Adrenochrome

[MrChris]

An all-time classic, I'm sure you'll agree. I was just looking at someone's signature tag - Big Si, I think - with the line 'and the boys of the spires are boys no more'. I'd never thought about this, because I'd always thought the line was 'and the boys aspire to boys no more'. But if it is the former rather than the latter, can we read it as a reference to AE leaving Oxford and growing up? Just got me thinking, that's all.

[Big Si]

An all-time classic, I'm sure you'll agree. I was just looking at someone's signature tag - Big Si, I think - with the line 'and the boys of the spires are boys no more'. I'd never thought about this, because I'd always thought the line was 'and the boys aspire to boys no more'. But if it is the former rather than the latter, can we read it as a reference to AE leaving Oxford and growing up? Just got me thinking, that's all.

I found them here - http://www.mixi.net/Sisters.Of.Mercy/Di ... yrics.html

[MrChris]

Yeah, I'm sure that's likely to be right. In which case, does anyone agree with the point about the 'dreaming spires'?

[khepri II]

Yeah, I'm sure that's likely to be right. In which case, does anyone agree with the point about the 'dreaming spires'?

researching a few years back found that the black and red referred to the cap and gown colours. Someone with more time might research this again, but yes, I agree Mr Chris

[MrChris]

Now that IS interesting!

We have a lead, Dr Watson!

[Dan]

Quite a few years ago, when the only transcribed lyrics of Adrenochrome were some really awfully wrong ones (the ones that started "I turn away in an ACID decision", reproduced and perpetrated by many a crap fanzine), I decided to transcribe the lyrics myself and mine were similar to that page, except I heard "I try" and not "high tide".

Oh, and in the live version he says the word "chorus", and not "bollocks" as some people think

[mayhem]

I always thought the spires were Oxford but the red & black & the Dolomites were to do with the Spanish Civil War & the international volunteers. But I know so little about this subject that I can't really back it up...

Anyone able to unravel my brain for me?

M

[MrChris]

Hmmm... searching for clues here - does anyone know what college Von went to at Oxford?

[pikkrong]

Hmmm... searching for clues here - does anyone know what college Von went to at Oxford?

damn' - i just read about it a few days ago but i better don't say anything - i have a boiled potato insted of my head due to this heat - so i can tell you lies... if i remembered the sourse...
but i think our correspondent from Buxville could know (and remember) such a things

[khepri II]

Hmmm... searching for clues here - does anyone know what college Von went to at Oxford?

http://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/

checkout the shield

[khepri II]

my guess is this was the building

http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/ea/chinese/index.shtml

but i did my research before the web, and it had more to do with the Dons colours as i remember

[MrChris]

Hmm, if he did go to St Johns, I'm appalled that they don't have him down as a famous alumnus. There IS an Andrew Taylor, but about eight years too early.

That website was a bit duff, does anyone know what colour their scarf is? It could be that the black and red refer to the Dons' gowns, but the song mentions black and red boys, which I would have thought meant something the students wore...Unless it's a reference to something from Von's SCHOOL - does anyone know what school he went to? Somewhere posh?

[CellThree]

He didn't graduate though did he?

[MrChris]

No he didn't, but does that mean he can't be a famous alumnus? I don't know what the definition of an alumnus is... I think they still brag about that other famous love-god Bill Clinton at Oxford, don't they? And he only did a year. And played the saxophone in a very mediocre way. Whereas Eldritch...

[Quiff Boy]

hate to rain on your parade, but:

http://gps.tsom.org/history.html

Inspired by the techniques of German post-war theatre that were later to animate Sisters live shows, he went up to Oxford University in 1977 to read French and German.
...
...
...
Taylor left Oxford before completing his degree; having tired of French and German he wanted to switch courses to Chinese, but was told he was unable to do this at Oxford.

sounds like he only started studying chinese when he came to leeds...

[Quiff Boy]

oh, and no he didn't graduate. from oxford or from leeds...

The Chinese course at Leeds requires students to spend a year in Beijing. This didn't appeal to Taylor, and again without completing his degree, he left the University.

[MrChris]

Yes, we know all that, it's pretty familiar stuff. But we still think there a strong possibility of some Oxford reference in Adrenochrome...which is what we're trying to get to the bottom of...

[Quiff Boy]

Yes, we know all that, it's pretty familiar stuff. But we still think there a strong possibility of some Oxford reference in Adrenochrome...which is what we're trying to get to the bottom of...

and i agree with you, but i just wanted to prevent khepri etc from wasting any more time going down the oxford/chinese route

[The Green Lantern]

Oxford and Cambridge used to (not sure if they still do) dress their dignitaries in black gown and red cap, as Khepri II pointed out.

Not sure what is intended, but to me the line always envoked the image of choirboys, frightened by the night, as opposed to the boys that are boys no more, the Sisters of Mercy.

An interesting read on adrenochrome, the substance:
http://www.rhodium.ws/chemistry/adrenochrome.txt

[khepri II]

Oxford and Cambridge used to (not sure if they still do) dress their dignitaries in black gown and red cap, as Khepri II pointed out.

Not sure what is intended, but to me the line always envoked the image of choirboys, frightened by the night, as opposed to the boys that are boys no more, the Sisters of Mercy.

An interesting read on adrenochrome, the substance:
http://www.rhodium.ws/chemistry/adrenochrome.txt

the choirboy thing kinda makes sense when played off against the sisters of mercy, but it does seem very tenuous, and i would have thought it red and white if that were the case

as for the other comments, don't worry Quiff i'd long since stopped looking but i did think of the spires as oxford all those years back, and couplets usually come in two's, so a connection to oxford rather than leeds seemed to make sense

[khepri II]

Hmm, if he did go to St Johns,

he did, i couldn't make it anymore obvious, could i?

unless, it's your famous English sense of humour at play again

[The Green Lantern]

True, white and red would be more suitable for a choirboys symbolism.

[MrChris]

No, no, khepri, I'm sure you're right that he went to St John's. I just hadn't heard it before. Shall we all start again?
Spires = Oxford. Agreed?
Black and Red = either a) another oxford reference, whether Dons or scarves, or something else, or b) school or church reference - e.g. choirboys, something religious.

We don't have any evidence for either at the moment. Because I can't be bothered to go and find out about scarves, etc, I give up on a). I can see the merit of b), because there is the religious content to the song which needs to be explained. (Nuns, Catholic monochrome etc). If AE went to a catholic school, we've more or less solved our mystery. If we don't have any information about this (but didn't someone once say that AE went to the same school as Jonathan Ross?), we've come to a dead end, Dr Watson.

[The Green Lantern]

Well, he did have a catholic upbringing. He said so himself. A catholic school, thus, wouldn't be too far fetched.

[MrChris]

Okay, there we go then. That's something I didn't know.