Siouxsie Sioux’s favourite lyric of all time
Jim Morrison was renowned for being an incredible poet and lyricist. While his words often had a morose quality, they still had the capacity to be poignant. Taking inspiration from beat writers such as Arthur Rimbaud and Jack Kerouac, Morrison regularly covered topics of isolation, heartbreak, and loss but also knew how to pen a love song or write about spirituality in a fascinating way that felt distinct from many of his peers.
One might assume that the literary influences in his songwriting would lead to the meaning being obscured by lofty metaphors. Still, Morrison was adept at making rich and heavy themes seem so easy to latch onto and comprehend. His work with The Doors has continued to be influential to this day, with many songwriters who have emerged in the years since his passing citing him as their greatest influence. Not only were his words stark, but the way in which he delivered them with such vigour and in short bursts made each section of a line or phrase stand out, meaning that there was equal importance placed upon every single utterance of his in a song.
While Siouxsie Sioux’s music, both as a solo artist and as the vocalist of Siouxsie and the Banshees, doesn’t bear huge amounts of resemblance to the work of the Doors, the influence and importance of Jim Morrison to Siouxsie are still vital to her as an artist. Her lyrics were filled with far more surrealist elements and are harder to decipher than those of the majority of Morrison’s, but they share the same overall darkness despite being open-ended to various interpretations.
Having been at the forefront of the gothic rock and post-punk movement of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Siouxsie was a trailblazer in her own way and was a magnetic presence on stage in a way that forged a path for others and inspired many imitators, just as Morrison had been.
As part of a series of posters published by record store HMV, a number of artists were chosen to select their favourite lyrics of all time, and the line selected by Siouxsie was taken from a Doors classic that reflects both artists’ love for dark themes. Her selection was the immortal line “when the music’s over, turn out the lights,” taken from the closing track ‘When The Music’s Over’ from their second album Strange Days.
On the surface of things, this line seems like an ordinary reference to reaching the end of a night and how the lights are turned off when everyone has left a venue or party where there has been music playing. However, there’s a deeper meaning to be extrapolated from the line that deals more with Morrison’s spiritual side, and it can be interpreted that his true intentions with the line were that if music were to cease to be played, then there is simply nothing left to live for.
This far more finite interpretation of the line fits in with the rest of the song, where Morrison delivers lines such as “music is your only friend until the end”, and makes references later on in the song about his preference to spend eternity in hell rather than renewing “his subscription to the Resurrection”.
This bleak line is a fitting way to close out an album, and its deeper message clearly resonated with Siouxsie enough for her to echo its sentiment. The artist, now in her mid-60s, has not walked away from music, and you can bet that due to her passion for the craft, she won’t be going anywhere until her final moments.
