Behind the Songs: Dumb Waiters

A selection of quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on the song "Dumb Waiters".

John Ashton: "I wrote it with Rick Cooper, who used to play bass in Roxy. I got to know him through Tracy [Collier]. I had different words... I had the tune and Richard [Butler] wrote the words for it. It's a bit surreal - I think they tend to make people use their imaginations really. The way we never play a song the same. It never means quite the same. I guess people relate to it any way, make something out of it themselves." (ZigZag 1979)

Richard Butler: "I never realized it was that commercial. I was a bit surprised when CBS put it out [as a single]. It's over five minutes long." (Manchester Evening News 1981)

Richard Butler (on being asked if he made any videos for Talk Talk Talk): "Yeah. We've done two. There's one for 'Dumb Waiters' and one of 'Pretty In Pink'. The 'Dumb Waiters' one is great! You'll have to see that. It's really good." (Overview 1981)

Richard Butler: "'Dumb Waiters' [the music video] is great! I love it. 'Pretty In Pink' took the most money out of the two videos. But 'Dumb Waiters'...just the way it's done, shot in the lab and everything, it's great!" (Overview 1981)

Richard Butler: "'Dumb Waiters' is on [All Of This And Nothing] cause I just think it's a great riff. And it's a very typical, very heavy sounding Psychedelic Furs. It's got a great spirit of anger about it and that's why I love the song." (Interchords 1988)

Richard Butler: "A lot of people thought it was a really cheesy sax riff. I remember one review which said it was one of the worst songs ever written. Not just the worst song we'd ever written, but ever written in pop, full stop. I was quite flattered actually. I think it's quite a good song now. It's only recently I've come round to liking it again.

"I think I was being stitched up by a woman at the time. A relationship was falling apart. It seems I've always got a relationship that's falling apart. Some songs make a really clear and obvious sense to me afterwards but 'Dumb Waiters' never has. I know I was angry at the time, but for me to sit back now and try and talk about it would be like Jackson Pollock trying to analyze one of his paintings." (Melody Maker 1988)

Richard Butler (on the video): "I think it's probably the best video we've ever done, I think it is. It was done at the end of the day. We were trying to do two videos in a day. We did it on the same day we did the original 'Pretty In Pink.' And it was done as a kind of afterthought." (MTV Europe 1988)

Richard Butler: "I remember that getting a real lousy review, saying that was the cheesiest saxophone line ever." (Billboard 1997)

John Ashton (on being asked about his personal favorite PFurs songs and which song he enjoys playing live): "'Dumb Waiters' for its sheer full on attack. 'All Of This And Nothing', 'India', 'Pretty In Pink', 'President Gas', 'Heaven', and 'Highwire Days', for pretty much the same reason." (Modern Guitars Magazine 2005)

John Ashton (on being asked which PFurs song he is most proud of): "'Dumb Waiters', because it has everything that I loved about The Furs at a time when the band was cutting edge." (Interview with Dave Furneaux, 2014)

John Ashton: "You know I've always gone for the big sound so 'Dumb Waiters' has always been a favorite of mine as was 'Sister Europe,' 'Pretty In Pink.'" (Veer Magazine 2015)

Richard Butler: "I think 'The Ghost In You' still sounds pretty good, but it's not as timeless as, say, 'Pretty In Pink' or 'Dumb Waiters' or even slower songs like 'She Is Mine'." (Rock Cellar Magazine 2020)

Rich Good: "The free form beautiful chaos in this song is one of my favorite tracks to play..." (Instagram 2021)

Rich Good (on one of the pedals he used during the Made Of Rain tour rehearsals): "I recently got an Elta PLL to play a solo part at the end of 'Stars' (Made Of Rain) – it was originally played by Richard (Fortus) using a Schumann PLL, but those are extremely costly and rare, so for the 1 minute part in the set I just got the Elta, which is very close-sounding. In rehearsal it sounded incredible, but then the song was dropped from the final set list. So now I just use it on 'Dumb Waiters,' where the lead outro part was played using guitar through an Arp synth…" (Pedal Of The Day 2022)

Rich Good (on being asked what were his favorite classic PFurs songs to play live): "'Soap Commercial', 'Sister Europe', 'Dumb Waiters', 'Only You And I', 'Alice's House'… Honestly, there's not really any I don't like playing." (Post-Punk.com 2022)