Echo & the Bunnymen is a British Post-punk band formed in Liverpool in 1978… Read Full Bio ↴Echo & the Bunnymen is a British Post-punk band formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of Ian McCulloch (of The Crucial Three), Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson. There are many stories, probably apocryphal, that the quartet was completed by a drum machine known as "Echo".

By the time of their debut album, 1980's Crocodiles - a moderate UK hit - the drum machine had been replaced by Pete de Freitas. Their next, the critically-acclaimed Heaven Up Here, reached the Top Ten in 1981, as did 1983's Porcupine and '84's Ocean Rain. Singles like "The Killing Moon" (later used in the soundtrack to Donnie Darko, a film whose imagery owed much to the artwork of the band's early records.), "Silver," "Bring on the Dancing Horses," and "The Cutter" helped keep the group in the public eye as they took a brief hiatus in the late 1980s. Their 1987 self-titled LP was a small American hit, their only LP to have significant sales there.

McCulloch quit the band in 1988. De Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident one year later. The others decided to continue, recruiting Noel Burke to replace McCulloch on vocals in Reverberation (1990), which did not generate much excitement among fans or critics. Burke, Sargeant and Pattinson split after that, but the surviving three fourths of the original band reformed in 1997 and released Evergreen (1997), What are You Going to Do with Your Life? (1999), Flowers (2001) , Siberia (2005), and the latest addition, The Fountain (2009). The group's old audience liked the return to their classic sound, and they also managed to gain a number of new, younger listeners.

Echo and the Bunnymen were managed early on by Bill Drummond, who went on to be a founder member of The KLF.

Scissors in the Sand
Echo & the Bunnymen Lyrics

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Ethereally mine
Magic trees
They really used to shine
My silver leaves

[Chorus: x4]
Bet you're wondering how

Scissors in the sand
Rubberized
Washes of a hand
Ventriloquist

[Chorus: x4]

Something on the roof
I'm in The Wall
My silver fishing youth
Swim don't crawl

[Chorus: x4]

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Echo & the Bunnymen's song Scissors in the Sand are quite enigmatic and open to interpretation. The lines "Ethereally mine, magic trees, they really used to shine, my silver leaves" could be referring to a lost love, with "magic trees" representing the relationship and "silver leaves" symbolizing the precious memories they shared. The repetition of the chorus "Bet you're wondering how" suggests that the singer is contemplating how things went wrong and perhaps how to mend what has been broken.

The lines "Scissors in the sand, rubberized, washes of a hand, ventriloquist" are more elusive in meaning. "Scissors in the sand" could represent the futile act of trying to cut or control something that is uncontrollable, like waves in the ocean. "Rubberized" could refer to the feeling of being numbed or desensitized to pain or emotion, while "washes of a hand" suggest the fleeting nature of life and the impermanence of our actions. "Ventriloquist" could speak to a sense of losing one's voice or identity and conforming to expectations, or perhaps it represents the voice of an inner critic or the voice of society at large.

The lines "Something on the roof, I'm in The Wall, my silver fishing youth, swim don't crawl" are also somewhat abstract. "Something on the roof" could represent a nagging feeling of unease or a disturbance in the peace, while "I'm in The Wall" could refer to feeling trapped or confined, unable to break free from a situation. "My silver fishing youth, swim don't crawl" suggests a longing for simpler times and a desire to reclaim a sense of innocence and freedom. It could also be a metaphor for taking risks and seizing opportunities, rather than being cautious and crawling through life.

Line by Line Meaning

Ethereally mine
I possess something intangible and mystical.

Magic trees
Trees that hold a special kind of enchantment.

They really used to shine
They had a radiance that attracted attention.

My silver leaves
The leaves of those trees are a symbol of my story.

[Chorus: x4] Bet you're wondering how
The chorus implies that the listener is curious about something.

Scissors in the sand
A symbol of the futile effort of cutting what lies beneath.

Rubberized
Unemotional or desensitised.

Washes of a hand
A dismissive gesture or sign of cutting ties.

Ventriloquist
Implying someone or something is controlling the artist's words and actions.

[Chorus: x4]
Reiterating the listener's curiosity as voiced in the previous chorus.

Something on the roof
A sense of disquiet and suspicion of something above.