What is "Valentine" about?

Calidore · Road Kill Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 3

Hello everyone. Nice to see a sisterhood in existence.

Is "Valentine" about the bombing of Dresden which happened on Valentine's day 1945? or is it about the pop culture?

The razor bites and the shriek subsides
He arches clutching at his sides
Across the floor across the tiles
The man is dead and the razor smiles
A shiny love song a quick incision
Cut him down on television

A people come to this
Beyond the age of reason
A people fed on famine
A people on their knees and
People eat each other
A people stand in line
Waiting for another war and
Waiting for my valentine

For a million empty faces
For a million hollow smiles
Cancer for my education
Watch the body hit the files
Waiting for another war and
Waiting for my valentine

cheers,
Calidore

Dan

My interpretation of some of it is that in the late 70's on the news they showed film of a criminal being beheaded in (I think) Vietnam. This would have been fresh in Eldritch's mind when he wrote the lyrics and seems to fit in with some of the lyrics at least.

Calidore · Road Kill Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 3

oh right, yes, that would seem to fit qute well.

Calidore

Dan · Post #4 Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:13 am Post subject:

I've never seen anyone else come up with my theory before. others have said it's about the St. Valentines Day Massacre (Al Capone shooting and killing a bunch of people in the 1920's), and other wilder explanations, but mine seems to fit quite well although I don't know where the valentine part fits into it.

The Green Lantern · Post #5 Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:46 am Post subject:

Andy said once that it's about how the royal wedding was used to offset peoples reactions towards the Falkland war. On the one hand you have these two people getting married, on the other you have the english going fighting the argentinians thousands of miles away from home.

_emma_ · Overbomber Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 2015

culprit · Post #7 Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:46 am Post subject:

Quiff Boy · Post #8 Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:48 am Post subject:

_________________
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the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie

Quiff Boy · Post #9 Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:49 am Post subject:

at risk of seeming predictable Wink

_________________
the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie
the cake is a lie

Quiff Boy

Barracuda · Post #11 Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 4:34 pm Post subject:

I always saw it as the inevitability of love and war.
"waiting for another war and waiting for my valentine".

Eva · Post #12 Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:57 pm Post subject:

Cheers for all these explanations... We are not worthy!

To me the "waiting for my valentine" part always had something of "the world is going to pieces and what am I doing? - Sitting at home waiting for my valentine card". The "I" not being Eldritch but rather the common man/woman "from the street" who watches the news on his/her tv, but all he/she really cares about is the nonsense of his/her mediocre little life.

Besides, I seem to recall having heard/read something somewhere saying that Valentine could also be referring to the Kennedy assassination, the couple being Jackie and John F. It seems a bit far-fetched for me as the murder was in 1963, but who knows....

Eva.

Begemot · Road Kill Joined: 15 Aug 2004 Posts: 32

kafka · Amphetamine Filth Joined: 21 Nov 2003 Posts: 121

Just a note, for those who might not be aware of this: a lot of Valentine is from Eliot, Sweeney Erect:

Tests the razor on his leg
Waiting until the shriek subsides.
The epileptic on the bed
Curves backward, clutching at her sides.

Now, in Eliot's poem Sweeney is of course the killer; in Valentine, the suggestion is rather of a suicide; all of it, regardless, links to the "people eat each other". Part of me wonders whether Eldritch had Ian Curtis (an epileptic) in mind, although Curtis hanged himself so I guess not. But I do think that because the "razor smiles" the implication is suicide, rather than a death at the hands of another (such as in the 'beheaded criminal' case).

At any rate, I think that the "waiting for another war" can be taken quite literally: in an environment in which people are shuffling up to the dole queue with nothing much to live for, having a war to fight might seem quite a good thing. And perhaps he just wanted everyone bombed: his songs around this time are not the most cheery of things, nor the most favourable in their assessments of those around him.
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eastmidswhizzkid · Post #15 Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 5:02 am Post subject:

completely off-topic (except for the word "valentine")but...
the very first time i heard anything by the sisters(temple of love)was on valentines day 1985,which has been a great comfort every year since when at least half of them i've spent single-february 13th seems to be my lucky day for being dumped...yes iknow i'm rambling but the green lantern said what i was gonna say!
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