| Contents > Conveying the Existentialist World: A Goth Perspective by Heather Simmonds |
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In 1978, The Cure’s single, Killing an Arab, was released. Taking its inspiration from Camus’ 1942 novel, The Outsider (L’Estranger), Killing an Arab is fairly straightforward in its approach to dealing with themes in the literature. The lyrics are almost entirely dedicated to describing a scene in the book, in which the protagonist stands on the beach and finds himself in a situation where he holds the power to choose whether or not to shoot and kill another human being. This track has met a considerable amount of controversy, both in 1986 when the first compilation of Cure singles, Standing on a Beach was released, and again when the Greatest Hits compilation was released in 2001 (Robb, 2001). Killing an Arab was omitted from the latter due to being mistaken for inciting racism (ibid.). Robert Smith has explained that “it was a short poetic attempt at condensing [his] impression of the key moments in ‘L’Estranger’” (Smith, 1991).
While the first and third verses set the scene and explain the narrative, it is the second verse and the chorus in which the existential theme is conveyed. That is, that the protagonist can either fire the gun, or not fire the gun, and either way the outcome will be the same. How could it be that killing someone or letting them live is ultimately going to, as the lyrics suggest, amount to the same? In an interview published in 2001, Robert Smith (cited in Robb, 2001) explained that:
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…one of the themes of the song is that everyone’s existence is pretty much the same. Everyone lives, everyone dies, our existences are the same.
The Holy Hour, from the aptly titled album Faith (1981), essentially deals with feelings of existential angst. The lyrics revolve around the notion of faith and, in the absence of faith, being alone. The scene for this track is set in the context of attending church, where Smith does not outright reject faith, but appears to struggle with conflicting viewpoints; on the one hand, wishing to have that faith, and on the other, being unable to accept it. The opening lines of the second verse, “I sit and listen dreamlessly/ A promise of salvation makes me stay”, convey Smith’s longing for something that, in an existentialist world, does not exist. In his words, and in the context of Church, what he longs for is salvation. In existentialist terms, this pertains to the idea that with complete freedom and responsibility for one’s own decisions, and with no ethics or morals as a guide, there is, in turn, no salvation to be had. There is, at this point in the song, still hope, but as the song continues, so too does Smith’s realisation that the “promise of salvation” is meaningless to him.
Toward the end of the second verse, Smith sings of children “playing the games they tired of yesterday”. This could be interpreted literally, but it could also be a metaphor for people continually going by a routine, perhaps faith itself, without stopping to consider why, and regardless of whether it is of any use to them anymore. The ultimate failing of the aforementioned “promise of salvation” for Smith becomes clearest in the last lines of the final verse:
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I cannot hold what you devour
The sacrifice of penance
Penance meaning the acceptance of punishment as paying the price for having sinned, in believing that there is an inherent freedom from responsibility, there can be no penance, and there is no promise of salvation. Having come to this realisation, Smith is left with feelings of existential angst.
At this point, it seems pertinent to stop and consider that not only does perception play a role in the way an artist interprets an idea and relays it for the listener, but also that perception plays an equally important role in the way that a song is interpreted. In the case of looking at lyrics from a particular genre or subculture, it is likely that the analyst or listener will perceive the lyrics according to their preconceptions about that genre/subculture. As a result, the over-analysis, and sometimes outright wrong analysis of lyrics, is definite risk without substantial evidence to support an interpretation.
However, another point to consider is that although it is possible to interpret lyrics differently to what the author intended to convey, perceiving the lyrics from the angle of the audience is arguably no less correct, as it offers a greater insight into the significance of the themes explored by the genre and subculture in which the music is situated. I will conclude by suggesting that the perceptions of the listeners of Post Punk, even if conflicting with what the artists who wrote the songs intended to convey, have influenced the development of the genre into Goth. As Goth grew out of Post Punk, it is the way in which the bands that followed perceived and dealt with the music that influenced them, that determined how the genre developed, in terms of exploring particular recurring themes. The development of a musical genre is influenced not merely by what precedes it, but also the way those influences are perceived by those creating it.
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| Contents > Conveying the Existentialist World: A Goth Perspective by Heather Simmonds |