Songs for study: From Seventeen Seconds (1980)
Robert Smith on recording the album:
"Phil [Phil Thornalley, co-producer and soon-to-be bandmate] got pretty stressed with us. He had ideas of what our music was like, but what I wanted wasn't really like anything we'd had before. I remember there was one particularly long row over a guitar sound that he didn't like. He thought it was horrible...and couldn't see that was a good thing! I wanted to make the ultimate fuck-off record, then the Cure could stop. Phil was trying to make it too nice...I wanted it to be virtually unbearable. I needed this recording to be our grand statement and in the course of making it I didn't much care about anything or anyone else in the world."
"A
Forest"
- from Seventeen Seconds (1980)
|
|
|
Come
closer and see See into the trees Find the girl While you can Come closer and see See into the dark Just follow your eyes Just follow your eyes |
I
hear her voice Calling my name The sound is deep In the dark I hear her voice And start to run Into the trees Into the trees Into the trees |
Suddenly
I stop But I know it's too late I'm lost in a forest All alone The girl was never there It's always the same I'm running towards nothing Again and again and again |
"Three"
- from Seventeen Seconds (1980)
|
|
|
"At
Night"
- from Seventeen Seconds (1980)
|
|
|
Sunk
deep in the night I sink in the night Standing alone underneath the sky I feel the chill of ice On my face I watch the hours go by The
hours go by... |
You
sleep Sleep in a safe bed Curled and protected Protected from sight Under a safe roof Deep in your house Unaware of the changes at night |
At
night I hear the darkness breathe I sense the quiet despair Listen to the silence At night Someone has to be there Someone has to be there Someone
must be there |
"Secrets"
- from Seventeen Seconds (1980)
|
|
|
Secrets Share with another girl Talking all night in a room All night Everything slowing down I wish I was yours... |
Strangers Nobody knows we love I catch your eyes in the dark One look relives the memory Remember me The way I used to be |
"Faith"
- from Faith (1981)
|
|
|
Catch
me if I fall I'm losing hold I can't just carry on this way And every time I turn away Lose another blind game The idea of perfection holds me... Suddenly I see you change Everything at once The same But the mountain never moves... |
Rape
me like a child Christened in blood Painted like an unknown saint There's nothing left but hope... Your voice is dead And old And always empty Trust in me through closing years Perfect moments wait... If only we could stay Please Say the right words Or cry like the stone white clown And stand Lost forever in a happy crowd... |
No-one
lifts their hands No-one lifts their eyes Justified with empty words The party just gets better and better... I
went away alone There's
nothing left but faith... |
"Other
Voices"
- from Faith (1981)
|
|
|
Whisper your name in an empty room You brush past my skin As soft as fur Taking hold I taste your scent Distant noises Other voices Pounding
in my broken head |
Come
around at Christmas I really have to see you Smile at me slyly Another festive compromise But I live with desertion And eight million people Distant noises Other voices Pulsing
in my swinging arms |
"The
Holy Hour"
- from Faith (1981)
|
|
|
I
kneel and wait in silence As one by one the people slip away Into the night The quiet and empty bodies Kiss the ground before they pray Kiss the ground And slip away... I
sit and listen dreamlessly |
I
stand and hear my voice Cry out A wordless scream at ancient power It breaks against stone I softly leave you crying... I
cannot hold what you devour
|
"The
Empty World"
- from The Top (1984)
|
|
|
As stiff as toys And tall as men And swaying like the wind-torn trees She talked about the empty world With eyes like poisoned birds |
She
talked about the armies That marched inside her head And how they made her dreams go bad But oh! How happy she was! How proud she was! To be fighting in the war In the empty world! |
"Charlotte
Sometimes"
- (1982)
|
|
|
All
the faces All the voices blur Change to one face Change to one voice Prepare yourself for bed The light seems bright And glares on white walls All the sounds of Charlotte sometimes Into the night with Charlotte sometimes Night
after night she lay alone in bed The
people seemed so close Sometimes
I'm dreaming |
On
that bleak track (See the sun is gone again) The tears were pouring down her face She was crying and crying for a girl Who died so many years before... Sometimes
I dream Charlotte
sometimes crying for herself
|
"One
Hundred Years"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
It
doesn't matter if we all die Ambition in the back of a black car In a high building there is so much to do Going home time A story on the radio... Something
small falls out of your mouth |
Stroking
your hair as the patriots are shot Fighting for freedom on the television Sharing the world with slaughtered pigs Have we got everything? She struggles to get away... The
pain |
Caressing
an old man And painting a lifeless face Just a piece of new meat in a clean room The soldiers close in under a yellow moon All shadows and deliverance Under a black flag A hundred years of blood Crimson The ribbon tightens round my throat I open my mouth And my head bursts open A sound like a tiger thrashing in the water Thrashing in the water Over and over We die one after the other Over and over We die one after the other after the other... It
feels like a hundred years |
"A
Short Term Effect"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
Movement No movement Just a falling bird Cold as it hits the bleeding ground He lived and died... Catch sight Cover me with earth Draped in black Static White sound A
day without substance |
Scream! As she tries to push him over Helpless and sick With teeth of madness Jump jump dance and sing Sideways across the desert A charcoal face Bites my hand Time is sweet Derange and disengage everything |
A
day without substance A change of thought The atmosphere rots with time Colours that flicker in water A short term effect An
echo |
"Hanging
Garden"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
Creatures
kissing in the rain Shapeless in the dark again In the hanging garden Please don't speak In the hanging garden No one sleeps Catching
haloes on the moon |
Fall
fall fall fall Into the walls Jump jump out of time Fall fall fall fall Out of the sky Cover my face as the animals cry In the hanging garden Creatures
kissing in the rain |
Fall
fall fall fall Into the walls Jump jump out of time Fall fall fall fall Out of the sky Cover my face as the animals die In the hanging garden In
the hanging garden |
"Siamese
Twins"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
I
chose an eternity of this Like falling angels The world disappeared Laughing into the fire Is it always like this? Flesh and blood and the first kiss The first colours The first kiss We
writhed under a red light |
The
walls and the ceiling move in time Push a blade into my hands Slowly up the stairs And into the room Is it always like this? Dancing
in my pocket In
the morning I cried |
Leave
me to die You won't remember my voice I walked away and grew old You never talk We never smile I scream You're nothing I don't need you any more You're nothing It
fades and spins Sing
out loud Is
it always like this? |
"The
Figurehead"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
Sharp
and open Leave me alone And sleeping less every night As the days become heavier and weighted Waiting In the cold light A noise A scream tears my clothes as the figurines tighten With spiders inside them And dust on the lips of a vision of hell I laughed in the mirror for the first time in a year A
hundred other words blind me with your purity |
I
can lose myself in Chinese art and American girls All the time Lose me in the dark Please do it right Run into the night I will lose myself tomorrow Crimson pain My heart explodes My memory in a fire And someone will listen At least for a short while... I
can never say no to anyone but you |
Too
many secrets Too many lies Writhing with hatred Too many secrets Please make it good tonight... But the same image haunts me In sequence In despair of time I
will never be clean again Touch
her eyes I
will never be clean again |
"A
Strange Day"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
Give
me your eyes That I might see the blind man kissing my hands The sun is humming My head turns to dust as he plays on his knees And
the sand |
And
I laugh as I drift in the wind Blind Dancing on a beach of stone Cherish the faces as they wait for the end A sudden hush across the water And we're here again... And
the sand |
My
head falls backs And the walls crash down And the sky And the impossible Explode Held for one moment I remember a song An impression of sound Then everything is gone Forever A
strange day... |
"Cold"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
Scarred Your back was turned Curled like an embryo Take another face You will be kissed again I was cold as I mouthed the words And crawled across the mirror I
wait |
A
shallow grave A monument to the ruined age Ice in my eyes And eyes like ice don't move Screaming at the moon Another past time Your
name |
Everything
as cold as life Can no-one save you? Everything As cold as silence And you will never say a word Your
name |
"Pornography"
- from Pornography (1982)
|
|
|
A
hand in my mouth A life spills into the flowers We all look so perfect As we all fall down In
an electric glare |
But
it's too late
One
more day like today and I'll kill you I
must fight this sickness I
must fight this sickness... |