Primary members: Robert Smith, Simon Gallup
Band Biography
Albums of focus: Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981), Pornography (1982), The Top (1984)
Songs for study:

Selected tracks from Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and The Top:

"A Forest"	"Three"	"At Night"	"Other Voices"
"Secrets"	"Faith"	"The Holy Hour"	"The Empty World"

"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 With nothing left But faith There's nothing left but faith...

"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 And we laugh A prayer for something better A prayer For something better Please love me Meet my mother... But the fear takes hold Creeping up the stairs in the dark Waiting for the death blow

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 And the creeping feeling A little black haired girl Waiting for Saturday The death of her father pushing her Pushing her white face into the mirror Aching inside me And turn me round Just like the old days Just like the old days

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 One 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 A change of thought An atmosphere that rots with time Colours that flicker in water A short term effect

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 And a stranger's hand A short term effect An echo And a stranger's hand A short term effect

"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 Gives my hands the shapes of angels In the heat of the night The animals scream In the heat of the night Walking into a dream...

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 Shapeless in the dark again In a hanging garden Change the past In a hanging garden Wearing furs and masks...

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 Voodoo smile Siamese twins A girl at the window looks at me for an hour Then everything falls apart Broken inside me It falls apart

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 Worms eat my skin She glows and grows With arms outstretched Her legs around me... 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 Fades and spins... Sing out loud We all die!!! Laughing into the fire... Is it always like this?

"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 the sea grows I close my eyes Move slowly through drowning waves Going away on a strange day

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 And the sea grows I close my eyes Move slowly through drowning waves Going away On a strange day

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 Await the next breath Your name Like ice into my heart

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 Like ice into my heart

Everything as cold as life Can no-one save you? Everything As cold as silence And you will never say a word Your name Like ice into my heart

"Pornography" - from Pornography (1982)

Note: The "static" noise that runs through the beginning, middle, and end of this song is a recording of a TV debate about pornography between Monty Python member Graham Chapman and noted feminist Germaine Greer, played backwards. Phil Thornalley and Robert Smith recorded this program randomly to use as ambient noise in the song.

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 The old man cracks with age She found his last picture In the ashes of the fire An image of the queen Echoes round the sweating bed Sour yellow sounds inside my head In books And films And in life And in heaven The sound of slaughter As your body turns

But it's too late... One more day like today and I'll kill you A desire for flesh And real blood I'll watch you drown in the shower Pushing my life through your open eyes I must fight this sickness Find a cure I must fight this sickness...