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Peepshow


typed by: Marc Wallace
last revision: 6 Mar 92

Group: Siouxsie and the Banshees
Album: Peepshow
Year(s): 1988

Songs:
3:10 Peek-a-Boo
4:04 The Killing Jar
5:06 Scarecrow
4:25 Carousel
4:32 Burn-up
3:49 Ornaments of Gold
4:05 Turn to Stone
2:29 Rawhead and Bloodybones
4:29 The Last Beat of My Heart
6:24 Rhapsody


Peek-a-Boo

Creeping up the backstairs
Slinking into dark stalls
Shapeless and slumped in bathchairs
Furtive eyes peep out of holes
She has many guises
She'll do what you want her to
Playing dead and sweet submission
Cracks the whip deadpan on cue

Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo
Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo

Reeking like a pigsty
Peeling back and gagging free
Flaccid ego in your hand
Chokes on dry tears, can you understand?
She's jeering at the shadows
Sneering behind a smile
Lunge and thrust to pout and pucker
Into the face of the beguiled

Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?

Strobe lights pump and flicker
Dry lips crack out for more
`Come bite on this rag doll, baby!
That's right, now hit the floor'
They're sneaking out the back door
She gets up from all fours
Rhinestone fools and silver dollars
Curdle into bitter tears

Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?


The Killing Jar

Down where this ugly man
Seeks his sustenance
Down in the blue, midnight flare
A glass hand cuts through the water
Scything into his twisted roots

Then from his eyes
Spring fireflies
Breathing life
Into a roaring disguise

Needles and sins, sins and needles
He's gasping for air
In the wishing well
Dust to rust, ashes to gashes
Hand around the killing jar

A soft hoodwink of shadow
The size of make-believe
Punches through his spike of rage
A glass hand cuts through the water
Snuffing out the magic fury

Then from inside
Bolt lightning cries
Swiftly crushed
The final, muffled sighs

Needles and sins, sins and needles
He's gasping for air
In the wishing well
Dust to rust, ashes to gashes
Hand around the killing jar


Scarecrow

He trembles in the bitter wind
Until it's time for us to speak
Whilst others here are sleeping sound
I'll slip away by floorboard creak

Upon the hill he'll hear my secrets
Shock the colours to bleach inside
Whilst others there are sleeping sound
Just we two will confide

Listen to his body moan
Make a wish and send us home
To spin the gold and silver stitches
We can turn his rags to riches

With frosty Jack on fingernail
Thro' shoe black smile he'll tell-a-tale
Come whisper thro' your lips of straw
A moment torn forever more

Listen to his body groan
Make a wish and send us home
To spin the gold and silver stitches
We can turn his rags to riches

My so-called friends say you're not alive
I'll bake their bones for telling lies
Then pull the pastry from the pie
And pour the gravy in their eye

Listen to his body moan
Make a wish and send us home
To spin the gold and silver stitches
We can turn his rags to riches


Carousel

You clamber up
And look behind
Their watchful eyes
The helping hands
A hen that's fierce
And painted blue
With red eyes
Wants to swallow you

A dragon dives and soars on tracks
The hands that strap you to its back
You turn around and look behind
Their smiling eyes
Won't help you down

Their tiny hands
Their tiny feet
Such little hearts
To miss a beat

Grotesque dwarves in mirrored rooms
Pulled and taut a thousand yous
Staring back through stinging tears
Remembering those funhouse thrills

The paintbox tunes and wild balloons
Their watchful eyes, you start to swoon
Oh painted vile in lurid hue
The snarling horse that waits for you

Its motor whirrs and colours curl
Inside your head the monsters whirl
Its motor whirrs and colours curl
Inside your head the monsters whirl

In sucked out
Time stood still
Roundabout back
Carousel
Time stood still
And you remember it well
Carousel


Burn-up

A crumpled future in your fist
The killing streak ascends sun kissed
And the firestarter from within
Pokes out from fever blistered grin

King Salamander that's his name
A desert maker that's his aim
The benign cremator, branding iron in his hand
Eager and willing to torch the land

All fire and brimstone
This jack-o-lantern
He likes to watch the buildings burn

His ardour smoulders, phosphorous flies
He radiates with urgence to hypnotise
Stoke the furnace, feed his need
This thirst for fire is all he seeks
He's the blazing rubber making tracks
The blue touch paper at your back

All fire and brimstone
This salamander king
He basks while all around him burns

`Giddy-up, burn-up, not fade away'
These words ignite and pave his way
`Giddy-up, burn-up, stoke it up and turn it up'
He sings these words in fervid frame

All fire and brimstone
This jack-o-lantern
He likes to watch the pyres burn

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack jump over the candlestick


Ornaments of Gold

Silver couches to recline upon
And ornaments of gold
Silver moonbeams dance in fountains
Below shining citadels
Surrounded by silver gates ascending silver stairs
Eureka on angelic prayer wafts in and scents the air

With ornaments of gold
To warm my soul from the growing cold
Ornaments of gold

We can drink from silver vessels
We can feed from silver bowls
Then I'll give you gilded treasures
Annointed by intoxicating oils
Drenched in riches unimaginable
Your splendour drips with jewels that are so beautiful

And ornaments of gold
Warm my soul from the growing cold

Adorable rewardable you
From head to toe I'd love to cover you
And smother you in ornaments of gold

In honeydew I'd love to cover you
Oh lover do bring

Ornaments of gold
Protect our hearts from this cruel world
Ornaments of gold


Turn to Stone

High above
The sickle moon
All senseless thought
Slips and drowns
A place, a time
Gone out of mind
Reaction swims
The opal tide

Ferry me down, leave well alone
Ferry me down, turn to stone

Here within
My phantom flesh
Welcome in
The glowing guest
Far inside
The absolute
Instinct leaves
Us standing mute

Ferry me down, leave well alone
Ferry me down, turn to stone

Heaven sent
Some dark marvel
Fool's gold
As cold as marble

High above
The sickle moon
Your hidden dreams
Chill and swoon
A place, a time
Gone out of sight
Pulse the blood
Statue of light

Ferry me down, leave well alone
Ferry me down, turn to stone


Rawhead and Bloodybones

Bad word,
Or bad deed,
Unpunished invites grief,
Here's
Rawhead and Bloodybones

Reaching from
Dark cupboard
Crouching under stair,
Lurking in chimney,
Pond or well

We're down here,
Held here
Dragged here
And drowned here by
Rawhead and Bloodybones

Pop eyed,
Horns,
Bushy tailed
Long teeth and
Claws as well
Rawhead and
Bloodybones


The Last Beat of My Heart

In the sharp gust of love
My memory stirred
When time wreathed a rose
A garland of shame
Its thorn my only delight
War torn, afraid to speak
We dare to breathe

Majestic
Imperial
A bridge of sighs
Solitude sails
In a wave of forgiveness
On angels' wings

Reach out your hands
Don't turn your back
Don't walk away
How in the world
Can I wish for this?
Never to be torn apart
Close to you
'Til the last beat
Of my heart

At the close of day
The sunset cloaks
These words in shadowplay
Here and now, long and loud
My heart cries out
And the naked bone of an echo says
Don't walk away

Reach out your hands
I'm just a step away
How in the world
Can I wish for this?
Never to be torn apart
Close to you
'Til the last beat
Of my heart

How in the world
Can I wish for this?
Never to be torn apart
'Til the last beat
'Til the last fleeting beat
Of my heart


Rhapsody

In the soil of out sadness
Hear our hearts bell a serenade
A faint choir tenderly shaping
A lament ... a hollow refuge

In the blood of the twinkling sky
Breathing in air drunk dry
There was once a time of rapture
All is lost ... a pale gleaming

Across this crooked land
Runs a crooked man
Our loved ones die
Under the hammer
Of the Soviet sun

Nothing can erase this night
But there's still light with you
Rhapsody ...
And if we can never see the sun
There's still light with you
Rhapsody ...

And I have seen all I want to
And I have felt all I want to
Rhapsody ...
But we can dream all we want to
We can dream all we want to

rlw