Album: Closer (1980)

License This Song 

• Asylums with doors open wide
  Where people had paid to see inside
  For entertainment they watch his body twist
  Behind his eyes he says, "I still exist"
  
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  
  In arenas, he kills for a prize
  Wins a minute to add to his life
  But the sickness is drowned by cries for more
  Pray to God, make it quick, watch him fall
  
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  
  This is the way
  This is the way
  This is the way
  This is the way
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  
  You'll see the horrors of a faraway place
  Meet the architects of law face to face
  See mass murder on a scale you've never seen
  And all the ones who try hard to succeed
  
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  This is the way, step inside
  
  And I picked on the whims of a thousand or more
  Still pursuing the path that's been buried for years
  All the dead wood from jungles and cities on fire
  Can't replace or relate, can't release or repair
  Take my hand and I'll show you what was and will be Writer/s: Bernard Sumner, Ian Kevin Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Paul David Morris
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 5

• Kat from Manchester UkDoes anyone else suspect that he wrote this following news of The Jonestown Massacre? It occurred within 2 years of the album being released.
• Ginger_fro from IlAs it is. The lyrics reference not only Ian's own personal problems, but an author and particularly a book of the same name that Ian and other band members read and got it from.
  Author JG Ballard
  Book The Atrocity Exhibition
• Eddy from Sf, CaIn the Joy Division documentary. Ian Curtis' wife explains that Ian went through a phase in which all that interested him was human suffering; the holocaust, wars, etc. and would research and read about it. This song is his own interpretation in how people are fascinated by human suffering. himself included.
• Sebastian from Copenhagen, DenmarkIan Curtis was as a child very fascinated with the Roman Empire, and gladiators. So I think the meaning of the lyric is that he compares himself with a gladiator, who suffers in front of an audience. Of course meaning that he was in real life suffering with his epileptic fits. People was paying to see gladiators suffer, and the people who payed to see Joy Division, got to see Ian Curtis suffer.
• Chere from Lumberton, TxI'm not sure of the exact meaning of this song (who does really?) but here is my own interpretation. As Joy Division's popularity grew, people stopped going to concerts for the music and began going to see if Ian Curtis was going to fall into an epileptic fit during his manic trance dance. I think that he wrote this song about his loss of control with his fans and his own personal life, while desperately trying to say, 'behind his eyes he says, "I still exist."

More Songfacts:

Heat Of The NightBryan Adams

Bryan Adams' 1987 song "Heat Of The Night" has the distinction of being the first commercially released cassette single in the US.

Just In LoveJoe Jonas

Lil Wayne does an unlikely rap in a remix of the Joe Jonas song "Just In Love." The pair met at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

River BankBrad Paisley

"Brad Paisley's "River Bank" was inspired by his childhood growing up 500 yards from the Ohio River.

Brass In PocketPretenders

Chrissie Hynde got the phrase "Brass In Pocket" from a Northern England slang term meaning you had some money, "brass" meaning coins.

Video Killed The Radio StarBuggles

"Video Killed The Radio Star" by Buggles was the first video to air on MTV when the network started broadcasting on August 1, 1981.

Gonna Get Over YouSara Bareilles

Jonah Hill directed the video for Sara Bareilles' song "Gonna Get Over You." It's a mash-up of Grease and West Side Story.

Editor's Picks

Timothy B. SchmitSongwriter Interviews

The longtime Eagle talks about soaring back to his solo career, and what he learned about songwriting in the group.

80s Video Director Jay DubinSong Writing

Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.