Heartland

One of the things that grabbed me the first time I listened to Floodland (and thus the Sisters of Mercy) was the quality of Andrew Eldritch's lyrics. His lyrics were quite multilayeered and complex, making great use of unusual metaphors and vivid visual imagery to create something really special. I enjoy Eldritch's quality lyrics as much as I enjoy the actual music I was hearing.

The English Minor in me just loved picking and pulling those songs apart and figuring out what they were about. Ian Curtis from Joy Division is highly lauded for his poetic lyric writing, but I think Eldritch is just as good as a writer.

So, what are everyone's favorite Sisters of Mercy lyrics, and why?

Discuss?

Andrew reached his lyrical peak with You Could Be The One.

Yep.

That's right.

Valentine.

Indeed.

Top Nite Out.

Phantom.

Nah, that's nasty. Anything on Vision Thing, to be honest.

There is the lyrics section in here, there is the 1959 and all that site, there are people who wrote whole theses about his lyrics and discussed them at length at Dominion, but after all isn't it all just a murder mystery without a murder?
My quote of the day today was "bring on the wave", and tomorrow it's going to be "hapiness is a loaded weapon" or maybe "everything is lost and your truth lies broken", whatever.

MH did I mention that your avatars are absolutely ace?

Better than Ian's, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge JD fan as well, but nothing compares to Eldritch's lyrics to me. Absolutely agree with the multilayered-ness, the imagery and metaphors - though they are so cryptic most of the time they could mean everything and nothing all at the same time. It's as if all the thoughts and feelings in my head come out in those songs (all of them, not really any particular era - one of the things I love about the Sisters is how different all their songs are throughout the years, I can always find something to fit a mood) lyrically and musically, everything I wish I could say or describe is in there - and yet it still doesn't really say it, just a general feeling I suppose.

Anyways - no way I can pick just a few lyrics, but the one that always sticks with me for some reason is "seconds to the drop but it feels like hours" Doesn't really seem loaded with meaning (or maybe it does) but can be taken so many ways - that feeling, those heart pounding moments just before - something. Could be a moment of doom - or anticipation - of excitement - of anxiety - or everything at once, for some reason it's very overwhelming to me. The obvious literal meaning - the big bomb finally dropping, the end of everything, especially with the nuclear winter landscape of Driven Like the Snow directly following Flood II - the sexual metaphor, pretty obvious with how it's often linked to death. The moment of realization, acceptance of fate, the release. I feel like I'm not explaining myself well, there's so much more but I don't know how to say it - that's why he's the songwriter and I'm not. Beautiful - what I love about Eldritch's lyrics is, even though I try not to overthink and over analyze (hard to do) I get so much just from one simple line.

Edited to add: really, I love the entire song lyrically, and musically. Any time I try to choose a favorite Sisters song it always comes to mind. Can't really pick each lyric apart though, it's really the entire song as a whole. The entire album as a whole actually. Love the "raise your arms" image too - raising arms either joyfully, or also in surrender. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that this was the idea behind this image - the idea of raising your arms in joy and exhilaration, but also if you raise your arms in the middle of water, you sink - therefore, surrender, to the flood.

Ah, and "Driven Like the Snow" and "Nine While Nine" Obviously. And "in the place, through which we wander..." and from the full version of "Never Land" - "With our backs to the sky
And our eyes on the ground
With the clouds far below
No horizon around
With the wind in our face
And our arms open wide
We shall pass through this place
To the other side"

I could really go on forever about my favorite lyrics so I'll just leave it at that for now. There have been times when a lyric I never thought of as particularly special will all of a sudden hit me out of nowhere one day and it will haunt me forever, and I don't always know why.

mh wrote:Valentine.

Indeed.

OH yeah.

And apparently, for today anyway, Fix. I can't seem to get it to go away...but then I'm probably not trying very hard, either.

"home of the hit man"

I wish so much that I were much better at the english language.. I know I merely get a fraction of the co-notations with my current skills.

eotunun wrote:I wish so much that I were much better at the english language.. I know I merely get a fraction of the co-notations with my current skills.

Even with brilliant English, sarcasm loses something in the translation...

mh wrote:Valentine.

Indeed.

I don't know if it's the hour of the day or the sheer unadulterated wit, but that raised a giggle

Anyway, Romeo Down is for me an unlikely lyrical high point. Citing Floodland would be far too easy

Motz wrote:Citing Floodland would be far too easy

Haha - yes it is, but I had to do it anyways. Hard to narrow it down to anything, really - I love how all the songs have such range - one set of lyrics sounds vulnerable, the next cold and cruel. They can seem loaded with meaning, but not really mean anything, or really matter, in the end. The general attitude of "the world is fcuked, life is fcuked, in the end none of it matters anyways so lets get ripped and watch it all burn - it'll be a great show" Staring the blackness of life in the face and laughing at it. But of course its not just the lyrics I love about Sisters, though they're certainly a big part of it - I love the groove, the atmosphere, the grind of the machine.

Driven Like The Snow, in my book.

I can't take anything on Vision Thing seriously, because its generally below par on the music front.

I find it amusing that many people seem to think that FLAA is about Claire and/or other members of the band when its mostly not. Is that a problem with the lyirics, or those who want to read between the lines?

Train is a certain land mark and lyrical masterpiece of artistic flair and soulful poetry

Anyone who can encapsulate the atmosphere and emotions of standing on a platform waiting for a train and transfer that into song is a true genius.

The man should be made Poet Laureate immediately!

Other works of his that should be put up for nomination by the Nobel Academy are :

Afterhours

Anaconda

Rock and a hard place

and Doctor Jeep

Ah the older I get the more relevant the entire Reptile House gets, Fix and Valentine in paticular. Vision Thing is lyrically excellent especially I Was Wrong and the title track. Floorshow is probably my favourite. T. S. Eliot and Cold War influences. Always good for a song!

Defintely Driven Like The Snow. And Never Land.

But is it only me or has his lyrics gotten a bit lame since he stopped recording. I mean Slept and War On Drugs and not very good lyrics. Neither are the other new ones I think.

In terms of the "new" songs, Summer has a certain je ne sais quois.

Ramone, you are drier than an Arizona wind in mid July. However, didn't you lose all your rights to comment on lyrices when

(a) you followed the Mish. Not so much lyrics, as words strung together.

(b) you managed Rosetta... their early lyrics.... wonder how Shelley is these days?

Dominion's one of my favourites.

But then, I think he might have had help with the words...

il duce wrote:Defintely Driven Like The Snow. And Never Land.

But is it only me or has his lyrics gotten a bit lame since he stopped recording. I mean Slept and War On Drugs and not very good lyrics. Neither are the other new ones I think.

IMO Will I Dream is citing a computer and that's the only human thing of the song. Go Figure.

markfiend wrote:In terms of the "new" songs, Summer has a certain je ne sais quois.

DITTO

and of course ribbons,skos and possession.........mmmm and perhaps on a slightly off thread thing, his delivery of emma

nodubmanshouts wrote:Ramone, you are drier than an Arizona wind in mid July. However, didn't you lose all your rights to comment on lyrices when

(a) you followed the Mish. Not so much lyrics, as words strung together.

(b) you managed Rosetta... their early lyrics.... wonder how Shelley is these days?

To be honest, I had no input with either the bands music or lyrics - and in retrospect, I'm kinda glad I didn't. The music was purely down to Porl and Karl and the lyrics were Porl's alone.

Most of the time, I had no clue what he was singing about and after a few drinks and the odd line or two beforehand at shows, I'm convinced he didn't either

I'm quite fond of Rosetta Stone's lyrics

Something Strange wrote:To call heaven as a witness
To bear resistance to tell it not in gath
Misguided and bewildered - clouded in the past
Weighed in the balance - and found wanting
It can be daunting - intemperate to the last

... but what on Earth does "gath" mean?

robertzombie wrote:I'm quite fond of Rosetta Stone's lyrics

Something Strange wrote:To call heaven as a witness
To bear resistance to tell it not in gath
Misguided and bewildered - clouded in the past
Weighed in the balance - and found wanting
It can be daunting - intemperate to the last

... but what on Earth does "gath" mean?

"Come on everyone you know the words...Let's hear ya Melton Mowbray..You crazy Muthas whoooooo..everyone..even u at that back!!"

Rosetta Stone, Live @ Melton Mowbray,Nob Twiddlers (Easter Resurrection show) .March 14th 1990