What is "Valentine" about?

[Calidore]

Hello everyone. Nice to see a sisterhood in existence.

Is "Valentine" about the bombing of Dresden which happened on Valentine's day 1945? or is it about the pop culture?

The razor bites and the shriek subsides
He arches clutching at his sides
Across the floor across the tiles
The man is dead and the razor smiles
A shiny love song a quick incision
Cut him down on television

A people come to this
Beyond the age of reason
A people fed on famine
A people on their knees and
People eat each other
A people stand in line
Waiting for another war and
Waiting for my valentine

For a million empty faces
For a million hollow smiles
Cancer for my education
Watch the body hit the files
Waiting for another war and
Waiting for my valentine

cheers,
Calidore

[Dan]

My interpretation of some of it is that in the late 70's on the news they showed film of a criminal being beheaded in (I think) Vietnam. This would have been fresh in Eldritch's mind when he wrote the lyrics and seems to fit in with some of the lyrics at least.

[Calidore]

oh right, yes, that would seem to fit qute well.

Calidore

[Dan]

I've never seen anyone else come up with my theory before. others have said it's about the St. Valentines Day Massacre (Al Capone shooting and killing a bunch of people in the 1920's), and other wilder explanations, but mine seems to fit quite well although I don't know where the valentine part fits into it.

[The Green Lantern]

Andy said once that it's about how the royal wedding was used to offset peoples reactions towards the Falkland war. On the one hand you have these two people getting married, on the other you have the english going fighting the argentinians thousands of miles away from home.

[_emma_]

Andy said once that it's about how the royal wedding was used to offset peoples reactions towards the Falkland war.

Indeed.
Hello Calidore.
Not that I know what Valentine is about (apart from the quote above), but perhaps this thread would fit better in the lyrics section?

[culprit]

Not that I know what Valentine is about (apart from the quote above), but perhaps this thread would fit better in the lyrics section?

I can almost see it winging its way now.....

[Quiff Boy]

[Quiff Boy]

at risk of seeming predictable

[Quiff Boy]

Hello everyone. Nice to see a sisterhood in existence.

Is "Valentine" about the bombing of Dresden which happened on Valentine's day 1945? or is it about the pop culture?

hello

i'd never thought about the dresden angle.... i've always assumed it was about pop culture, as you suggest. drug additiction, the obsession with the media (the revolution will be televised!), the dearth of humanity, and the general s**t state society was in when the sonmg was written (and still is... in fact now its even worse!) - thatcherite britain, greed is good, mass unemployment, etc etc etc.

[Barracuda]

I always saw it as the inevitability of love and war.
"waiting for another war and waiting for my valentine".

[Eva]

Cheers for all these explanations...

To me the "waiting for my valentine" part always had something of "the world is going to pieces and what am I doing? - Sitting at home waiting for my valentine card". The "I" not being Eldritch but rather the common man/woman "from the street" who watches the news on his/her tv, but all he/she really cares about is the nonsense of his/her mediocre little life.

Besides, I seem to recall having heard/read something somewhere saying that Valentine could also be referring to the Kennedy assassination, the couple being Jackie and John F. It seems a bit far-fetched for me as the murder was in 1963, but who knows....

Eva.

[Begemot]

Andy said once that it's about how the royal wedding was used to offset peoples reactions towards the Falkland war. On the one hand you have these two people getting married, on the other you have the english going fighting the argentinians thousands of miles away from home.

But didn't the Royal Wedding take place in 1981, and the Falklands war in 1982?

[kafka]

Just a note, for those who might not be aware of this: a lot of Valentine is from Eliot, Sweeney Erect:

Tests the razor on his leg
Waiting until the shriek subsides.
The epileptic on the bed
Curves backward, clutching at her sides.

Now, in Eliot's poem Sweeney is of course the killer; in Valentine, the suggestion is rather of a suicide; all of it, regardless, links to the "people eat each other". Part of me wonders whether Eldritch had Ian Curtis (an epileptic) in mind, although Curtis hanged himself so I guess not. But I do think that because the "razor smiles" the implication is suicide, rather than a death at the hands of another (such as in the 'beheaded criminal' case).

At any rate, I think that the "waiting for another war" can be taken quite literally: in an environment in which people are shuffling up to the dole queue with nothing much to live for, having a war to fight might seem quite a good thing. And perhaps he just wanted everyone bombed: his songs around this time are not the most cheery of things, nor the most favourable in their assessments of those around him.

[eastmidswhizzkid]

completely off-topic (except for the word "valentine")but...
the very first time i heard anything by the sisters(temple of love)was on valentines day 1985,which has been a great comfort every year since when at least half of them i've spent single-february 13th seems to be my lucky day for being dumped...yes iknow i'm rambling but the green lantern said what i was gonna say!

[paint it black]

The Valentine was a tank provided to the Russians during the second world war. Stalin even begged for more of them. They were used at Leningrad where over a million died and cannibalism was a thing.

[paint it black]

Having seen too many seizures, an actual epileptic cannot clutch their sides, therefore it is more likely the involuntary action associated with a seizure such as would occur when having ones throat slit, or perhaps, laughing uncontrollably, when indeed you would clutch your sides. Which both hurts and makes you feel good at the same time

Shriek with laughter also and the associated sense of hopelessness when convulsing with laughter

[iesus]

Seems that Valentine tank exists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_tank

Service history
In service 1940–1960
Used by British Army, Red Army, New Zealand Army

Didn't know that

[Being645]

Seems that Valentine tank exists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_tank

Service history
In service 1940–1960
Used by British Army, Red Army, New Zealand Army

Didn't know that

Uh-huh, that's an interesting aspect.
I hadn't heard of those tanks before, either.
Good link, iesus ... ...
and thanks for the hint, pib ... ...