JOIN HANDS ERA - CREDITS

 
 
  Pulled To Bits

Poppy Day  
Regal Zone  
Placebo Effect  
Icon  
Premature Burial  
Playground Twist 
Mother/Oh Mein Papa  
The Lords Prayer

Mittageisen 
Love In A Void
Infantry

 
     

 


     
  Pulled To Bits Lyrics  
 
 
 

Tongues are clacking
Words of one vision
One tiny incision
And teeth are cracking
On thin air, on thin air

Pulled to bits 
In silence
Left  rotting on the ground
Slowly pulled to bits 
In silence
Without a sound, without a sound

Buildings bleached with chatter chatter clatter
Fill their senses with cement
Watch the people shatter
One by one, one by one

Pulled to bits 
In silence
Left  rotting on the ground
Slowly pulled to bits 
In silence
Without a sound, without a sound

Young lungs snapping, coming up for air
The mindless ones yapping
Slashing through the thoroughfare
One by one, one by one
Oh one by one
Without a fucking care

Pulled to bits in silence
Left  rotting on the ground
Slowly pulled to bits 
In silence
Without a sound, without a fucking sound

Pulled to bits
Yackety Yackety yack yack yack
Pulled to bits
Shatter shatter shatter clatter
Pulled to bits
Yap yap yap yapping
Pulled to bits
Without a sound

 
     
  Pulled To Bits Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
McKay - Guitar & Saxophone
Morris - Drums

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:  The acts of copy cat violence that followed the release and subsequent withdrawal of Stanley Kubricks A Clockwork Orange.  
     

 


     
  Poppy Day Lyrics  
 
 
 

In Flanders fields
The poppies grow
Between the crosses
Row on row
That mark our place
We are the dead

 
     
  Poppy Day Credits  
     
 

Words adapted from John McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields'
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SEVERIN: "Last November 11 I was watching the TV when they had the two minutes silence in memory of the war dead and I thought wouldn’t it be nice if there were music for it." A leaping notion that, silence set to music. Source:  Sounds 29/09/79.  
     

 


     
  Regal Zone Lyrics  
 
 
 

Coronets rest on a death's head mask
No-one is safe while the curfew lasts
But crusted orbs glitter, scepters gleam
While helmets of blood fill the screen

They look away
And then they say
"For the good of the land"
For the love of the man"

Standing alone
Sitting alone
On the throne
Of the regal zone
 
Old limbs hang in the torture room
While old kings hang in the portrait room
Their noble eyes gaze on the uneasy dance
Of the squirming body on the marble plate

They look away
and then they say
"For the good of the land"
for the love of the man"

Standing alone
Sitting alone
On the throne
Of the regal zone

 
     
  Regal Zone Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar & Saxophone

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SEVERIN: "It is absurd to say that your emotions when watching say a TV news item in Iran (the starting point of ‘Regal Zone’) are unreal just because you aren’t out on the streets of Teheran yourself". Source:  Sounds  29/09/79.
SIOUXSIE: " 'Regal Zone' is personally political for me." Source:  Sounds  05/04/80.
SIOUXSIE: "There was conflict in Iran and bombings in London and it all seemed to fit. It wasn't any pro-militarymessage; we just wanted to capture the spirit of what things were like at the time. Severin had written 'Regal Zone; which summed all that up." Source:  The Authorised Biography 2002.
 
     

 


     
  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
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar

 
     
  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.  
     

 


     
  Icon Lyrics  
 
 
 

My eyes went up to Heaven
You didn't say
 I'd be blind without them
Icons, feed the fires
Icons, falling from the spires

Thine eyes rain down from Heaven
You always said
 I'd be blind without them
Icons, feed the fires
Icons, falling from the spires

Those words hang like vicious spittle
Dribbling from that tongue
Close your eyes to your lies
Force feed more pious meat
Those nebulous codes and disciplines
Stick in that new born throat
Instill a lie, an artificial eye
To view a perfect land

Icons, feed the fires
Icons, falling from the spires

Can I? stick skewers in my skin
and whirl a dervish spin
Can I? set myself on fire
to prove some kind of desire

Icons, feed the fires
Icons, falling from the spires

The guilt is golden
The guilt is golden
Those ageless lies
The shuttered eyes
It's the night piece
It's the Icon

Icons, feed the fires
Icons, falling from the spires

 
     
  Icon Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SEVERIN: "There’s a song we have called ‘Icon’ that was inspired by Dervishes getting themselves into such a state that they could put needles through their heads. Our interest in that state is a theme that runs through our work." Source:  Sounds 07/03/81. 
SIOUXSIE: "There’s amazing religions in the East where they go into states of, umm…. Dervishes and they put skewers through their skin, I don’t know what that’s called, they go into mad dervishes, chanting and mantras and that. I’m just fascinated in the power of the mind over the body I suppose, and what’s outside, not just the mind, what other elements are involved in it, you can endure an incredible amount of pain without faltering, again, when the adrenalin and drive is pushed." Source:  Rox Box Interview 10/05/86.
 
     

 


     
  Premature Burial Lyrics  
 
 
 

This catacomb compels me
Corroding and inert
It weighs and tries to pull me
Must I resist or re-assert?
The unchanged and the unchangeable
Doing the zombierama
Singing Oh come and be like me
We're all sisters and brothers

Ejected to this state of being
Don't bury me with this
I'm in a state of catalepsy
Can I really exist?
Clawing from the inside
Drowning in your chant
Thoughts come flooding through me
Despairing unity

The unchanged and the unchangeable
Doing the zombierama
Singing Oh come and be like me
We're all sisters and brothers

Red and white carnations
Can't intoxicate my brain
This blissful suffocation
It is driving me to pain
Oh what a bloody shame

The unchanged and the unchangeable
Doing the zombierama
Singing Oh come and be like me
We're all sisters and brothers
I'm not your sister
Or your brother
Don't bury me with this

Join hands, join hands

We're all sisters and brothers
Sisters and brothers
I can't relate to you
You're no relation of mine

 
     
  Premature Burial Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  Well Steve claimed Edgar Allan Poe (on whose short story the song is based) was a sort of Gothic comedian and Siouxsie said the single line ‘Oh what a bloody shame’ was there to make the doominess of it all feel silly... and yet they came back to discussing the song in terms of the weighty theme of social claustrophobia (the ‘burial’ image equals limiting factors like race or youth fashion cults). Source:  Sounds 29/09/79.  
     

 


     
  Playground Twist Lyrics  
 
 
 

Hanging, hanging, hanging
Hanging from your daisy chains
Swinging in the trees
Running from your enemies
And falling on your knees
On your knees, on your knees
Get down on your knees

Throw the dice
You three blind mice
Did you ever see
Such a thing in your life
You swallow the trail
But still arrive
Inside your entrails

Hanging, hanging, hanging
Hanging out at party games
Dancing in the shadows
Up and down on the sea-saw
Balancing the scales
You're drunk, you're drunk
Get your balancing the scales

Someone to blame
Someone to shame
Someone that you can claim
Go back to pass the parcel
And follow the leader

Hanging, hanging, hanging
Hanging from your climbing frames
Swinging in the gallows
Laughing with your buddies
But you can drown when you're shallow
You can drown when you're shallow
You can drown, drown, drown
Drown, drown, drown, drown, drown

 
     
  Playground Twist Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar & Saxophone

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  Talks about adults who act like children and children who think they're adults. It might be interpreted as a swipe against the music press. As the title suggests, there's a kind of nursery-rhyme section. Source:  Melody Maker 17/02/79
SIOUXSIE: "It's about the cruelty of children and that whole aspect of being thrown out into the playground in the winter in howling gales and left to fend for your-selves. It's not the sort of thing you're supposed to write pop songs about." Source:  The Authorised Biography 2002
SIOUXSIE: "I suppose ‘Playground Twist', is quite happy at the end, because the baddies are swinging in the gallows." Source:  Sounds 20/06/81
 
     

 


     
  Mother/Oh Mein Papa Lyrics  
 
 
 

The word you learn to love    The disapproval that you hate
that's Mother    From Mother
They teach you to respect    Makes you always want to please
Mother    Mother
The one who keeps you warm    The one who keeps you warm
And shelters you from harm    And shelters you from harm
Watch out she'll stunt your mind    She'll open up your mind
'Till you emulate her kind    To make you good and make you kind
Is that Mother?    Mother
Downstairs I don't know    Downstairs I don't know
If it's the springs in her bed    Why I feel safe in my bed
Or her joints I hear    When I know I'm alone
Creaking overhead    She must be watching overhead
Mother    Mother
She'll twist the words you speak    She'll kiss and say goodbye
If she thinks you're near escape    If you want to go away
Mother    Mother
So she clutches at her brood    So she gathers up her brood
And sits across its face    And smiles into their face
She sucks up all its energy    She beams down vital energy
And smothers their last breath    She gave us our first breath
Oh Mother    Mother
The thing you grow to hate    The love you won't forget

Oh mein papa
To me is so beautiful
Always the same

 
     
  Mother/Oh Mein Papa Credits  
     
 

Sioux/Burkhart/Turner/Parsons - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice & Piano
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  SIOUXSIE: "It’s very close to home. It’s personal but I’m not hung up about it. I’ve deeply loved my mother. I’ve gone out and got pissed with her. Called her by her first name. But at times she’s been this disapproving figure and I’ve hated her I think. Source:  Sounds 29/09/79.
SIOUXSIE: "It’s not just me though. I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t got a confused relationship with their mother. What role they’re supposed to play, whether they should guide you without commanding you or.. it’s such a dilemma. Also a mother is the thing I’m most confused about becoming." Source:  Sounds  29/09/79.
 
     

 


     
  The Lord's Prayer Lyrics  
 
 
 

Ready? (I'm ready!) O! I'm gonna get you in the end! Getcha! Getcha! Getcha! Our father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as on Earth as it is in Heaven. O in heaven. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever amen. Fury, chastity, burden, sacrifice, claim me guilty. Milk white skin. Running red, red on white, judge, icon, icon, I am gonna getcha. Revenge, revenge, never talk clever to me. Red running revenge. Revenge getcha getcha getcha revenge... Never talk clever to me. Shalalalala O no no.  A knock knock knocking knock knock knocking on heaven's door. let me in! O let me in! La La La Woo oo oo! Who's that knocking on my door? He floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee; floats like a butterfly but he stings like a bee. Yodelay shedelay. Ding a ling a ling. Ding a ling a ling a fucking ding on the door, on heaven's door. Bawk bawk bawk - Bawk bawk bawk BAWK! Bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk BAWK!! My little chickadee, carry on. Carry on. Our father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as on Earth as it is in heaven. In heaven. Ahhh! Ah! Ah! I'm gonna getcha in the end! Getcha, I'm gonna getcha. To me talk clever I'll getcha. When you're clever I'll getcha in the end. I'll get you in the end. O! O! Shake it, shake it, baby, shake it, shake it, baby, now. Twist and shout! Ow! A bottle, a cork, a bottle, and a cork  that's the way you spell New York. Yodelay hee he! Yedelay hee hee! Yodelay yodelay yodelay hee hee! Yodelay yodelay yodelay hee-hee! Tomorrow belongs to me. It belongs to me it belongs to me. Don't take it away from me. La de la de la de lalalala... [LATIN...] Sick it hard. Holy cow. Holy cow. Well shake it, shake it baby shake it, shake it, baby, now. O, you twist little girl, you know you twist so fine, c'mon and twist a little closer and let me know that you're mine. O let me know that you're mine. Mine, mine, mine, mine. Our father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Ah thy a king a done a come a thy a will a be a done on Earth as it is in heaven. Heaven. Running red, running red, red on white. Running red. Red over white. Run, run, run, run, run a, run a, run a, run a, run, run, run, run a, run a, run a, run and hide. Run and hide. You'll never frighten me. Run and hide. You can hide all you like. Run and hide. Leave me alone. So run and hide. But I'll get your hide. Run and hide. I'll have your hide. O-Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Will I get to heaven? This is all wonderful but will I get to heaven? Will all God's children get to heaven? If you're good if you're good no you'll never get to heaven not even if you're good there's never ever been a heaven. There's never ever been a heaven. On Earth as it is in heaven. On Earth as it is in heaven. That's what it says. No heaven on Earth.  Earth as it is in heaven. On Earth as it is in heaven. On Earth as it is in heaven. On Earth as it is in heaven. Run and hide. No escape. Run and hide. You do gooders will never get to heaven. You do gooders will never get to heaven. Still safe in your still safe in your house of God but you'll never, you'll never, never, ever get to heaven. You'll never climb the ladder to heaven. So just shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it baby and twist and shout. Our father which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. This prayer goes on and on

 
     
  The Lord's Prayer Credits  
     
 

Sioux - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  Parts of 'The Lord's Prayer' were inspired by The Benefactor, a short horror story by Walter Winward.
STEVE: "I still think it was really important for us to put ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ on there, because so many people were like pretending it didn’t exist, pretending we were this singles band, exclamation marks. There were all these other sides to us and I’m really glad it got on there." Source:  Zigzag 05/80.
SIOUXSIE: " 'The Lord's Prayer' has never had lyrics or a tune to it. Live it's either been the best thing in the set or the worst: it either happened or it didn't." Source:  Sounds 05/04/80.
SIOUXSIE: " 'The Lord's Prayer' was an aggressive thing about religion and tradition." Source:  Trax 17/02/81.
SEVERIN: "It’s a noisy joke. We’re making this horrendous noise and Sioux’s singing ‘Clare De Lune’. I have to laugh." Source:  Sounds 29/09/79.
SIOUXSIE: "That’s a gleeful mockery of religion or any other fanaticism - for the Beatles or whatever. We’re just spanners in the works of uniform progression." Source:  Sounds 29/09/79.
 
     

 


     
  Mittageisen Lyrics  
 
 
 

Reunion beginnt
Mit einem Glas Quecksilber
Fernsehen flimmert
Für noch eine Nachricht
Flinten beleuchten die Augen
Der sitzenden Familie

Metall ist stark, Metall will scheinen
Verrostet nicht wenn geschmiert und rein
Metall ist stark, Metall will scheinen
Metall regiert in meinem Meister-Plan

Mit mechanischem Rucken
Pflücken die Taschen Uhrhne
Zum Mittagessen Freitag
Im ckprall sagt "Verzeihung
Zurück muß ich kehren
Meine liebe Maschinerie"

Metall ist stark, Metall will scheinen
Verrostet nicht wenn geschmiert und rein
Metall ist stark, Metall will scheinen
Metall regiert in meinem Meister-Plan

Es beherrscht unser Leben
Es bringt kein heil
Ich schreibe ein paaZeilen
Das Wetter hier ist fein
Doch dröhnt es Tag und Nacht
Durch Lautsprecher

Metall ist stark, Metall will scheinen
Verrostet nicht wenn geschmiert und rein
Metall ist stark, Metall will scheinen
Metall regiert in meinem Meister-Plan

 
     
  Mittageisen Credits  
     
 

Sioux (Translated by Dave Woods & Renate) - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice & Melodica
Severin - Bass
McKay - Guitar
Morris - Drums

 
     
  Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment  
     
  Dedicated to the celebrated photomontage artist of the Twenties/Thirties, John Heartfield, the original title for this song was 'Letter To Heartfield'. The chorus is taken from one of Goerring's speeches during the Second World War.
SIOUXSIE: "It's a warning song. The whole propaganda of the Nazis at that time was very dangerous and it could easily creep its way in without there being all the hysteria of killing the Jews. Their whole propaganda could easily fit in today." How does she see this Metal Metropolis? "Not being able to get away from the commands of the day, not being able to escape, the idea of having cameras in your room and having people watching you..." Source:  Melody Maker 21/10/78.
SIOUXSIE: "What lies around the swastika I hate, but I also don't identify with blind patriotism either. I couldn't write a song based around Heartfield if I had that attitude." Source:  Melody Maker 17/02/79.
 
     

 


     
  Love In A Void Lyrics  
 
 
 

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
Its 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
Its 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
Its so dumb
Love in a void

 
     
  Love In A Void Credits  
     
 

Severin - Lyrics
Sioux - Voice
Severin - Bass
Morris - Drums & Percussion
McKay - Guitar

 
     

 


     
  Infantry  
 
 
 

Instrumental

 
     
  Infantry Credits  
     
  McKay - Guitar