Behind the Songs: Highwire Days

A selection of quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on the song "Highwire Days".

Richard Butler: "It's an attack on the press, and it's just saying that you can see through it all. There are still weird delusions that I can't get rid of like 'They tore up our kisses and ran' is one I tend to think is maybe too complicated." (Artist Magazine 1984)

John Ashton: "Most of the [songs on Mirror Moves] aren't love songs at all. 'Heaven' is about nuclear war, 'Here Come Cowboys' and 'Highwire Days' are political, 'Heartbeat' is about life in the city, specifically about some people we know." (The Morning Call 1984)

Richard Butler (on being asked if he had done anything that reached the hallowed heights of art): "I think onstage, some of our greatest moments. I don't know, the song 'Highwire Days' sometimes, for some reason. It changes me. It changes what I am. Suddenly I feel massive. I feel like my voice is big enough to fill a big place, whereas sometimes you can be there onstage singing away—and you're looking out and you can see this big place and it doesn't feel like you're big enough to fill it. But then, with a song like that it just seems like you fill it with no problem, that and more." (Creem 1987)

Richard Butler: "There's no other job in the world where people applaud you every three minutes. I'm just an applause addict. There are times, particularly during 'Highwire Days,' when everything sounds so massive and I'm singing as hard as I can and feel THAT big, and the audience can see me and they feel THAT big, and then everything seems worth it. All the hotel lounges and endless airports, everything is worth it just for one song." (Melody Maker 1987)

Richard Butler: "'Highwire Days' is more about the press and how people... You can look at things yourself and find out more about what's going on 50 to 60 percent of the time than you can from reading the papers. You don't get the straight news from reading the papers and you don't get the straight news from television. You have to actually become involved and interested in what's happening to the world and what's happening to the environment." (Interchords 1988)

Richard Butler: "This was about the first song I wrote after I'd given up drinking. It's my favorite to do live. People say we're not very good at reaching out to an audience, but of the songs we do, this is probably the most successful. The chorus isn't exactly happy, but it seems triumphant." (Melody Maker 1988)

Richard Butler: "It's a song really about... I think you can see more what's going on in the world yourself most of the time, rather than watching television. I mean, especially in America, most television is commercial TV." (MTV Europe 1988)

Richard Butler (on the news and advertising): "That's what really gets me irritated about it. You know, you're getting holes in the ozone layer and the holes in the ozone layer are caused by companies like DuPont making CFC gas for aerosols. And also by companies like McDonald's using the packaging that they use for, you know, that stuff. And so the news never really tells you – they never really tell you who's to blame for what's going on because these people are big advertisers. And if they tell you about them on the news they're going to pull their advertising. So you're getting a kind of biased view of the news and the only way to really find out what's going on is to look into it yourself. And it was that kind of anger that made me want to write 'Highwire Days.'" (MTV Europe 1988)

John Ashton: "I originally wrote the music for National Lampoon's Joy Of Sex. Thank goodness they never used it! Live, the song was ALWAYS BRILLIANT!" (Should God Forget liner notes, 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)