I feel like I’m shaking peanuts in my hand for the intox fetishist…but here’s a compilation of Gerard cocaine lyrical, or at least lines that possess “cocaine vibes” in a way…mostly interesting from a writing characterization standpoint, as they tend to pepper in this streetwalking/nightcrawling/totally delusional persona when making nods to drug use, which is glamorization you don’t always see coming from someone post-sobriety. Interesting to read into if that’s your flavor, but will be completely unsurprised if this one gets me in trouble.
Also brought on by @pennycrumb for not realizing it better be white, it better be cut, it better be just my size isn’t just about dicks. awesome stuff.
First, my big-brain theory that Vampires is about blow. As in, the feeling when the sun is coming up, and you’re shattered, rattling towards some late-stage psychic death spiral, as in, if the sun comes up will it tear the skin right off our bones?
Razor sharp white teeth rip out our necks- could be a reference to the color of cocaine, then to the chemical drip down your throat while using. Then, Someone get me to the doctor/where they can pump this venom gaping hole, i.e hospitalization post-binge, as the song seems to largely be about two people binging together and then one of them possibly dying or at least getting close-to, while Gerard begs for a cure, either in the way of getting clean, or by getting more blow i.e bring us back into the light.
Thoughts of endless nighttime sky- similar to how Mick Jagger once called it the moonlight mile; this line as a reference to staying up through nights on end on a binge.
Well now the nightclub sets a stage for this- pretty self-explanatory.
“The spike” could refer to shooting cocaine, but I don’t believe that Gerard ever did that…which is not to say they wouldn’t use the idea lyrically for the sake of a good dramatic image. Can you take this spike, will it wash away the jet black now also suggests this, but again, there’s also the perspective that the spike is the “cure” to the terror imagery of the previous binge.
Struck down before our prime/before you got off the floor- Refers to an OD.
The outro especially, fatality is like ghost in the snow, I know it seems shallow, but “snow” is pretty much the most common metaphor possible for coke, again compounding the OD thing.
Bullets is mostly a pills album, but there’s a few nods to sharing an addiction with a partner that’re interesting. Like in Drowning Lessons, let’s say goodbye the hundredth time/and then tomorrow we’ll do it again, which reads to me as binging together, always keeping in mind that one of you could die that night. That song is also about guilt, which is obviously portrayed through the murder allegory, but could be read as guilt for supplying the potentially fatal drugs, as in, these hands stained red from the times I have killed you and then/we can wash down this engagement ring with poison and kerosene.
On a dark beach with a black view/and pin-pricks in the velvet catch our fall on Cubicles- probably is referring to stars, but could again be referencing intravenous drug administration.
With this trunk of ammunition too on Demolition Lovers- the joint addiction summer jam of all time…This lyric in particular I take to mean the supply the two of them have on hand, preparing to share a fatal overdose together.
As snow falls on desert sky- again, snow.
As days fade and nights grow/and we grow cold- Again, the “endless night” thing, you also get very cold towards the end of a binge, though that may be overly literal.
Nasty blisters from the money she spends on To The End- I’ve always taken to mean the blisters you get around your nostrils after extensive use, then using rolled up cash to snort with.
She bought the last line/I’m just the worst kind on Jetset Life- lines of cocaine. She wants it all to come down this time also refers to the comedown.
White lines/you’ve worn out all your dancing shoes this time on Bury Me In Black- lines of cocaine.
White lines/nose bleeds on Make Room
Is it hard to stay clean? On Kiss The Ring.
Stalk the halls because the bathroom walls would have a lot to say about the lines you’re putting down on Boy Division, as well as until my capillaries burst of boredom, which refers to coke nosebleeds.
Brother on HA is coke-ish, the freezing club/the things we take, not sleeping, etc, but unspecific.
