Primary
members: Robin Guthrie, Elizabeth Fraser, Simon Raymonde, Will
Heggie
Band
Biography
Albums of focus: Garlands (1982) and selected singles
Songs for study:
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"Especially for a Scottish person, it's always remarkable to know that this most poetic music emerged, and began its journey round the globe, from Grangemouth, a town dominated by what seems to be an endless series of enormous oil refineries and chemical plants; out among the estuaries, gas burn-offs throw shadows up into the low cloud base, countless gangway lights maze on themselves and the night is a density of arc lamps. The sets of Bladerunner have existed there for years."-- Alan Warner, journalist
"We seemed to have come out with a style of music that, you know, gave people a lot of room to think."
-- Robin Guthrie, guitarist/songwriterLiz Fraser on her singing and lyrics:
[From Lime Lizard Magazine, 1993]:
"See, I find that my lyrics don't have any meanings. They're not proper. Although I've got a great dictionary of them. It's like the Cockney rhyming slang or something....they don't mean anything, though, that's the thing. You know all the transcendent sounds. It's all sound all the way through.""A lot of the stuff I was singing about [in the early 1980's] was all metaphorical. I wasn't talking like I am now. I guess it's back to how much personal power you feel that you have. Like, if I'm 17 and I don't even know when I'm hungry, am I tired, have I had any sleep - if you don't even know that, then how can you talk about lyrics that come from such an unconscious place? I always said 'I don't' know', and I didn't."
"That was the point this time [Four-Calendar Café], to make them mean something. I can see that now in retrospect. Back then [Blue Bell Knoll], with the sounds, I thought I was being really honest, but now I think I'm being a lot more honest by writing things down and then singing it."
[From Raygun Magazine, 1993]:
"I've just recently realized that I'm a very secretive person, that I'm constantly covering up for myself. I'm only just realizing how much. I don't really know what's happening. I hope it doesn't mean that I won't allow myself to do more things like Blue Bell Knoll. I'd like to be able to do everything. You see, on that album, I was still expressing the same things. I was still feeling the same feelings, but I wasn't getting caught up in them. I was just feeling into a fucking microphone. I really was getting caught up in them on this album [Four-Calendar Café]. It was very painful. And the lyrics aren't even that explicit.""What I've got to do is get honest, to stop doing what I was doing. Unfortunately, and this is typical of me, I tend to go from one extreme to the other. To go from an album like Blue Bell Knoll, which is so heavily disguised and removed from reality, to Heaven or Las Vegas, or even more to this one, where everything on it is in English and it's all audible...it is extreme, I think. But it seems important for me to do that."
[From NPR Interview, 1993]:
"It's amazing though, yeah, I mean that's...I mean really the records are...a representation of our coping skills...and I think...I was very much in denial...and I think that you can hear that on the album [Blue Bell Knoll]...you know, not one word can you grasp...giving anything away...it just wasn't allowed...""What they are [pre-Four-Calendar Café lyrics], are words that I've taken from...maybe seen written down...in a language that I don't understand, and liking them...and maybe...making new words as well out of them. I mean I've got reams and reams of words that I don't have a clue what they mean, but...I wanted them because, I knew I'd be able to express myself without giving anything away."
"The catch is I can barely talk English, isn't it? I quite like that. Combining words in different languages that I couldn't understand just meant that I could concentrate on the sound and not get caught up in the meaning."
"Blind
Dumb Deaf" - from Garlands (1982) |
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Blind dumb deafen offends I was never a part of it Blind dumb deafen offends I was never a part of it At the bosom Or the breast Or the forehead Or the fist Blind dumb deafen offends |
Blind dumb deafen offends I was never a part of it Blind dumb deafen offends Blind dumb deafen offends Blind dumb deafen offends |
"Alas Dies Laughing" (0:00-2:25) and "Wax
and Wane" (2:26-5:37) - live Brixton, England (November 1982) |
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"Alas Dies Laughing" Flaxen, the dress is bornCrush a crushing stone Tie a starching walls Wake takes a mumbling form Wake takes a mumbling form Flaxen, the dress is old Wake takes a mumbling form (6x) Wake takes a (10x) |
"Wax and Wane" Carrion grows The devil bites dirty, Licking our wounds The devil bites dirty, And I guess we got gin drunk The devil bites dirty,
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"Wax
and Wane" - Live Amsterdam, Netherlands (29 Jan. 1983) |
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Carrion grows The devil bites dirty, Licking our wounds |
The devil bites dirty, And I guess we got gin drunk The devil bites dirty, |
"Garlands" - from Garlands (1982) |
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Garlands evergreen Well, with these brave garlands Garlands evergreen |
Well, with these scarve's scars Garlands evergreen Well, with these scarve's scars |
"Blood Bitch" - from Garlands (1982) |
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Blood Bitch Blood woman Pressing hands |
Sometimes it's called water Cold burns powerful I'll paint the blood bitch |
"Shallow Then Halo" - from Garlands (1982) |
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Winged water Feathered river Dirty rich soil Strong and fertile The then shallow she Stars in my eyes (x2) The then shallow she In my(x6) Winged water (x2) |
Stars in my eyes Stars in my face Womb in the belly Capitol place (x2) In my eyes At my feet I have stars in my eyes Stars in my eyes Stars at my feet |
"Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" - Live at Restaurang Continental, Örebro, Sweden (1984) |
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We'll be sold to Roddy Comes for pearly dewdrop's drops Weeks in our company Buys the pearly dewdrop's drops We'll be soaked and ruddy We'll be soaked when Roddy comes We'll be soaked when around he comes
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Taciturn to fellow So try to turn to loan him these Bruised your eye on her staff So when he turned around he saw Taciturn to fellow We'll be soaked when Roddy comes (We'll be sold to Roddy, sold to Roddy)
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"Pink Orange Red" - Live, British TV, (December 1985) |
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Endrosis - osis Lotella - ella Endrosis - osis Vivigeossa - ossa Meliteae phoebus hyala phoebus hyala cloeyessa Meliteae phoebus hyala phoebus hyala nossinussa Sesia - ia Hymeae saturnia hymeae nossinussa Vacua venessula vacua nekitella Tuphia vanessa venessa enovalla Sacyare oponalla oponalla hyniassa |
Ho
Fa - manofilla - ho Fa - manofilla - ho Fa - manofilla - do Nosialla - do Nosialla - do Nosialla - ho Manofilla Donosialla
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"Millimillenary" - Live at Restaurang Continental, Örebro, Sweden (1984) |
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Millimillenary
Milli- milli- millenary While you did, she was aimed and did Milli- milli- millenary |
"Lorelei" - from Treasure (1984) |
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Can't look out Can't look in You just might Get yourself Get right out of the doors In the light We'll make love And then we can go And we can go And we can go And we can go And we can go We're covered by the sacred fire Can't look out |
And we're covered by the sacred fire Then you cut me to You cut me to the bone Without a doubt We're covered by the sacred fire Can't look in Out of the doors Can't look in Out of the doors |
"Bluebeard" - from Four-Calendar Café (1993) |
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Aliveness, exploration Aliveness, energy Are you the right man for me? Aliveness, exploration Are you the right man for me? Naming things is empowering
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(And healthy independence) Or are you toxic for me? Will you mistreat me or betray my confidence? (And healthy assurances) Are you the right man for me? Are you safe? Are you my friend? (This was a nameless dream) Or are you toxic for me? Will you mistreat me or betray my confidence? (And healthy boundaries) Are you the right man for me? Are you safe? Are you my friend? (And how long would you miss me?) Or are you toxic for me? Would you mistreat me or betray my confidence? |
"Theft, and Wandering Around Lost" - from Four-Calendar Café (1993) |
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The man is an offender He took my value And I give back his shame And I take back my power My body is my own Is this what my body said? I'll perfectly bluff it |
My body is my own My body is mine alone And I deserve protection And I can create it from you Is this what my body said? Keep cutting myself on the edges of reality, reality Is this what my body said? |
SEX PISTOLS
KRAFTWERK
THE CLASH
PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.
JOY DIVISION
SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES
AU PAIRS
COCTEAU TWINS
ARTERY
HUMAN LEAGUE
HEAVEN 17
THE SPECIALS
CABARET VOLTAIRE
TEARS FOR FEARS
DEPECHE MODE
THE SOUND
THE GLOVE
THE CURE
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN
A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS
GANG OF FOUR
NEW ORDER
U2
THE POLICE
CRASS
NEW MODEL ARMY
ELVIS COSTELLO
SPLIT ENZ
THE THE
XTC
THE EXPLOITED
DISCHARGE
THE SMITHS
THE HOUSEMARTINS
RADIOHEAD
PORTISHEAD
PET SHOP BOYS
M Y BLOODY VALENTINE
SLOWDIVE
CRASH MUSIC
MUSIC OF THE TROUBLES
VIDEOS:
SEX PISTOLS
SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES (LIVE)
THE CURE (LIVE)
COCTEAU TWINS (LIVE)
NEW ORDER (LIVE)
PORTISHEAD (LIVE)
JOY DIVISION MINI-DOCUMENTARY
NUCLEAR WAR PREPAREDNESS: PROTECT & SURVIVE MANUAL