Shadowplay Lyrics
To the centre of the city where all roads meet
Waiting for you
To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank
Searching for you
I was moving through the silence without motion
Waiting for you
In a room with a window in the corner
I found truth
[Verse 2]
In the shadowplay, acting out your own death
Knowing no more
As the assassins all grouped in four lines
Dancing on the floor
And with cold steel, odour on their bodies
Made a move to connect
But I could only stare in disbelief
As the crowds all left
[Outro]
I did everything, everything I wanted to
I let them use you for their own ends
To the centre of the city in the night, waiting for you
To the centre of the city in the night, waiting for you
About
On “Shadowplay”, the guitars launch into a dimension reminiscent of the sonic dimensions that David Bowie and Brian Eno dwelt in during the late 1970s. The band’s sound is echoey and cavernous, but thanks to Factory Records producer Martin Hannett, it was never empty. By adding sound effects such as breaking glass, deep breaths, and footsteps, Hannett brings the music out of the mental torture of the lead singer and into the real world. It’s these details that keep you with it and make it feel more measured than their manic live performances. For this, however, he was initially resented by the band.
The title “Shadowplay” makes the band’s gigs resemble “play[s] presented by casting shadows of puppets or actors on a screen”. Ian feels like he is no real person to the audience, and feels like he is just enacting what they want to see, although they don’t even regard him as an actor; they see him as a mere shadow of the actor.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
This was the song that Barney [Bernard Sumner] wanted to sound like ‘The Ocean’ by Velvet Underground. Again [after ‘Insight’], the lyric doesn’t repeat until the end and it has no chorus, which is something I think Ian was very, very good at – the way he played with the structure of the lyrics but without ever losing what it was about the song that makes it strong. You don’t listen to it and think, Ah, what an interesting lyrical structure. But it’s all in the song. His love of art was showing here. The way he wanted to slightly subvert the normal conventions of rock and pop.
– Peter Hook via his memoir, Unknown Pleasures (2012)
- 1.Disorder
- 3.Candidate
- 4.Insight
- 7.Shadowplay
- 8.Wilderness
- 9.Interzone
