In this rather bewildering song, Peter Murphy sings about what "cuts you up," using opaque phrases to describe it and what it does. Here's what we know: It twists and turns It changes color It spins yarns It leaves you dry It takes you high It's painted gold In a Songfacts interview with Murphy, we asked him what it is that cuts you up and spits you out. He replied: "The path of discovery, self-knowledge, wisdom... once you feel you have it. Then the path will spit you out or off the way and ruin your assumptions of this path. In fact, a great mighty necessity for those spiritual seekers or so-called 'holy state' desires when getting arrogant." Murphy has spent his life on this path of discovery, which is chronicled in his music. Two years after this song was released, he moved to Turkey, where he explored Muslim worship music and immersed himself in Sufism, a branch of Islam.
The song is driven by a violin riff played on a synthesizer. According to Simon Rogers, who produced the track, they brought in a musician to replicate it on viola, but it didn't sound right.
In America, this is Peter Murphy's most famous solo song, and his only Hot 100 chart entry. Murphy was the lead singer of Bauhaus, best known for the vampiric "Bela Lugosi's Dead." His Bauhaus bandmates formed Love and Rockets, which had a US hit with "So Alive" in 1989.
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