Panic on the Streets of London

What is your favorite lines of the lyrics?

I just find these lyrics so interesting and odd. They are so sinister but sung upbeat. And how these lines relate to the rest of the song. You can interpret them in so many different ways.

“Burn down the disco

Hang the blessed DJ

Because the music that they constantly play

IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE

Hang the blessed DJ

Because the music they constantly play”

What Story is the Song Telling?

Panic on the Streets of London

What is the emotion in the song?

This may sound repetitive, and lacking thought, but I think the emotion in the song is panic. I think this because the lyrics are saying run to find somewhere safe to stay, yet there is no safety in the towns. That image of the lyric bring to mind panic.

Now these lyrics may be very confusing and you may not understood the meaning. The story became clear once I found a good website online, (Bronwyn found it) and it suggests that Panic on the streets of London, was based on a guy named Jimmy Savile. Jimmy Savile was an English Dj, television presenter, and a charity fundraiser. Sound familiar ‘hang the Dj’. Anyways, a year after Jimmy Savile’s death, hundreds of child sex abuse and rape stories became public. - (Wikipedia)

Many phrases and words in the song relate back to this case. Also the music video tells a lot about this story, too. near the end of the video it shows a guy kissing a corpse, a weird article says that he may have sexually abused corpses as well as children. In another article it says that “Leeds city Council preparing to strip Jimmy Savile of honor.” A meeting took place to scrap this statue or other form of memorial of late television star who sexually abused young girls. - Yorkshire Evening Post. That relates to the lyrics in the song of a character shadily slipping side streets of Leeds.

There is also that creepy children’s chorus in the background of the end of the song - which I think is supposed to symbolize a bold mob of children, against their attacker. Is this just a coincidence? This is just one opinion but it seems pretty accurate.

What is theme the Songwriter is

expressing?

One interpretation of the theme that the songwriter is expressing could be ‘panic everywhere, and never losing

the feeling.'

Why did I choose this song?

I chose this song because it had a nice rhythm. Not only that but it has depth and a deeper image to it. The lines, “ Burn down the disco, Hang the blessed DJ, Because the music that they constantly play” , catches my eye. I don’t know why it does, but I think it is referring to something else linked to the lyrics.

Lyrics of the Song

Panic on the streets of London

Panic on the streets of Birmingham

I wonder to myself

Could life ever be sane again ?

The Leeds side-streets that you slip down

I wonder to myself

Hopes may rise on the Grasmere

But Honey Pie, you're not safe here

So you run down

To the safety of the town

But there's Panic on the streets of Carlisle

Dublin, Dundee, Humberside

I wonder to myself

Burn down the disco

Hang the blessed DJ

Because the music that they constantly play

IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE

Hang the blessed DJ

Because the music they constantly play

On the Leeds side-streets that you slip down

Provincial towns you jog 'round

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ

HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ

HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ

HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ

HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ

HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ

HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ

HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ

HANG THE DJ

Why is this song a good example of poetry?

This song is a good example of poetry because it has a story and depth behind it. This song can have many different effects on people, on how you can interpret it.

3 Poetic Devices

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ and HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ is one example. Because One word is given more emphasis than the other. This first example adds meaning because it makes the line of the song more powerful and adds more mood.

Hopes may rise on the Grasmere, But Honey Pie, you're not safe here. These two lines are examples of an Euphony because they sound pleasant together. The opposite from a cacophony.

Panic on the streets of London

Panic on the streets of Birmingham

This is an example of repetition, Because it is repeating what is basically already been said. If it is words being repeated to describe things or phrases.

What is one idea in the video or lyrics that could

possibly relate to the meaning of the song?

4 Images that come to mind

Panic on the Streets of London

When I read the lyrics of, ‘Panic in the streets of London’ I think of depressing death, and a destroyed grey world, and bare, abandoned trees on a cold winter day. Also crowds of people in distress some being killed and others running to find safety.

By: The Smiths

Panic on the Streets of London was written by the Smiths, in 1986.

Bibliography:

"Cowan & the Stupid Dream." Cowan the Stupid Dream. N.p., 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 05 Oct. 2013. <http://cowanandthestupiddream.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/panic-jimmy-savile-the-smiths-synchronicity/>.

"Jimmy Savile." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 May 2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Savile>.