Music and British Identity: The Sound


Primary members: Adrian Borland, Graham Bailey (aka Graham Green), Michael Dudley, Bi Marshall
Band Biography
Albums of focus: Jeopardy (1980), From the Lion's Den (1981)
Songs for study:

From Jeopardy (1980):
  1. "I Can't Escape Myself"
  2. "Unwritten Law"
From From the Lion's Den (1981):
  1. "Winning"
  2. "Sense of Purpose"
  3. "Skeletons"
  4. "Fatal Flaw"
  5. "Hothouse"

 

"I Can't Escape Myself" (from Jeopardy, 1980)

So many feelings
Pent up in here
Left all alone, I'm with
The one I most fear

I'm sick and I'm tired
Of reasoning;
Just want to break out,
Shake off this skin

I, I can't
Escape myself

All my problems
Loom larger than life
I can't swallow
Another slice

Seems like my shadow
Mocks every stride
Can I learn to live with
What's trapped inside?

I, I can't
Escape myself

 

"Unwritten Law" (from Jeopardy, 1980)

We stab at our faith
To keep it alive
We draw the blood
But the law draws the line

A hand is a hand
A knife is a knife
Blood is blood
And life is life

We could go anywhere
It would all still be the same
A change of climate, a change of air
All the pressure would remain

I can read the unwritten law
I can read the unwritten law
A hand is a hand
A knife is a knife
Blood is blood
And life is life
A hand is a hand
A knife is a knife
Blood is blood
And life is life

The unwritten law
The unwritten law

"Sense of Purpose" (live, Old Grey Whistle Test, British TV, 1980)
Look in my eyes
See the lust and the love
Look in my eyes
When I'm talking to you

I'll take my life
Into my own hands
I'm the one that I will blame
I'm the one that understands

What are we going to do?
While we still got the strength to move
What are we going to do?
I'm asking, I'm asking you

A call to arms, a call to use arms
A call to brains, a call to use some brains
A call to the heart, a call to have a heart
To have a sense of purpose again

Are we where we want to be
All wrapped up in our safety?
Comfort and complacency
It hurts me, it hurts me so

What are we going to do?
While we still got the strength to move
What are we going to do?
I'm asking, I'm asking you

 

"Winning" (from From the Lion's Den, 1981)
What holds your hope together?
Make sure it's strong enough
When you reach the end of your tether
It's because it wasn't strong enough

I was going to drown,
Then I started swimming
I was going down,
Then I started winning

Winning - winning
Winning - winning

When you're on the bottom
Crawl back to the top
Something pulls you up,
and a voice you can't stop

I was going to drown,
Then I started swimming,
I was going down
Then I started winning

Winning - winning
Winning - winning

"Skeletons" (from From the Lion's Den, 1981)
There's a gaping hole in the way we are
With nothing to fill it up anymore
No flesh, no blood, just broken bone
A frame to hang our lives from

We're living like skeletons
We're living like skeletons

Won't someone wake the dead in me
Won't someone shake the dust off me
Give me water, give me bread
But don't give me up for dead

We're living like skeletons
We're living like skeletons

"Fatal Flaw" (from From the Lion's Den, 1981)

A fatal attraction
Been growing away from the light
And I can't come back now
Until I drag myself out of this vice
Sense of distance when you stand next to me
I've made a strange disappearance
One that no one can see
You can't reach me anymore
Turn to face the fatal flaw

We all have weakness
Moments that we can't contain
Right now I'm all weakness
I'll make another retreat again
Sense of distance when you stand close to me
I've a strange disappearance
One that no one can see
You can't reach me anymore
Turn to face the fatal flaw
A fatal attraction, fatal flaw
Been growing away from the light, fatal flaw

"Hothouse" (from From the Lion's Den, 1981)

Feelings pushing through
I tried to suppress
Content to watch them crawl
Inside their walls of glass


Sweat breaking out
I fought to contain
Like these savage roots
Of this growing pain

I found myself in the hothouse
I found myself in the hothouse


 

 

 


 

GRAFFITI STUDY WALL: MUSIC & VIDEOS
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
STEEL PULSE
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