Atrocity Exhibition

Album: Closer (1980)
Play Video
  • Asylums with doors open wide
    Where people had paid to see inside
    For entertainment they watch his body twist
    Behind his eyes he says, "I still exist"

    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside

    In arenas, he kills for a prize
    Wins a minute to add to his life
    But the sickness is drowned by cries for more
    Pray to God, make it quick, watch him fall

    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside

    This is the way
    This is the way
    This is the way
    This is the way
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside

    You'll see the horrors of a faraway place
    Meet the architects of law face to face
    See mass murder on a scale you've never seen
    And all the ones who try hard to succeed

    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside
    This is the way, step inside

    And I picked on the whims of a thousand or more
    Still pursuing the path that's been buried for years
    All the dead wood from jungles and cities on fire
    Can't replace or relate, can't release or repair
    Take my hand and I'll show you what was and will be Writer/s: Bernard Sumner, Ian Kevin Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Paul David Morris
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 5

  • Kat from Manchester UkDoes anyone else suspect that he wrote this following news of The Jonestown Massacre? It occurred within 2 years of the album being released.
  • Ginger_fro from IlAs it is. The lyrics reference not only Ian's own personal problems, but an author and particularly a book of the same name that Ian and other band members read and got it from.
    Author JG Ballard
    Book The Atrocity Exhibition
  • Eddy from Sf, CaIn the Joy Division documentary. Ian Curtis' wife explains that Ian went through a phase in which all that interested him was human suffering; the holocaust, wars, etc. and would research and read about it. This song is his own interpretation in how people are fascinated by human suffering. himself included.
  • Sebastian from Copenhagen, DenmarkIan Curtis was as a child very fascinated with the Roman Empire, and gladiators. So I think the meaning of the lyric is that he compares himself with a gladiator, who suffers in front of an audience. Of course meaning that he was in real life suffering with his epileptic fits. People was paying to see gladiators suffer, and the people who payed to see Joy Division, got to see Ian Curtis suffer.
  • Chere from Lumberton, TxI'm not sure of the exact meaning of this song (who does really?) but here is my own interpretation. As Joy Division's popularity grew, people stopped going to concerts for the music and began going to see if Ian Curtis was going to fall into an epileptic fit during his manic trance dance. I think that he wrote this song about his loss of control with his fans and his own personal life, while desperately trying to say, 'behind his eyes he says, "I still exist."
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Alice Cooper

Alice CooperFact or Fiction

How well do you know this shock-rock harbinger who's been publicly executed hundreds of times?

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou HarrisSongwriter Interviews

She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

dUg Pinnick of King's X

dUg Pinnick of King's XSongwriter Interviews

dUg dIgs into his King's X metal classics and his many side projects, including the one with Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam.

Booker T. Jones

Booker T. JonesSongwriter Interviews

The Stax legend on how he cooked up "Green Onions," the first time he and Otis Redding saw hippies, and if he'll ever play a digital organ.