HYAENA ERA - CREDITS

 
 
  Dear Prudence 
Tattoo
 
There's A Planet In My Kitchen

Let Go
The Humming Wires

I Promise  
Throw Them To The Lions

Dazzle  
We Hunger  
Take Me Back  
Belladonna  
Swimming Horses  
Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man  
Running Town  
Pointing Bone  
Blow The House Down

Overground 
Voices  
Placebo Effect  
Red Over White

Play At Home

Robert Smith  
Budgie
Siouxsie Sioux
Steven Severin

 
     

 


     
  Dear Prudence Lyrics  
 
 
 

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out and play

Dear Prudence open up your eyes
Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
The wind is low the birds will sing
That you are part of everything
Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?

Look around round
Look around round round
Look around

Dear Prudence let me see you smile
Dear Prudence like a little child
The clouds will be a daisy chain
So let me see you smile again
Dear Prudence won't you let me see you smile?

 
     
  Dear Prudence Credits  
     
 

Lennon/McCartney - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SEVERIN: "I think reviews that said it wasn’t particularly different to the Beatles’ version haven’t listened to the original to find out. It’s completely different. On the ‘White Album’, it’s a soft ballad, we’ve just made it sound like the Banshees." Source:  Melody Maker 01/10/83.
SMITH: " ’Dear Prudence’ is not trying to open another door so we can eventually ingratiate ourselves a little bit more into the popular consciousness." Source:  Melody Maker 01/10/83.
SIOUXSIE: "As we were recording it I could see it was turning out to be really commercial, so much so that I suggested putting it on the B-side instead." Source:  The Authorised Biography 2002.
SIOUXSIE: "I think the sound of it sticks out like a sore thumb." Source:  Melody Maker 01/10/83.
SEVERIN: "When we finished it, I suddenly thought ‘This’ll never get played in clubs because it hasn’t got the disco beat' ." Source:  Melody Maker 01/10/83.
 
     

 


     
  Tattoo Lyrics  
 
 
 

When you're sitting all alone
In the middle of the floor
There's something uncontrollable
As you sit there watching the door

Colour me

A warm feeling
Tattooed on the inside

Slap your thigh, slap your calf
Sing your mantra, leave your mark

Colour me

Something fierce along my spine
To scare the mad men from behind

Fortify my arms
With some snake like vines

Colour me
Colour me
Colour me

Like a stomach split in half
By a surgeons cutting art

Colours me
Colours me
Colours me

When you're sitting all alone
In the middle of the floor
There's something uncontrollable
As you sit there watching the door

But tattooed on the inside
A warm feeling inoculating 

Colours me

Slap your thigh, slap your calf
Sing your mantra, leave your mark

Colour me

 
     
  Tattoo Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Harmonic & Drone Basses
Budgie - Timbales, Snares, Piano and Vocal Percussion

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  The film Tattoo.  Source:  Downside Up liner notes.  
     

 


     
  There's A Planet In My Kitchen Lyrics  
 
 
 

Oh there's a planet in my kitchen
There's something funny in the soup
Mop the floor, lock the door
Flying saucers in the room

Did you hear that fly?

Knives and spoons of mountain dunes
A freezer full of loony tunes
Detergent bubbles
There's millions of those buggers
And there's a bucket in the moon

Did the kitchen sink wink?

Tornados of cornflakes
And snowflakes
Teacups in orbit
Hello? Did you hear that fly?

Well I'm not waiting any longer
I'll just sneak back in the larder
And wait
Plant Kitchen's taken over

There's a planet in my kitchen
Now there's a kitchen in my plant
Planet Kitchen's taken over
It's taken over

 
     
  There's A Planet In My Kitchen Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voices & Cutlery
Severin - Bass
Smith - Guitar
Budgie - Drums

 
     

 


     
  Let Go Lyrics  
 
 
 

Nautical mile stretch out for years
A space walk, untethered, let go of your fears
A pioneering seed with every step you breathe
Walks away from the crouching shuttle

And the countdown probe
Around the globe
says let go

Machine in charge with the wry smile flickers
On his red and blue dials
Nautical miles stretch out the years
The back pack suffocation with your creeping fears

And the countdown probe
Around the globe
Just let's go
On an endless limbo

And the countdown probe
Around the globe
Just let's go
Let Go

 
     
  Let Go Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Piano
Budgie - Drums & Apollo DX7

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  The film '2001: A Space Odyssey.  Source:  Downside Up liner notes.  
     

 


     
  The Humming Wires Lyrics  
 
 
 

The humming wires
On the telegraph lines
The piebald tyres
Race on the heated track
There's a burning message
It's the latest news
The humming wires
Will relay it soon
Did you hear the news?
Did you hear the news?

 
     
  The Humming Wires Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice & Telegraph Guitar
Severin - Guitar & Organ
Budgie - Drums & Scrap Metal

 
     

 


     
  I Promise Lyrics  
 
 
 

When the samurai cries
It's like an unloved child
And when the sad child sighs
You can hear the sound of lovers' cry
Lovers' cry
Wait until the dark
For the night dog's bark
When the ravens beat their wings
On broken promises

I promise, I promise
I promise, I promise

When a promise lies,
It's like a friend that dies
When a flame has died
All you can do is sigh
Oh sigh
Sigh, oh,  sigh, sigh!

And when the samurais dies
Oh loveless child
And the nightingale sighs
At the saddened, blackened sky
You will hear the sound of lovers' cry
You will hear the sound of lovers' cry
On broken promises

I promise, l promise
I promise, I promise

 
     
  I Promise Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice & Music Box
Severin - Guitar & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion

 
     

 


     
  Throw Them To The Lions Lyrics  
 
 
 

Come and meet deliverance
Blind faith will set you free
Eat the hand that feeds the host
Easter man now bleed

A burning bush, a burning bower
Sitting pretty in your ivory tower

Throw them to the lions

Straying from the glory path
Into salvation's jaws
Mock the man that wears the crown
Bless this night of claws

Throw them to the lions

Laughing in the ashes
Like Nero razing Rome
Your prophet mumbles nonsense
Carved in blocks of stone

Throw them to the lions

 
     
  Throw Them To The Lions Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass, Keyboards & Guitar
Murray Mitchell - Howl Guitar
Budgie - Double Drums

 
     

 


     
  Dazzle Lyrics  
 
 
 

The stars that shine
And the stars that shrink
In the face of stagnation
The water runs
Before your eyes

Swallowing diamonds
Cutting throats
Your teeth when you grin
Reflecting beams on tombstones

A jamboree of surprises
Playing Russian Roulette, or the lucky dip
A clench fist to your heart
Coal dust on your lung

Dazzle, it's a glittering prize
Dazzle, it's a glittering prize

A silver tongue for the golden one
In a dead sea of fluid mercury
Baby piano cries, under your heavy index and thumb
Pull some strings, let them sing

The stars that shine
And the stars that shrink
In the face of stagnation
The water runs
Before your eyes

Dazzle, it's a glittering prize
Dazzle, it's a glittering prize

 
     
  Dazzle Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards
Strings - The Chandos Players

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SIOUXSIE: "The sentiment behind it is of lying in the gutter but still looking up at the stars. I’d seen ‘Marathon Man’, and I was really intrigued by the guy swallowing diamonds to keep them, and then realising it was like swallowing glass - that they would pass through his system and tear him apart. So that’s the line - ‘Swallowing diamonds, cutting throats’. " Source:  Melody Maker 17/10/92.
SIOUXSIE: "Quite a lot of this, and ‘Swimming Horses’, came from visiting Israel for the first time. ’The sea of fluid mercury’ in the lyric, is the Dead Sea." Source:  Melody Maker 17/10/92.
MCCARRICK: "I'd been recording a Peel session with Marc Almond and it was all going horribly wrong. Marc was screaming, everyone else was screaming, and then there was this shout from down the corridor. It was Sioux and Budgie. She looked about 7ft tall and with the most piercing blue eyes - a terrifying vision in real life, like a big strutting cockatoo. Shortly afterwards, she sent a tape over to me, Anne and Gini. It was her playing a piano part which she wanted arranged for a big string section. That turned out to be the intro to 'Dazzle'." Source:  The Authorised Biography 2002.
 
     

 


     
  We Hunger Lyrics  
 
 
 

A ravenous greed
For a brood to feed
A lusting spawn
On a weakened fawn

Do you hunger for this
Hunger for this

Sucking leeches feel the need
Sucking dry unsaited stomach pops
Sharpened knives with flying sparks
Sagging bodies with stretch marks
And your belly aches

Do you hunger for this
Hunger for this

As the rust creeps
Corrosion seeps, a rotting seed
Eat me, feed me
With your belching foul breath
Your destructive kiss death

Do you hunger for this
Hunger for this

Just the taste of a sweet kiss

Shanghaied on a locust flight
The thirst from a vampire bite
Fills the emptiness inside
Consuming, everything, green eyed

We hunger
We hunger

Do you hunger for this
Hunger for this

The bliss of a sweet kiss

Do you hunger for this
Hunger for this

We hunger
We hunger

 
     
  We Hunger Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SIOUXSIE: "I'd just bought a video machine, that was three years ago, and everybody I knew seemed to be, like, in a video nasty club. I mean, there was a lot of unreality, waking up to video images. A song like 'We Hunger' arose out of that environment. I wasn't really living with any subtlety then." Source:  NME 28/09/85.  
     

 


     
  Take Me Back Lyrics  
 
 
 

Deep in the heart
Of a seething beast
Think of bright lights
A splendid feast

But something's missing
She's feeling low
Something's missing
She's going home

Take me back, I'm feeling low
Take me back,  I'm going home
Take me back, I'm so alone
Take me back, I'm traveling home

Suspicious stranger
There's something wrong
She is changed
Ah but this is not

She is back
But she's not home
She is back
But she's still alone

She came back after all this time
She came back to warning signs
All is black when the lights are on
Nothing rhymes its been so long

Deep in the heart
Of a seething beast
Think of bright lights
A splendid feast
Where you arrive
Can be home
Where you come from
Isn't always home

Take me back, I'm coming home
Take me back, where I belong
Take me back, I'm leaving home
Take me back, I'm coming home

 
     
  Take Me Back Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums, Percussion & Marimba
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  A theme first explored during Siouxsie's monologue for the Channel Four documentary 'Play At Home' and to all intents and purposes a companion piece. Siouxsie relates the story of girl who has grown tired of the city and leaves for the country to return 'home' to visit her mother and sister. When things in the country do not turn out as planned the girl reaches an epiphany that her real 'home' is back in the city and it is there that she longs to return.

BUDGIE: “Nothing had been written and nothing was happening. I had a go on the bass and the guitar, and Robert was playing around on piano. That’s how we worked out ‘Take Me Back’. It was the only way things moved forward.” Source:  The Authorised Biography 2002.

 
     

 


     
  Belladonna Lyrics  
 
 
 

Sunrise breaks its fatal perfume
And I'm dizzy to distraction
The scented clutches of a siren's lament
Embrace the sound of enchantment

Five fathoms deep, the lovers leap
The lanterns of skin beckon us in
O belladonna

Night falls decent shrouds her intent
In a halo of sharks and a skeleton mask
O belladonna

Daylight devours your unguarded hours
Burnt and charred, this bride of scars
O belladonna

Lost in the glare, all of us stare
The patterns of pain, scream out your name
O belladonna

 
     
  Belladonna Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  Belladonna, also known as Deadly Nightshade is a well known shrub with leaves and berries that are highly toxic. Legend has it that the name Belladonna is said to record an old superstition that at certain times it takes the form of an enchantress of exceeding loveliness, whom it is dangerous to look upon.

This song started life during the A Kiss In the Dreamhouse sessions but having proved unsatisfactory it was shelved until work started on the Hyaena album. Source:  The File Phase Three Issues
Three & Four.
 
     

 


     
  Swimming Horses Lyrics  
 
 
 

Falling in your
Falling in your
In your arms
In your arms
Fish on a line learns to live on
Dry land
Thrown back again to drown

Kinder with poison
Than pushed down a well
Or a face burnt to hell
Feel the cruel stones
Breaking her bones

Dead before born
Words fall in ruins
But no sound
She's dying of your shame
She's maimed by your pain

He gives birth to swimming horses
He gives birth to swimming horses

Fish on a line
But back in the water to drown
We drown
Floating in sky

He gives birth to swimming horses
He gives birth to swimming horses

Take a ride on the tide
With the assassin at your side
This weightlessness under water
Forgets in slow motion
And washes pointless tortures

He gives birth to swimming horses
He gives birth to swimming horses

Floating in sky like fishes can fly
Through your arms

 
     
  Swimming Horses Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SIOUXSIE: "This is based on a programme I saw about a female version of Amnesty, called ‘Les Sentinelle’. "They rescue women who are trapped in certain religious climates in the Middle East, religions that view any kind of pre-marital sexual aspersion as punishable by death - either by the hand of the eldest brother in the family, or by public stoning. And there was this instance of a woman whose daughter had developed a tumour, and, of course, gossip abounded that she was pregnant. The doctor who removed the tumour allowed her to take it back to the village to prove that, no, it wasn’t a baby - but they wouldn’t believe her. The woman knew her daughter would have to be stoned to death so she poisoned her, out of kindness, to save her from a worse fate. So the song starts, ‘Kinder than with poison...’ I also used the imagery of, ‘He gives birth to swimming horses’, from the fact that male sea horses give birth to the children, so they’re the only species that have a maternal feel for the young. It was, I suppose, an abstract way of linking it all together without being sensationalist. I remember just being really moved by that programme, and wanting to get the sorrow out of me." Source:  Melody Maker 17/10/92.  
     

 


     
  Dear Prudence Lyrics  
 
 
 

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out and play

Dear Prudence open up your eyes
Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
The wind is low the birds will sing
That you are part of everything
Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?

Look around round
Look around round round
Look around

Dear Prudence let me see you smile
Dear Prudence like a little child
The clouds will be a daisy chain
So let me see you smile again
Dear Prudence won't you let me see you smile?

 
     
  Dear Prudence Credits  
     
 

Lennon/McCartney - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     

 


     
  Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man Lyrics  
 
 
 

Following desire in your eyes
You're mine you're mine all mine
Following the signs ... in your mind
You're mine, you're mine, all mine

Bring me the head of the preacher man
In the sickening daze ...

O the rotting sun washes down
The moonshine boys
The vultures drool
They pluck the gold dust from his eyes
And pick his bones until they're clean
The book of sorrows the American dreams

Bring me the head of the preacher man
On the blazing trail

Heaven holds lonestar promise el dorado
The insane theatre, once more we rise
To drain the last of liquid sleep
The gift of chance
Eating the worm as the vapour drops & dances
And everything stops & dances

Bring me the head of the preacher man
We tumble down these lonely days
We tumble down

 
     
  Bring Me The Head Of The Preacher Man Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     

 


     
  Running Town Lyrics  
 
 
 

Just a step onto the street
An uncomfortable heat
Rattlers at your feet
In running town

Helter skelter all a swelter
The impetus is seething
In running town
A thousand curses
Full speed ahead

Lockjaw aggression
And buzzing imitations
Deride the friendly Martian
In running town

Helter skelter all a swelter
The impetus is seething
In running town
A thousand curses
Full speed ahead

If you gaze into her face
She'll come back & drown
All refugees in the sea
Of running town
A thousand curses
Full speed ahead

Laughter rebounds & strangles
That sound in running town

 
     
  Running Town Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SIOUXSIE: "I wrote the song 'Running Town' about Sydney, a city I truly hate. Everyone is in a hurry and walks around grinding their teeth. Instead of making a 'I hate Australia' statement I tried to make it more general so that it can be applied by anyone to their hometown in the same way that when reading a book you can often apply it to your own situation. It's important to be allowed to use your imagination. In that respect it's a pity that reading books is not a more popular pastime." Source:  Dutch Interview 1984.  
     

 


     
  Pointing Bone Lyrics  
 
 
 

From the fury pit, a reek of misery
Like a trumpet groan, tornado moan
The splendor splits like a golden skin
He and the wizards cry like hummingbirds
In treasure glows, your weeping wings
And a slaughter grins, on a pleasure spike

When held on high by the riverside
Like a torn-throat child
In a jackals hide
Cool water dies, vile diamond eyes
Silent in flamingo ease
Distant in troubled trance
Within a whirlpool, we're breaking our backs
The tears of the moon
The sweat of the sun
Sacrificial hearts for a pointing bone

With a gorgons head and a coal of skulls
They're kindling fires in open wounds
Pointing bone
In a jaguar skin, blood matted mane
Beacons blaze toward a waning moon

 
     
  Pointing Bone Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  A type of Aboriginal magic, the pointing of the bone (sometimes called singing someone) was believed to cause death. People who had been 'pointed' often died, not as a result of the magic itself, but because of their belief that they would die i.e., death through superstition or imagination.  
     

 


     
  Blow The House Down Lyrics  
 
 
 

Weaving in his basket chair
Twist you round a lock of hair
Made of straw, the wicker man
Made of straw, I'll blow your house down

Bishops falling from the windows
The lightening makes your hair stand on end

This dervish frenzy, will make you run around
This dervish frenzy, will turn your head around
Blow the house down

Stretching a rubber band miracles trip over
Feel where we stand
Shift the ground, caterpillar man
Crumbling castles in the sand
Blow the house down

Feebly we put our heads out of our foxy lair
We feel the chill from the night soar
Standing in the storm, waiting for the flash to crash
Counting seconds before we turn to ash

It's getting nearer
Blow the house down
This dervish frenzy, will turn your head around

Standing on the stairs that want to fall down
It's getting nearer don't turn your head around
Made of straw
A lighted match
Burn the house down
Turn your head around
Pillars of salt watch as it all burns down
Down to the ground
Blow the house down

 
     
  Blow The House Down Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass & Keyboards
Budgie - Drums & Percussion
Robert Smith - Guitar & Keyboards

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  The line ‘Bishops Falling From The Windows’ takes its inspiration from the Luis Bunuel film ‘L'Age d'Or’  
     

 


     
  Overground Lyrics  
 
 
 

Got to give up life in this netherworld
Gonna go up to where the air is stale
And live a life of pleasantries
Mingle in the modern families

Overground from abnormality
Overboard for identity
Overground for normality
Overboard-an identity

This limbo is no place
To be a digit in another space
In another crowd
I'm nameless bound

Overground from abnormality
Overboard for identity
Overground for normality
Overboard an identity

Overground I'll be worse than me
Overground it's clear to me
I'll be worse than me

 
     
  Overground Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Carruthers  - Guitar
Budgie - Drums
The Chandos Players - Strings

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SIOUXSIE: "On the tour after ’Dreamhouse’, we went out with a string section and we incorporated ‘Overground’ into the set. We got so many enquiries as to whether we would release it like that, we went ahead." Source:  Melody Maker 17/10/92.  
     

 


     
  Voices Lyrics  
 
 
 

And I'm hearing the whispers
From my window
And I'm hearing something
Scratching on the inside

Could it be the sea
Beckoning me, oh
Could it be
Can I see

Voices
On the air
Voices
On the air

And I'm feeling like a
Moody situation
And I feel the waves
Laughing with contempt

Could I feel my senses
Leaving me, oh
Could it be
Can I see

Voices
On the air
Voices
On the air

 
     
  Voices Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Carruthers  - Guitar
Budgie - Drums
The Chandos Players - Strings

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  The Haunted Palace by Edgar Alan Poe & On Wine & Hashish by Baudelaire.  
     

 


     
  Placebo Effect Lyrics  
 
 
 

You dip your hands into my flesh
And say you won't reveal a scar
I must have faith in this procedure
It's a miracle, It's a wonder

A thousand hidden needles
In a thousand covered nerves
Stick pins in my receptacles
Look to your Voodoo doll, your mojo

Staying alive at five
For you to cure my ailments
Another soul is saved
With your bogus medications

Which colour shall we have today?
Depends on how I feel you say
Consult your research on the media
See blue will calm my hysteria

Staying alive at five
For you to cure my ailments
Another soul is saved
With your bogus medications

Staying alive at five
With your empty containers
Another corpse ornaments your waiting room
A placebo effect reversed

Will you ever regret, the placebo effect
Can you ever forget, the placebo effect

 
     
  Placebo Effect Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Carruthers  - Guitar
Budgie - Drums
The Chandos Players - Strings

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  "Placebo Effect" came from hearing a programme on Capitol Radio, when one of the station's resident Kildares was discussing the kind and colour of medicaments that different nations most favour. Apparently the UK goes for pills while the French like suppositories and the Italians injections.  Source:  Melody Maker 17/02/79.  
     

 


     
  Red Over White Lyrics  
 
 
 

The woods and the town
Covered in snow
All transformed to a fairytale
Like the fresh page of a book opened up
Ready
Waiting
For the story to begin
For you're all in a scene
Objects in black ink
Fringed in white
Breathing and living
And anticipating
A colour
All transformed to a fairytale
Unreal and inviting
Inviting you to step in
And follow the path never-ending

You're now leaving imprints
And somehow expecting
Expecting someone

Maybe the prince in disguise
Suffering a snow queen curse
But you're wrong of course
It's in reverse

Out in the snow
Muffled
The last silent night
The last sacrifice

Red running over white
Red running over white
Red running over white
Red running over white
Running red over white
Running red over white

Red over white
Red over white
Red over white

 
     
  Red Over White Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Carruthers  - Guitar
Budgie - Drums
Ginny Ball & Anne Stephenson - Strings

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SIOUXSIE: "We did this EP with Hedges in Bavaria. We wanted a stream babbling through one song, 'Red Over White', so Hedges set everything up in a field beside a stream. I felt really stupid at first because there were these blood curdling screams I had to do. I got over it and really started enjoying myself, when I noticed the lights coming on in the farmhouses in the distance. They must have thought a sheep was being strangled or something. We didn't use it in the end. The EP broke in our new guitarist, John Carruthers, who did a good job." Source:  Record Hunter 12/92.  
     

 


     
  Play At Home - Robert Smith  
 
 
 

If I’d known then all of this would have been completely different it wouldn’t have been like this.  It wasn’t that, it wasn’t that at all, nothing so clean, nothing so perfect. Was it far? I can’t really remember, don’t know.  There were three reasons, I felt sick, most of them were asleep and it just didn’t feel right at the time.  Baby baby, baby baby.  Was it as cold as it is here?  It’s not cold here, it’s been a lot colder.  Moving,  moving moving, always like you want to leave, if you want to leave just go.  Anna? Chance? what have they got to do with it?, what have they got to do with it? What have they got to do with it?  If you looked at them in a certain way they jumped like that, like that, like that.  Why don’t you just listen, It wasn’t that it wasn’t that at all, nothing so clean, nothing so perfect, nothing so clean, nothing so perfect it wasn’t like that can’t think can’t think, it’s too late I can’t stay here anymore, no I don’t, no no I can’t stay here anymore

 
     

 


     
  Play At Home - Budgie  
 
 
 

The famous Prince Albert in London was noted for all he had done
And Kingy & Queeny from Blackburn went to see him with young Albert their son
A grand little lad was young Albert all dressed in his best quite a swell
With a stick with horses at handle the finest that Harrods could sell

They didn't have much fun in Soho the clubs they were seedy and small
There's no wrecks nobody drinking in fact nought to laugh at all
The next day for further amusement they paid and went into the zoo
Where there's Polar Bears, Lions & Peccaries, aye and Vodka & Tonics too

There was one little Peccary called Gregory his nose was all covered in scars
He laid a coenobulant posture with the side of his face to the bars
Now Albert had heard about Peccaries how they were ferocious and wild
But to see Gregory lying so peaceful it didn't seem right to the child

So Albert the brave little fellow not showing a morsel of fear
Took a stick with his horses at handle and pushed it in Gregory's ear
You could see that the Peccary didn't like it and rousing himself from his nap
Pulled Albert inside of the cage with him and swallowed him leaving his hat

Now Kingy who'd seen the occurrence and not knowing what to do next
Said "Queeny, young Peccary's ate our Albert" and Queeny said "Eee I am vexed"
Then Kingy & Queeny from Blackburn, quite rightly when all's said and done
Complained to the animal keeper that the Peccary had eaten their son

The keeper was quite nice about it, he said "What  nasty mishap,
Are you sure it's your boy he's eaten?" Kingy said "Am I sure? There's his cap, (there's his cap)"
The manager had to be sent for, he came, he said "What's to do?"
Kingy said "Young Peccary's ate our Albert and him in his Sunday clothes too"

Then Queeny said "Right's right young fellow I think it's a shame and a sin
For the Peccary to go and eat Albert and after we'd paid to come in"
The manager wanted no trouble he took out his purse right away
Saying "How much to settle the matter?" Kingy said "How much do you usually pay?"

At this Queeny got a bit awkward when she thought where her Albert had gone
She said "No no someone's got to be summoned" So that was decided upon
And off they went to the police station in front of the Magistrate chap
They told him what happened to Albert and proved it by showing his cap

The Magistrate gave his opinion that no one was to blame
And he said that he hoped King & Queeny would have other sons to their name
At that mother got blazing and "Thank you Sir kindly" said she
"What waste our lives raising children to feed another Peccary? not me"

 
     

 


     
  Play At Home - Siouxsie Sioux  
 
 
 

She couldn’t account for the emptiness she felt here in the heart of the beast.  Success, bright lights, noisy friends music, something always happening, happening all so fast, but something was lacking, she yearned for something solid, something that was always there, unchanged.  The decision was made,  all had been arranged,  she was going home. 

Outside the window the scenery changed quite suddenly, where before all stood shoulder to shoulder, now all was quite isolated.  The winter evening drawing in made it seem all the more desolate, cut off.  She felt her first tingle of panic. 

She got off the train deriding her foolish imagination, how absurd, feeling quite thrilled now and looking forward to the short walk from the station to her home through the woods.  Ahh the woods, how exciting, she was already feeling that she was embarking on a small adventure. 

Standing at the mouth of the woods looking down it’s long black throat she took her first steps in and was slowly consumed.  It was dark now, with the moon making brief appearances through the branches, serving as a tease not a comfort.  It would be fine if she could focus her sight to tunnel vision, but all to the side and behind was alive.  The next tingle of panic and this made things worse, the path narrowed, the branches closed in and the sound of a thousand flick knives echoed,  the trees had their claws out, not just a tingle of panic now, run.  

She escaped, spat out as it were, out of breathe, she stood outside her own front door.  Then she was inside with the family, disappointed, well yes.  It wasn’t the fanfare welcome she expected or needed.  Oh it was very warm, and they were very eager to hear about all her tales, but she felt ill at ease, she imagined herself being suffocated, what with all the plans they were making for her to stay for not just a few days, but maybe a week or two or more, ignoring her protestations like she wasn’t there, and all the while watching her with those greedy possessive eyes.  

When it was time for the good hearty meal she was relieved, she was hungry, um umm her mothers cooking, the meat had always had a unique taste to it, she must ask her for the secret. 

Seated at the table opposite both her sister and her mother she watched them, heads down, they were so intent on eating, such concentration, she herself took a few bites but found inexplicably that she had lost her appetite.  Every now and then they would look up and catch her eyes, making her feel embarrassed, guilty, but she couldn’t stop watching them, it was fascinatingly ugly, from fork to mouth then back to plate never ending, the meal was over. 

That night the silence was unbearable, her sleep disturbed by the door being opened, or was she still asleep?, all so confusing.  Opening her eyes she looked up to see a figure hovering at the foot of her bed, was it her sister? All was still silent, her fear stopped her from calling out and the figure floating out. 

She was beside herself now, she flunk the bedclothes off and ran down the stairs turning on lights as she did so.  Something stopped her in her tracks at the door to the front room, she heard the hushed bickerings of a tug of war, “It’s mine, it’s mine, give it to me”.  She opened the door and there was her mother on all fours with her sister pulling at something raw and dripping red.  They both looked up and caught her with their eyes, pinned her to the spot, they were coming closer and closer, “Take me back, take me back” 

Look to where you have arrived not to where you have come from

 
     

 


     
  Play At Home - Steven Severin - The Assassin's Script  
 
 
 

Kennedy got off to a bad start...
fired by blood and quicksand...
glass spiraled round his spine
bursting through his target bones
splintering into a million laughing fists. 

(Endless slow-motion movie loop
reveals the other gunman) 

The Ruby barrel glistening...
kiss the throne, boy...
Fortune creaks an ugly wink...
crooked arched gray with spite
the chance of a lifetime
Blood pumping through Papal cloth...
Headless chicken G-men flounder
in the gunshot wake...
A networked matinee slapstick dance... 

The tragedy was a macabre copy of the film...
Limousine actress in a public disguise
mourning a realized obsession
Dead days ashes scented by lilies
vibrant - alive w/despair
"Roll back those pretty blue eyes
play dead baby, play dead" 

Fanfare blast...Motorcade flash
words charged by electricity banners
tongues tied to bedpost
melting tonsils red-hot branding iron
steamy, breathy whispers...
metal violence in nail and vein...
toneless sweety-pie sentences
snipers in the rented pit
choosing targets - BIG GOO
(dribbling death against all the lampposts) 

Snapshot parody
A vaudeville scene
FBI plug the seeping ebony arteries
..born-again President...
resurrection in black phoenix and rainbow shapes 

(Endless newsreel loop
of the other gunman
leaving...)