The Reptile House EP
Notes supplied by Chris Sampson and a bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon
"Use sparingly. Hide all sharp objects." - Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker.
The Reptile House EP was released in May 1983 and marked a considerable and significant change of style for the Sisters. Previous singles (Body Electric, Alice, Anaconda) had established a furious, intense wall-of-sound as the Sisters' modus operandi. As a sharp contrast, the Reptile House presented a suite of five slow, massively disturbing songs. Allegedly recorded single-handedly by Eldritch (though there is evidence that Craig Adams wrote the bass lines to some of the songs), the songs are characterised by stark, tense drum patterns, and brutally sharp guitar riffs, over which Eldritch laid his reverb-heavy baritone vocals. The Reptile House also heralded Eldritch's maturing as lyricist - here the Eliot quotes are woven into a coherent theme, the tension of the music reflected in the sinister, sinistra, lyrics, which are sung with (a frankly scary) relish. Though this new facet to Eldritch's songwriting appeared fully formed, it can be justifiably said that without the pioneering work done on The Reptile House, Floodland would have sounded a much different record. If you're in the right mood then this could be the Sisters' finest record. The menace of these songs persists to this day, and it is always revealing to take a look at the audience response when Burn or Kiss is performed live; the distress is almost tangible.
It is unfortunate that the glossary compilers do not have access to any contemporary Eldritch interviews which would give insight on the Vonmeister's thoughts on The Reptile House lyrics; in the absence of such illumination the following explanations are offered.
Kiss the Carpet
The song's use of a woman as a metaphor for amphetamines is all too obvious. I'm not aware of any references in this song.
Lights
The lights shine clear...red turns green
The lights are clearly meant to be traffic lights.
Ignore the voices ... but there's a voice in the distance...
Disembodied voices appear in other Sisters songs, for example Bury Me Deep and Marian. Hearing voices is a classic sign of schizophrenia, a condition which can be exagerrated by massive drug abuse.
Sodium haze
Street lamps often emit an orange light, presumably the result of the sodium composition of their filament.
Valentine
The razor bites and the shriek subsides / he arches clutching at his sides.
The opening couplet is taken from T S Eliot's 1920 poem Sweeney Erect, the eighth verse of which reads:
"Tests the razor on his leg
Waiting until the shriek subsides
The epileptic on the bed
Curves backward, clutching at her sides"
Eliot's poem is one of a series of three Sweeney poems which deal with the infamous Sweeney Todd murders. Todd, a barber, murdered his clients and disposed of the bodies by using them as the fillings in the meat pies sold in the shop situated below the barbers. Charming.
A people fed on famine
Previous lines in Valentine introduce TV as a numbing influence on mankind's ability to deal with catastrophic events. A repeated image on early 80s TV was the African famine; there is, of course, an ironic oxymoron in being fed by famine. Eldritch, for once, misses his target as the Band Aid/Live Aid organisations in late 83/84 demonstrated that famine was the one thing that was still horrific enough to shock the populace out of their complacency. Of course this just spawned a series of increasingly reflex, meaningless 'charity events': the genre reaching its crepuscular zenith with the nauseous Freddy Mercury tribute concert.
A people eat each other
Literally so in the case of Sweeney!
Waiting for another war and waiting for my Valentine
It has been suggested that Valentine is inspired by the juxaposition of Falklands war and the Charles/Diana Royal Wedding on TV in 1981.
Watch the body hit the files
This may refer to the burgeoning UK unemployment count in the early 80s under the so-called Thatcher economic "miracle" (also "a people stand in line"), or possibly it might be a reference to the death toll in the Falklands War.
External links
T.S. Eliot
Sweeney Erect
Fix
The first four lines progress via a series of ribald rhyming juxtapositions, of which "corpse" and "corporation" is surely the most appealing.
Burn
Burn me a fire in The Reptile House
Reptile refers to the elemental evil present in every human mind. "The Reptile House" is a building common in zoos where, obviously, the Reptiles are housed. I would like to think that this is a metaphor for the Houses of Parliament; given the extreme political nature of Valentine and Fix, torching the Palace of Westminster would seem a suitable conclusion.
The syntax of this line is also reminscent of the opening line of Eliot's Sweeney Erect (q.v.): "Paint me a cavernous waste shore". I'm also reminded of Turner's famous painting of the 18?? destruction of the Houses of Parliament.
The Reptile House was also adopted as the name of the Sisters' information service which existed in fits and starts from 1987 until 1992 when it blossomed for four years into the most literate, enervating fan club going. Official Reptile House T-Shirts always identified the wearer as a "REPTILE" which was a dubious privilege at best. Sadly, these days it appears to be in decline, though one hopes...
There is a verse in Burn which is recorded backwards, and is not listed in the official lyric book. It has been transcribed as follows:
"The Catherine wheel around on fire
We will burn this circus down
The wheel goes round and the friends get higher
For the juggling men and the idiot clown"
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