I think that the song might have meanings beyond the few words by Rober Smith, beyond his conscious intentions and beyond the limited and banal "animal rights" interpretation. The song has many allusions to suicide ("hanging"), love and death. It is as if the song of a man just after his suicide by hanging. Suicide I guess has been an obsession for Smith in the early years, especially after Ian Curtis' death by hanging. As someone has said, the "hanging garden" might be seen as an allusion to Babylon and I'd add, to this world, our transient, ephemeral life on earth.
The allusion to the kiss might also be seen as the kiss of death ("Creatures kissing in the rain").
There are different metaphors of dying ("Shapeless in the dark again").
Death is not sleep, it is irrevocable ("In the hanging garden no one sleeps")
A seemingly ironic view of the the lunaticism of trusting in forms of otherworldliness ("Catching halos on the moon / Gives my hands the shapes of angels").
The "animals" as all the living beings, including us humans as reduced to the biological being, that is as human beings that are dead as humans and only live as unconscious animals ("In the heat of the night the animals scream"), the reference to the "scream" might be seen as screaming at a funeral.
Falling "into the walls": another way of representing being buried.
Dying and making love as both ways of being in "ecstasy" beyond the earthly life ("Jump jump out of time ... out of the sky").
Other allusions to being buried during a funeral ("Cover my face as the animals cry").
Suicide and "fucking" as attempts to change one's traumas an one's identity ("change the past", "wearing furs and masks"). Wearing furs and mask is an allusion to dying of one's authentic self in the "theatre" of social life and in a world where human life is reduced to biological, "animal", unconscious life.
In the end there is something like a prayer for avoiding to see the pain of universal death "Cover my face as the animals die" (this allusion recalls the theme of the other song "One hundred years" in the same album).
PS: I think that to understand the meaning of this song you should read the lyrics of the demo version, which are quite different and show that even Robert Smith's words might be a bit misleading at a first glance, as they are not explicit ("animals fucking" might be a veiled allusion to sexual abuse by "human beasts"):
PS: I think that to understand the meaning of this song you should read the lyrics of the demo version, which are quite different and show that even Robert Smith's words might be a bit misleading at a first glance, as they are not explicit ("animals fucking" might be a veiled allusion to sexual abuse by "human beasts"):
I think that the song might have meanings beyond the few words by Rober Smith, beyond his conscious intentions and beyond the limited and banal "animal rights" interpretation. The song has many allusions to suicide ("hanging"), love and death. It is as if the song of a man just after his suicide by hanging. Suicide I guess has been an obsession for Smith in the early years, especially after Ian Curtis' death by hanging. As someone has said, the "hanging garden" might be seen as an allusion to Babylon and I'd add, to this world, our transient, ephemeral life on earth. The allusion to the kiss might also be seen as the kiss of death ("Creatures kissing in the rain"). There are different metaphors of dying ("Shapeless in the dark again"). Death is not sleep, it is irrevocable ("In the hanging garden no one sleeps") A seemingly ironic view of the the lunaticism of trusting in forms of otherworldliness ("Catching halos on the moon / Gives my hands the shapes of angels"). The "animals" as all the living beings, including us humans as reduced to the biological being, that is as human beings that are dead as humans and only live as unconscious animals ("In the heat of the night the animals scream"), the reference to the "scream" might be seen as screaming at a funeral. Falling "into the walls": another way of representing being buried. Dying and making love as both ways of being in "ecstasy" beyond the earthly life ("Jump jump out of time ... out of the sky"). Other allusions to being buried during a funeral ("Cover my face as the animals cry"). Suicide and "fucking" as attempts to change one's traumas an one's identity ("change the past", "wearing furs and masks"). Wearing furs and mask is an allusion to dying of one's authentic self in the "theatre" of social life and in a world where human life is reduced to biological, "animal", unconscious life. In the end there is something like a prayer for avoiding to see the pain of universal death "Cover my face as the animals die" (this allusion recalls the theme of the other song "One hundred years" in the same album).
PS: I think that to understand the meaning of this song you should read the lyrics of the demo version, which are quite different and show that even Robert Smith's words might be a bit misleading at a first glance, as they are not explicit ("animals fucking" might be a veiled allusion to sexual abuse by "human beasts"):
PS: I think that to understand the meaning of this song you should read the lyrics of the demo version, which are quite different and show that even Robert Smith's words might be a bit misleading at a first glance, as they are not explicit ("animals fucking" might be a veiled allusion to sexual abuse by "human beasts"):
The animal runs slow across me
The animal runs slow across me
I'm so tired
I'm so tired
I can only fall
I can only fall
The black is dripping
The black is dripping
In the hanging garden
In the hanging garden
Please don't speak
Please don't speak
Blood in my ears and eyes like ice
Blood in my ears and eyes like ice
Don't move
Don't move
Why won't I move
Why won't I move
...
Why do I pretend
We're made of everyone else
I see you in my room
I think of your friend
The ordinary chokes me
When no one cares
Empty men
You're so useless
Choking under covers
Stifled like a dead man
Happy with the empty men
In a small room
Lash my face with glass
Era away from the animals
Still no closer
Cursing my fingers like ribbon
Like an animal swelling in sickness
Sallow child, frustration and hatred
Cutting my hair
Like cutting life with clean hands
Touching me
A brother lies in shapes of angels
Keep her away from my face
Series
Pictures of madmen color the walls
It's all a waste of time
Everything jumps once
And I fall into the walls
Covered like a madman choking
Choking like an empty man
Swaying out of time to be real again
I think I should finish soon
I think I should end
Magic and dreams and the end of the world
Choking on the covers
That stifle a dead man
Happy empty man
Sit in a small room
Lash my face and the animals sing
Please don't speak in the hanging garden
Every night in the hanging garden
The animals drip in the hanging garden
The animals drip at the side of the road
The animals drip at the side of the road
In the hanging garden
In the hanging garden