Siouxsie & The Banshees Live

1. Siouxsie & The Banshees performing "Love in a Void" live on the British TV show "Something Else," 1979. Robert Smith of The Cure is on guitar:

Too many fools blocking my motion
Clouding my eyes, must be the potion
Spots in my eyes, must be the lotion
Spots in my eyes, must be the lotion

Love in a void
It's so numb
Avoiding love
It's so dumb
Love in a void

Too many bigots for my liking
Too many critics, too few writing
Rabid dogs that aren't biting
Rabid dogs that aren't biting

Love in a void
It's so numb
Avoiding love
It's so dumb
Love in a void

Jaded reputation on which you're staking
Lots of money for the making
For all the stars they're just faking
For all the stars they're just faking

Love in a void
It's so numb
Avoiding love
It's so dumb
Love in a void

2. Siouxsie & The Banshees performing "Jigsaw Feeling" live on the Old Grey Whistle Test, 11 November 1978. "Pure" is an instrumental song; Steve Severin's (bass) comments regarding the song and the band's approach to music follow here:

"For 'Pure', you can also substitute 'essence'. That song wasn't written--it just happened. It happened during a sound check in France some time ago. Also it summed up all that we were going through back in those days. It happened on stage and we just called it 'Pure'. That's what happens when the band lets loose." [Source: Melody Maker 21 October 1978]

"It was a case of us knowing what we didn't want, throwing out every cliché. Never having a guitar solo, never ending a song with a loud drum smash. At one point, Siouxsie just took away the high-hat from the drum kit."

"Siouxsie wanted a guitar sound like a cross between The Velvet Underground and the shower scene in Psycho." [Source: Simon Reynolds, Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984]

Send me forward, say my feelings
But all the signals, send me reeling
Jigsaw feeling

One day I'm feeling total
The next I split in two
My eyes are doing somersaults
Staring at my shoes

My brain is out of my hand
There's nothing to prevent
The impulse is quite meaningless
in a cerebral non-even

 

 

 

Send me forward, say my feelings
But all the signals, send me reeling
Jigsaw feeling

Five fingers do my walking
Ten toes unravel knots
Amorphous jigsaw pieces
falling into slots

Send me forward, say my feelings
But all the signals, send me reeling
Jigsaw feeling

So I just sit in reverie
Getting on my nerves
The intangible bonds that keep me
Sitting on the verge....
Of a breakdown
Of a reaction
Of a result

Complete me, defeat me, maybe

3. Siouxsie & The Banshees performing "Lullaby" live in London, July 2002:

The lunacy will leave the day
Luminous in flight
As the moon spits out
In jagged beams
Another night

Wrap around this brilliant veil
Tranquil and unbroken
As you spiral down
A world of clay
And taut convulsion

The dream swan spins
And cartwheel turns
Down deep within your violet slide
The sun begins to rise

 

Shaking down its morning swords
To thaw your frozen eyes
The dream swan spins
And so conceals
A heart that aches and yearns

O hush awhile
Sleepless child

I'll be watching over you

 

4. Siouxsie & The Banshees performing "Melt!" live on the British TV show " Old Grey Whistle Test," 12 November 1982. Robert Smith of The Cure is once again on guitar:

You are the melting man
You are your situation
There is no time to breathe
And yet one single breath
Leads to an insatiable desire
Of suicide in sex

So many blazing orchids
Burning in your throat
Making you choke
Making you sigh
Sigh in tiny deaths

So Melt!
My lover, melt!
She said melt!
My lover, melt!

You are the melting man
And as you melt
You are beheaded
Handcuffed in lace, blood & sperm

 

Swimming in poison
Gasping in the fragrance
Sweat carves a screenplay
Of discipline and devotion

So Melt!
My lover, melt!
She said melt!
My lover, melt!

Can you see?
See into the black of a long, black car
Pulling away from a funeral of flowers
With my hand between your legs
Melting