Hold On
Notes
Dave Gahan said in the Electronic Press Kit for Paper Monsters:
"There is something about it that is very simple and yet... it's very simple but at the same time it's very big, in the feel of it, it's just a universal kind of sentiment. And to myself as well the message in there is “hang in there”, and you've got to keep pushing and you've got to hold on to your dreams and ideas. And I just feel like, I guess, you know, in some ways the song is also about God, and what I feel, what God is to me and you know, what that is, whatever you want to call it – this power, the universe. It first came about lyrically because I felt like I'd been tested, I'm always being tested in different areas and I realised they weren't really tests, they were gifts, they were chances and things that were given to me to maybe make a change, maybe take a different road with something. That's really where the song came out of. I wanted it to have a sort of bluesy, sort of country feel to it but it's got a very modern edge to it, and I wanted the chorus just to be very, very simple. There's something about the way Knox played certain chords, and when we first... he had this little chord formation and he played it to me, and I had these words and a couple of verses and this idea for these two words "hold on". He started playing and I started singing the song, the melody over the top and it was just right, it was one of those ones where it really had nothing to do with either of us when we were writing it."
Live performances
- Main article: Available recordings of "Hold On"
- Main article: List of dates where "Hold On" was played
