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By the time of their debut album, 1980's Crocodiles - a moderate UK hit - the drum machine had been replaced by Pete de Freitas.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.

Soul Kitchen
Echo & the Bunnymen Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Clock says it's time to close now
Guess I better go now
Really like to stay here all night
The cars crawl past all stuffed with eyes
Street lights shed their hollow glow
Your brain seems bruised with numb surprise
Still one place to go
Still one place to go

Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out and I'll wander, baby
Stumblin' in the neon groves

Fingers weave quick minarets
Speak in secret alphabet
Light another cigarette
Learn to forget
Learn to forget
Learn to forget
Learn to forget

Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen
Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Turn me out and I'll wander, baby
Stumblin' in the neon groves

Soul kitchen
Soul kitchen
Couldn't leave, yeah, in your soul kitchen

Clock says it's time to close now
I guess I better go now
Really like to stay here all night

All night
All night

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Echo & the Bunnymen's song "Soul Kitchen" paint a vivid picture of a night out in the city, with the multi-sensory experiences of the streets and the desire to prolong the night mingling with feelings of weariness and numbness. The opening lines hint at the end of the night, as the clock ticks towards closing time, but the singer expresses a reluctance to leave, wanting to stay in the magical atmosphere of the "soul kitchen" they find themselves in. This desire is underscored by the imagery of the passing cars, "stuffed with eyes," and the hollow glow of the street lights, which create a sense of detachment from the outside world.

The chorus of the song is a plea to the person in the soul kitchen to let the singer stay there and find solace from the weariness of the night. They long to "sleep all night" in the kitchen, which is described as a warm and gentle place, and to be turned out into the "neon groves" of the city only when they are ready. The final verse adds to the dreamlike quality of the song, with the singer's fingers weaving "quick minarets" and speaking in a "secret alphabet," while striving to learn how to forget.

Overall, "Soul Kitchen" is a song that captures the mix of euphoria and exhaustion that comes from a night out in the city, with the soul kitchen providing a rare moment of respite from the noise and chaos.

Line by Line Meaning

Clock says it's time to close now
The end of the night is near and it's time to leave

Guess I better go now
It's probably best to leave now

Really like to stay here all night
I would love to continue being here for the rest of the night

The cars crawl past all stuffed with eyes
The cars are moving slowly and are full of people staring out at the night

Street lights shed their hollow glow
The street lights are casting a lifeless light on everything around them

Your brain seems bruised with numb surprise
Your mind is stunned and overwhelmed

Still one place to go
There is still one destination left to go to

Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen
Allow me to spend the night in the place where I feel the most alive

Warm my mind near your gentle stove
Surround me with your comforting presence

Turn me out and I'll wander, baby
Set me free and I'll explore the world

Stumblin' in the neon groves
Traveling through the brightly-lit night landscape