Afterhours

Got any interesting thoughts on a set of lyrics? Any that don't involve the word "indeed"? Find yourself struggling to decipher all those obtuse references Von makes? Read "1959 And All That" and still no clearer? Nope, us neither. Postcards found lying in a skip around the back of the Chemists can be found here... Don't say you weren't warned.
User avatar
mh
Above the Chemist
Posts: 8055
Joined: 23 Jun 2003, 14:41
Location: A city built on rock 'n' roll

I don't think it's about drugs at all actually.
England fades away
in your eyes
"Lie back and think of England". :wink:
If I told them once, I told them a hundred times to put 'Spinal Tap' first and 'Puppet Show' last.
User avatar
Quiff Boy
Herr Administrator
Posts: 16757
Joined: 25 Jan 2002, 00:00
Location: Lurking and fixing
Contact:

its about f**king on heroin, surely? ;)

yeah, lie back and think of england, but as the heroin kicks in you slide into that foggy drug haze, it will fade from your eyes...

and all the other lyrics seem to fit that sex & drugs angle too, from my reading :?
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
User avatar
stufarq
Popweazle Piddlepoop
Posts: 3209
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 17:09
Location: my own imagination

Quiff Boy wrote:its about f**king on heroin, surely? ;)
CellThree wrote:Some Sisters interview from 1984 :
AE To me that song is pure amphetamine. It's the most amphetamine sort of, song ever
I think it's safe to say that it's about amphetamine. Not heroin. Von says so.
User avatar
7anthea7
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1134
Joined: 18 Mar 2006, 01:40
Location: beyond the event horizon
Contact:

Not to belabour the point, but at length and in context:


Interviewer:...It sounds like it's in the middle of a city or something---

Von: Uh - 44th Street...Yeah...but I shifted it a few blocks down, uh, so that I wouldn't actually get pinned down to the actual occurrence which led to that being written...

...There's so much amphetamine in that song. I mean, to me that song is pure amphetamine - it's the most amphetamine sort of song ever. It works in a completely different time scale to everything else. It's not the sort of, uh, all-out gonzo amphetamine song - although we've got a couple of those - but it's one of those sort of 'Tingle-tingle-tingle - uh, was that a minute or was that an hour?' songs...

There's a lot of cars [something unintelligible - at least to me] by my window as well, which is a very LA song. The thing which prompted the writing of Afterhours is very similar to something in LA which might have prompted the same song, so it's like LA and New York rolled into one... :von:


So the only lasting question is: What might have happened in The Iroquois Hotel that might also have occurred in Los Angeles, circa mid-1980s? I have my suspicions... :wink:
Who can begin conventional amiability the first thing in the morning?
It is the hour of savage instincts and natural tendencies.
--Elizabeth von Arnim
User avatar
Being645
Above the Chemist
Posts: 14920
Joined: 09 Apr 2009, 12:54
Location: reconstruction status: 62.45%

Quiff Boy wrote:its about f**king on heroin, surely? ;)

yeah, lie back and think of england, but as the heroin kicks in you slide into that foggy drug haze, it will fade from your eyes...

and all the other lyrics seem to fit that sex & drugs angle too, from my reading :?
But what could England stand here for? And what does the sex & drugs thing signify here it real terms?

IMHO, say, :von: has always used the sex as well as the drugs thing as a metaphor.

And it worked perfectly well, since the say, medicine went down well with that incentive at least with
those who could be expected to be interested in such say, views at all.

It doesn't really matter what happened in any LA or NY hotel, since it's still happening anywhere in this world.
With as much as without drugs and/or alcohol.

:D ... anyway, I could be quite well of mark about his motives or motivation ... :wink:
Nadia81
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 360
Joined: 17 Mar 2009, 23:09

That's exactly it-the precise circumstances about which the song was written aren't nearly as important as the feeling the song evokes.
paint it black
Black, black, black & even blacker
Posts: 4944
Joined: 11 Jul 2002, 01:00

England fades away could be a reference to the more relaxed lifestyle in America at the time. I seem to remember at least one interview where there is comment that being able to do stuff beyond, say midnight, was a major rush for young fellas from the UK

Oh, and most of the lyrics are still robbed from Fear and Loathing, which in my eyes makes it speed, not horse
Goths have feelings too
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

As me and emwk said on the first page, yes. It's speed.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
User avatar
splintered thing
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 750
Joined: 21 Jan 2007, 01:34
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Along with the extended Neverland, Afterhours is an unreleased masterpiece.
About speed. :wink:
as the day is long,
rain from heaven
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

Unreleased? It's on the Body And Soul 12"
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
User avatar
Garbageman
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 713
Joined: 31 Oct 2008, 00:16
Location: Cumming

It is about speed. Comedown for certain.
Like pushing a marsmallow into a piggy bank
User avatar
stufarq
Popweazle Piddlepoop
Posts: 3209
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 17:09
Location: my own imagination

markfiend wrote:
splintered thing wrote:Along with the extended Neverland, Afterhours is an unreleased masterpiece.
About speed. :wink:
Unreleased? It's on the Body And Soul 12"
And the extended Neverland is on the Floodland remaster. (Unless you're talking about the original full length Neverland, as opposed to that cut-and-paste job, in which case it's a non-existent masterpiece.)
User avatar
splintered thing
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 750
Joined: 21 Jan 2007, 01:34
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

:lol: Well yes, ok, I meant non-album masterpiece, if you will. You probably won't...
as the day is long,
rain from heaven
User avatar
stufarq
Popweazle Piddlepoop
Posts: 3209
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 17:09
Location: my own imagination

splintered thing wrote::lol: Well yes, ok, I meant non-album masterpiece, if you will. You probably won't...
I might if there's cake.
User avatar
splintered thing
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 750
Joined: 21 Jan 2007, 01:34
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

There's always cake at my house! ;)
as the day is long,
rain from heaven
User avatar
LyanvisAberrant
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 727
Joined: 18 Mar 2013, 21:58
Location: Where the wild roses grow.
Contact:

splintered thing wrote:There's always cake at my house! ;)
I'm in :)
A man with a fictitious grin pondered the terrain in which he flooded with anguish, for this is England. The lion cannot be tamed, this is the game.
User avatar
stufarq
Popweazle Piddlepoop
Posts: 3209
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 17:09
Location: my own imagination

LyanvisAberrant wrote:
splintered thing wrote:There's always cake at my house! ;)
I'm in :)
Yes but it's exactly a year old so the cake's rather stale and mouldy now. Help yourself.
Any more of that and we'll be round your front door with the quick-setting whitewash and the shaved monkey.
User avatar
LyanvisAberrant
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 727
Joined: 18 Mar 2013, 21:58
Location: Where the wild roses grow.
Contact:

Feed it with whisky and we'll never know where it's gone :lol: :lol:
A man with a fictitious grin pondered the terrain in which he flooded with anguish, for this is England. The lion cannot be tamed, this is the game.
User avatar
splintered thing
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 750
Joined: 21 Jan 2007, 01:34
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

My cakes are always a bit squiffy... a year though... where has time gone?
as the day is long,
rain from heaven
User avatar
LyanvisAberrant
Utterly Bastard Groovy Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 727
Joined: 18 Mar 2013, 21:58
Location: Where the wild roses grow.
Contact:

:innocent: ...I've only just got here, don't look at me :lol: :innocent:
A man with a fictitious grin pondered the terrain in which he flooded with anguish, for this is England. The lion cannot be tamed, this is the game.
AmericanDream
Road Kill
Posts: 11
Joined: 03 Feb 2015, 23:43
Location: Good question

To address the question of what incident may have occurred to inspire Vonald McDonald to write the song, in an interview around Floodland time he mentioned having done methedrine in NY at about the time the incident in NY mentioned above was to take place. From what he described, it sounds like an eventful week (methedrine apparently keeping him awake for that long).

Also, perhaps interesting to note is that Thomas Edison's movie studio/giant camera was called the Black Mariah. Not saying that's what Eldorado is saying, but I will note that an early sign of amphetamine psychosis is disorganized, very tangential thinking.

Also also, the song is definitely about speed, though to be fair Eldritch misrepresents a speed comedown a bit much. In my experience, the lyrics that would portray it completely accurately would be, "[six minutes of silence]....*grunt*...[ten minutes of silence]...f**k...."
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

AmericanDream wrote:Vonald McDonald
[...]
Eldorado
:lol: :notworthy:
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
User avatar
stufarq
Popweazle Piddlepoop
Posts: 3209
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 17:09
Location: my own imagination

markfiend wrote:
AmericanDream wrote:Vonald McDonald
[...]
Eldorado
:lol: :notworthy:
That's one scary-ass clown!

But I can sense a new game beginning here: the Andrew Eldritch Nicknames Thread anyone?
Any more of that and we'll be round your front door with the quick-setting whitewash and the shaved monkey.
paint it black
Black, black, black & even blacker
Posts: 4944
Joined: 11 Jul 2002, 01:00

spiggy small cock. Was an early variant
Goths have feelings too
User avatar
markfiend
goriller of form 3b
Posts: 21181
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 10:55
Location: st custards
Contact:

paint it black wrote:spiggy small cock. Was an early variant
Oh no not again!
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
Post Reply