandi as having something to do with “feeling incredibly dislocated from the rest of the world” or what have you. But what it can be mitigated by is “friendship(s) with women”, the type of which will ultimately “put their arms around you and help you ease into sleep”. 

And by the time all is said and done, all of the above reads like a fancy way of saying “Pure Morning” is about the vocalist’s sex partners.

That is the subject matter that the lyrics most notably speak to. The first verse goes about establishing that the singer does in fact prefer “a friend with breasts”, and he proceeds to delineate the type of characteristics and styles he digs in romantic interests. 

The second verse highlights a couple of his sweethearts, such as apparently a Japanese girl and one whom the vocalist is basically celebrating the fact that he didn’t get her pregnant. Those particular lyrics concerning the latter are repeated in the third verse. And as implied, what really has Brian happy about the situation is that since homegirl did not get pregnant, now they don’t have to proceed to get her an abortion.

Or that’s one way of looking at them. Another way of interpreting those lines is as verifying that yes, Molko would rather his girlfriend not get pregnant. But if she does they “will never sever”, meaning that they will not proceed to get an abortion.

“A friend in need’s a friend indeed
A friend who bleeds is better
My friend confessed she passed the test
And we will never sever”

So before these interpretations really get out of hand, as the lyrics of this piece are quite ambiguous, let’s conclude by first noting that whereas “Pure Morning” isn’t complicated, but at the same time it isn’t the easiest song to understand either. 

That may have something to do with the fact that its lyrics, according to Brian, came ‘off the top of his head’. So for example, it’s not abundantly clear if he’s singing about one lady or two or more of them. 

But considering all of the lyrics as well as his explanation of this piece, it can be argued that the vocalist is somewhat of a playa or someone who is sexually active with more than one person. But thesis sentiment-wise, it isn’t as if he’s bragging about it. Instead, once again going back to Molko’s explanation, this song is meant to big up the type of women who are able to hold the singer down after a sleepless night.