The Legendary Pink Dots are a Netherlands-based band formed in August 1980 … Read Full Bio ↴The Legendary Pink Dots are a Netherlands-based band formed in August 1980 in the UK who, although distinctly underground, have been musically influential over the years. The band name was derived from pink dots of nail varnish on the piano in their squat, where founding members Edward and April lived. The band has as its focal point vocalist Edward Ka-Spel, who is, along with Phil "The Silverman" Knight, one of the original remaining members of the band. In the mid eighties the band resettled in the Netherlands, where they still reside today. Apart from Edward and Phil, the line-up has gone through many changes. Members such as Ryan Moore, a Canadian bass player, who joined in 1991 after the recordings of the Last Man to Fly with the Tear Garden (he joined as a session musician), went on to form their own labels and musical projects. See Twilight Circus and M Records. Their music is nothing if not original and it is difficult to categorise, but comparisons may be drawn with bands like Pink Floyd and Can.

Their sound has been described as an amalgamation of psychedelic rock, industrial, synth-pop and avant-garde. They have released over 40 records and continuously tour the world.

Members of the band have also collaborated with Nurse With Wound, The Dresden Dolls, Jarboe, HNAS, Jim O'Rourke, Skinny Puppy's cEvin Key, forming The Tear Garden. Ka Spel accompanied Skinny Puppy for a small part of their 1988 European 'Head Trauma' tour in Sweden. Key also appears on the 1994 album 9 Lives to Wonder.

The Collector
The Legendary Pink Dots Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Butterflies, three blind mice, eight little maids in a box. He met them,
he kept them, he carefully puts them away for the rainy day, when
nothing's left, no nothing's left to collect. {Whistling}
And sometimes he'd look in his catalog, and it was like the whole wide
world bundled up and waved, and he'd saved those waves, and he'd count
them. He'd count them, cos he loved counting things. 3 french hens, 2
turtles doves, a monkey in a big palm tree, a bunch of green bananas that
are never ripe, an orangutan who says I love you and you can pull a string

and it grins and it, it's a happy little thing, but it doesn't say much,
so it isn't much good company. 15,934 plastic facsimilies of the Eiffel
Tower, twenty percent of which were broken because they were made in
Taiwan so they weren't built to last at all, and anyway the proportions
were completely wrong, because they don't have the Eiffel Tower in
Taiwan. All they have is pagodas. And he had many bagodas too. He had
twenty-eight bagodas, which he shrunk with water and kept them all in a
big trunk which he dug out from the sea from a huge wreck of this old
galleon, and he kept galleons too, many, many galleons with skeletons and

lots of treasure, and he collected them. He collected all the treasure in
all the world, and he owned all the banks.

Overall Meaning

The song "The Collector" by The Legendary Pink Dots can be understood as a commentary on the nature of collecting and its psychological implications. The lyrics describe a collector who accumulates a vast array of objects from butterflies to bagodas, from plastic replicas of the Eiffel Tower to galleons filled with treasure. The collector keeps these objects carefully stored away for a "rainy day" when there is nothing left to collect. He finds pleasure in cataloging his collection and counting his possessions. However, as the song progresses, it becomes clear that the collector's acquisitions are not enough to bring him true happiness or companionship. He is obsessed with possession and has become isolated from the world around him.

The imagery in the song creates a sense of surrealism and absurdity, highlighting the absurdity of the collector's behavior. For example, the mention of the orangutan that says "I love you" but doesn't provide good company underscores the loneliness and alienation that the collector experiences. The references to broken replicas of the Eiffel Tower and pagodas made in Taiwan satirize the idea of collecting for the sake of possession, suggesting that the collector values quantity over quality.

Overall, the song suggests that collecting can be a dangerous and unhealthy impulse, leading us to isolate ourselves from others and the world around us. Instead of valuing objects over connections, we should find meaning in relationships and experiences.

Line by Line Meaning

Butterflies, three blind mice, eight little maids in a box.
A man collected unusual things like butterflies, three blind mice, and eight dolls in a box.

He met them, he kept them, he carefully puts them away for the rainy day, when nothing's left, no nothing's left to collect. {Whistling}
He kept these items carefully, intending to enjoy them when he had nothing left to collect. He whistled happily about it.

And sometimes he'd look in his catalog, and it was like the whole wide world bundled up and waved, and he'd saved those waves, and he'd count them.
He had a catalog of all his collections, which was like having the whole world amassed in one place. He enjoyed counting what he had collected.

3 french hens, 2 turtles doves, a monkey in a big palm tree, a bunch of green bananas that are never ripe, an orangutan who says I love you and you can pull a string and it grins and it, it's a happy little thing, but it doesn't say much, so it isn't much good company.
He collected random items like three french hens, two turtle doves, a toy monkey, unripe bananas, and a talking orangutan that wasn't very good company.

15,934 plastic facsimilies of the Eiffel Tower, twenty percent of which were broken because they were made in Taiwan so they weren't built to last at all, and anyway the proportions were completely wrong, because they don't have the Eiffel Tower in Taiwan. All they have is pagodas.
He had collected over 15,000 plastic Eiffel Tower replicas from Taiwan, which were poorly made and not accurate. He did not know that Taiwan did not have the Eiffel Tower, only pagodas.

And he had many bagodas too. He had twenty-eight bagodas, which he shrunk with water and kept them all in a big trunk which he dug out from the sea from a huge wreck of this old galleon, and he kept galleons too, many, many galleons with skeletons and lots of treasure, and he collected them.
He had a collection of twenty-eight miniature pagodas that he had shrunk with water, a big trunk salvaged from a shipwreck full of miniatures including galleons with treasures and skeletons. He collected them all.

He collected all the treasure in all the world, and he owned all the banks.
He believed he had collected all the treasure in the world, and owned all the banks.

Contributed by Lila Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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