Originally, the Australian band was called The Boys Next Door, comprising Cave, Howard, Mick Harvey (guitar, drums, organ, piano), bassist Tracy Pew, and drummer Phill Calvert. After the Door Door album and Hee Haw EP under that name, the band moved to London and switched its name to the deceptively benign Birthday Party. Once they arrived in Britain, their demented, knotty post-punk began to gel. They released their first international album, Prayers On Fire, in 1981, earning critical praise in the U.K. and U.S. While the band was preparing to record the follow-up, Pew was jailed for drunk driving; former Magazine member Barry Adamson, Harry Howard, and Chris Walsh filled in for the absent Pew on 1982's Junkyard.
After the release of Junkyard, Calvert joined Psychedelic Furs and the band moved to Germany, where they began collaborating with such experimental post-punk acts as Lydia Lunch and Einstürzende Neubauten. Harvey left in the summer of 1983. The group briefly continued with drummer Des Heffner, but it soon disbanded after a final concert in Melbourne, Australia. Cave had the most successful solo career, recording a series of albums in the '80s and '90s that maintained his status as a popular cult figure; Harvey joined Cave's band Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Howard joined Crime & The City Solution, which also featured his brother Harry and Harvey. Tracey Pew toured with The Saints before dying of an epileptic seizure in 1986.
--Review from AMG Allmusic Guide
The Friend Catcher
The Birthday Party Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Puff and poke
Puff and poking the smoke
Touches the ground
You, your lungs and your wrists
They throb like trains
Choo choo choo
Of sound
She, by my chinny chin chin
Eee-oh eee-oh
Like a zippo smokes the way
Hope, around
You, your lungs and your wrists
They throb like trains
Choo choo choo
It's a prison of sound
A prison of sound
She, by the hair of my chinny chin chin
Eee-oh eee-oh eee-oh eee-oh
Like a zippo smokes the way
Hope, around
You, your lungs and your wrists
They throb like trains
Choo choo choo
It's a prison of sound
I poke around...
The lyrics of The Birthday Party's The Friend Catcher seem to be about a possibly drug-fueled encounter between the singer and someone with throbbing lungs and wrists like trains. They describe their own actions of puffing and poking their cigarette fingers, which leads to the smoke touching the ground. The person with the throbbing lungs and wrists is "a prison of sound," which could imply that they are trapped in their own physical sensations. The songs also talks about a woman who smokes like a zippo and brings a sense of hope. The phrase "by the hair of my chinny chin chin" is possibly a reference to the tale of The Three Little Pigs, where the wolf tries to blow down the third pig's brick house, but is unable to get in through the chimney. It could symbolize a similar sense of vulnerability and danger.
Overall, the lyrics are very abstract and open to interpretation. They create a sense of tension and unease, with repetitive phrases like "choo choo choo" and "eee-oh eee-oh" contributing to the layered soundscape. The use of descriptive language to create physical sensations and actions also adds an element of sensory immersion.
Line by Line Meaning
I, cigarette fingers
The singer has cigarette fingers that they use to puff and poke, indicating their addiction to smoking.
Puff and poke
The singer is using their cigarette fingers to smoke and fidget restlessly.
Puff and poking the smoke
The singer is aimlessly exhaling smoke and playing with it.
Touches the ground
The smoke descends to the ground, symbolizing a lack of direction or purpose.
You, your lungs and your wrists
The artist addresses someone else who is experiencing physical pain, affecting both their lungs and wrists.
They throb like trains
This pain is so intense that it feels like the repetitive and intense sound of a train passing by.
Choo choo choo
This sound is emphasized repeatedly with onomatopoeia to evoke the imagery of a train.
It's a prison of sound
The intense and overwhelming sound of the painful throb creates a sense of confinement and entrapment for the person experiencing it.
She, by my chinny chin chin
A woman is referenced to who is in close proximity to the artist.
Eee-oh eee-oh
This onomatopoeia may represent the sound of her movement or presence.
Like a zippo smokes the way
The woman is compared to a lighter, further emphasizing her association with smoking and perhaps her influence on the singer's addiction.
Hope, around
Despite the negative imagery surrounding the smoke and pain, the artist refers to hope in the presence of this woman.
A prison of sound
The repetition of this phrase at the end reinforces the idea that the physical pain is a form of confinement or entrapment, further emphasized by the train imagery.
I poke around...
The song ends abruptly with the singer's statement, leaving the listener to wonder about the implications of this action.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: NICHOLAS EDWARD CAVE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@p.r.h.7283
In 10th grade a friend turned me on to these guys. This was the first song I heard. The guitar intro alone was crushing. I’ll be 47 yrs old in a few days and this was truly life changing for me
@soniashanzer3732
Ill be 46 in April and i still love The Birthday Party.
@Onemoretimetine
My friends and I followed Nick Cave and the Boys Next Door around Melbourne Pubs back many moons ago. I regularly revisit this music and even at my young age of 61 it still brings the same spine-chilling joy it brought to me as it did in my teenage years! Thanks popesblood for sharing.
@bigtimernow
So glad this song exists, that humans actually made it, and it can never be taken away from us.
@EvilCat-EnergyCatalyst
The human thing really resonates with me. When I listen to The Birthday Party, I often think about humanness, and how happy I am to be human, and how much I appreciate the good parts of being human.
It's sweet and cute that us little animals called "humans" made fantastic art - something we invented for ourselves! And other animals will invent their own art, too, and that will be precious to them.
We are ridiculously more achieving than the other animals of Earth, but we are still just........... litle creachers. Thaste It . We Canot change this.
@AgentXPQ
When trying to describe this song, you realize how odd it is that the words "Insane, brutal, abrasive, hilarious and beautiful" all apply to this one tune.
@spacemanbassman1608
I love bumping into Youtube Celebrities in the comments. Best wishes Lev.
@stevenmorris2234
It could be used for American Psycho movie lol
@gabrielceballos8789
Wow you're cool🥴
@marijasarovic8092
R.S. Howard still stays the best guitar player in the world.