Week Five: Peter Murphy - "Indigo Eyes" - Love Hysteria

Although I am far more partial to a lad with green eyes, I would not shun anyone with "Indigo Eyes".

As lame as this may sound, I have always kind of wondered if Peter Murphy wrote this song about his own beautiful eye color.  Maybe he was like, "Okay, well I've written songs about vampires and parties and women and men and everything else under the sun (and moon and stars)... Let's see, today I think I'll write a song about... ummmm... I know---- my eyes!"

Hey, you never know; he is a very beautiful man, who has probably spent many an hour admiring his own image.  People have written songs about stranger things than that.

I remember reading somewhere that the "Orphee" mentioned in the song is actually a reference to Orpheus who descended to the underworld to see Eurydice.  You might remember me mentioning that story in the "Don't Look Back" post for She & Him.

See, my darlings, again, you never know when those 7th grade mythology stories are going to come in handy!!

Fire burning in a hill
The lines are rocky rough
Red angels wait to pick remains
The cindered shoulder
Of confused men
Separate from their awe
With grey desire
He looks out mad
His soft grey indigo eyes
Indigo eyes ...
Asking

His heaven is uncovered not
A black tree blocks his way
His way is skating round a dome
(His way is in dismay)
The playmate sings
Like Orphee in some thunder world
Asking to be bathed in light
To be exemplified

With grey desire he looks out mad
His soft grey indigo eyes

Saw his past
He had dug for trust
With blind infected hands
And wondered as the hurt bit hard
Why the sacred weren't at hand
Only when his ears were deaf
To the angels light burst waves
Only when his ears were deaf
Did life turn from fog to fog
But not evil but estranged
But not evil but estranged

Indigo eyes, Indigo eyes
Indigo eyes, Indigo eyes