The Poetry of Rock n' Roll: "Pulse" and "We Love You"

For this installment of The Poetry of Rock n' Roll in honor of National Poetry Month, I give you a two-fer of rock songs that also double as true poetry.

Formed in 1977 as an art rock/punk outfit, The Psychedelic Furs (previously here) burst onto the music scene in 1980 with an eponymously titled album which featured some startling, stream-of-consciousness songs. Staccato lyrics both in sound and meaning meld with a sense of contempt for the modern world expressed in sarcasm or a heightened examination of the minutia and everyday objects of 20th century culture. Such isolation and scrutiny inevitably results in making the minutia of life seem ridiculous, thus protesting the ways the modern world reduces and dehumanizes us. Indeed, there are ways that the lyrics of The Furs remind me of the Beat Poets...

There are also recurring motifs on each song on the album, things like "bodies that scream," the colors red or blue, cars, dreaming, and religion.

Pulse
by The Psychedelic Furs

My baby paints herself red
She paints her hair
Her hair is dead
She's living in the city
With the bodies that scream
We are all Jesus
We all dream

See the dancer in there reeling
Paint the sky upon the ceiling

Four useless gods upon a day
So blinded by the filth on Sunday
Saying the words for the idiots
You are lyrical drivel
Optical sewer

Listen to the flowers fall
Paint the words upon the wall

This is the pulse of fools like you
Who sound so red and turn so blue
The sound of uselessness in slumber
The war is over if you want

See the dancer semen reeling
Paint the sea upon the ceiling

Pulse

My baby paints herself red
She paints her hair
Her hair is dead
She's living in the city
With the bodies that scream
We are all Jesus
We all dream

See the dancer semen reeling
Paint the sky upon the ceiling

That's pulse



We Love You
by The Psychedelic Furs

Oh, we all dream

I'm in love with Catholics
I'm in love with your blue cars
I'm in love with the words that scream
We are so stupid, we all dream

I'm in love with Frank Sinatra
Fly me to the moon
I'm in love with fools like you
I'm in love with doing the twist

I'm in love with the bodies that scream
They fall so far, they fall so far
I'm in love with The Supremes
Oh, 'Baby Love'

I'm in love with Sophia Loren
I'm in love with Bridget Bardot
I'm in love with the whole dumb scene
I'm so in love, you know what I mean

I'm in love with Althea and Donna
All that sh*t that goes uptown top ranking

I'm in love with The Factory
I'm in love with the BBC
I'm in love with your TV
They're so in love with you and me

(I'm in love with) A nuclear bomb it falls
(I'm in love with) Shopping city dreams
(I'm in love with) Real men they go
Through the air for oxygen

Love is just a car like you
That turns so blue and turns so blue
No blue cars will run my world
No playboys will black my word

I would walk a million smiles
For one of your miles, Bob
Hey, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop

We love you, we love you, we love you
We love you, we love you, we love you
We love you, we love you

http://www.thepsychedelicfurs.com/