The Cult lyrics

viz

Horse Nation

And they come
And they come

See them prancing
They come neighing, they come

A horse nation
See them prancing
Neighing they came

See them prancing
Proudly they will come again

The whole world is coming
From the four directions
Scream and shout

See them prancing
They come neighing, they come

A horse nation
See them prancing
Neighing they came

See them prancing
Proudly they will come again

The whole world is coming
From the four directions
Scream and shout

See them prancing
They come neighing
A horse nation
Neighing they came

See them prancing
They come neighing
A horse nation
Neighing they came

See them prancing
Proudly they will come again

The whole world is coming
From the four directions

Why don't you scream and shout?

S56035

I've tried to get into them numerous times as I like the music but the lyrics are total shit.

S56035

Oh, the heads that turn

Make my back burn

And those heads that turn

Make my back, make my back burn

The sparkle in your eyes

Keeps me alive

And the sparkle in your eyes

Keeps me alive, keeps me alive

The world

And the world turns around

The world and the world, yeah

The world drags me down

Oh, the heads that turn

Make my back burn

And those heads that turn

Make my back, make my back burn, yeah

Hey, yeah, hey, yeah

Yeah-yeah

The fire in your eyes keeps me alive

And the fire in your eyes keeps me alive

I'm sure in her you'll find sanctuary

I'm sure in her you'll find sanctuary

And the world, the world turns around

And the world and the world, the world drags me down

And the world and the world and the world, the world turns around

And the world and the world and the world and the world

And the world drags me down

Ah, hey yeah, hey yeah

And the world (hey yeah, hey), and the world turns around (hey yeah, hey)

And the world, and the world (hey yeah, hey)

Yeah, the world drags me down (hey yeah, hey)

And the world (hey yeah, hey)

Yeah, the world turns around (hey yeah, hey)

And the world, and the world (hey yeah, hey), the world drags me down (hey yeah, hey)

Yeah hey, hey yeah

Sanctuary

Sanctuary

CE1

TBF it isn’t their best work. They are bloody amazing live.

S56035

CE1 said:

TBF it isn’t their best work. They are bloody amazing live.

I saw them supporting Guns and Roses in the mid nineties. Loudest band over ever heard.

Redlester

Don’t bother with the words. Just see them as sounds going along with the music. I don’t bother listening out for lyrics on songs. I just end up making out the occasional word. 

EricTheWeary

All rock and pop lyrics are essentially nonsense; far more about how they sound than what they say. I like The Cult and these words sound fine in context. 

ICBM

S56035 said:

I saw them supporting Guns and Roses in the mid nineties. Loudest band over ever heard.

I saw them in the late 80s, I think on the Electric tour. Also probably the loudest band I've ever heard - louder than Deep Purple in the same venue. (Edinburgh Playhouse.)

EricTheWeary said:

All rock and pop lyrics are essentially nonsense; far more about how they sound than what they say. I like The Cult and these words sound fine in context. 

Not true, a lot are actually meaningful. I agree that The Cult are one of the bands who are more about the sound than the meaning though.

She Sells Sanctuary is also the first song I ever played live, so I'll always give them a bit more leeway...

viz

Redlester said:

Don’t bother with the words. Just see them as sounds going along with the music. I don’t bother listening out for lyrics on songs. I just end up making out the occasional word. 

Same. I never noticed how ridiculous some of it is (apart from dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime dreamtime, of course.)

Here’s another banger:

Butterflies

The wild wide eye with her painted wing
She crushed the gray boy
Don't you know my selfishness was my suicide
Her painted wing became my suicide, suicide

The whole world did not start to cry
They just got inside me
And now they walk behind me
They walk behind me

They walk behind me, oh Lord
Like little dogs
Like stony dogs, you know
Stony dogs, stony dogs …

Danny1969

I saw The Cult in 2018 at Rambling Man festival and Duffy had the fattest guitar song I've ever heard ... it just sounded massive ! .... Ian was singing really well too (because he could be dodgy live in the past) and the whole gig was brilliant. 

Sometimes lyrics can sound trite because the meaning isn't clear. But some are basically dog shit bad too 

S56035

Lyrics are hugely important to a song. Otherwise we'd all be listening to instrumentals no?

tone1

“I float through day & night life, well most of the time’.......That's my mantra ...

Danny1969

S56035 said:

Lyrics are hugely important to a song. Otherwise we'd all be listening to instrumentals no?

I'm not so sure ... I don't know anyone who knew what Cobain was singing when Teen Spirit came out but somehow we knew what he meant by the delivery. 

Redlester

EricTheWeary said:

All rock and pop lyrics are essentially nonsense; far more about how they sound than what they say. I like The Cult and these words sound fine in context. 

I don't know Eric. Some lyric writers aspire to greatness, although I agree that very few attain it. 

Honestly, though, for me it's all part of the sound. If I want to be moved by words or inspired by thought, I'll talk to a family member or a good friend, or read a book. 

I'm in danger of derailing the thread here, but it just makes far more sense to me to think of lyrics as vocal sounds, with those vocal sounds as another part of the sonic mix. It's also a purely practical decision on my part- e.g. I love AC/DC but if I really listened to all of the words in the songs, there's no way my adult brain could justify that load of old rollocks. 

I can see how people enjoy listening to words in songs for the meaning though. Each to his own. 

S56035

S56035 said:

Lyrics are hugely important to a song. Otherwise we'd all be listening to instrumentals no?

Yes, I'm quoting my own post!

Classical music has done alright without having lyrics.

LastMantra

Some stuff the lyrics are the main thing bob Dylan comes to mind as kind of poetry to music some are more like an additional instrument creating interesting sounds. Some lyrics make sense, some don't. All good.

LastMantra

I quite like some of those ^ lyrics. 

hollywoodrox

Rain has great lyrics

hot sticky scenes you know what I mean
like a desert sun that burns my skin
ive been waiting for her for so long 
open the sky and let her come down 

l really like Love era Cult and Electric is absolutely amazing 
And it has some great lyrics 

living in a shack in a one horse town
trying to get to heaven fore the sun goes down 
lizard in a bottle yeahh 

dizzy in a haze for forty days 
hey there little devil 

viz

^ bloody great. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Cult, and some of their lyrics are cool. Just a few dodgy early ones. 

S56035

Where should I go back to to try again?

Philly_Q

I tend towards the view that the singing and lyrics are just part of the sound - I definitely prefer songs to instrumentals, but I don't really care about the actual lyrics, so long as they sound right.

Undoubtedly, lyrics are important to some songwriters.  Some write great lyrics, some think they write great lyrics.  I enjoy them sometimes if they catch my attention but mostly they don't.

As for The Cult specifically... Astbury makes the right noises, I couldn't quote any of his lyrics.