Uncompromising from the very start, it’s fair to say Peter Murphy and the band Bauhaus always trod their own dark path, something I was reminded of on re-entering that netherworld while diving into Flood Gallery Publishing epic read, the line between the devil’s teeth and that which cannot be repeat: peter murphy lyrics 1980-2014.

I started out by revisiting their first non-album singles and 1980 debut album In the Flat Field, complete with its somewhat ‘jump out of the record rack’ cover reproduction of Duane Michals’ 1949 photograph, Homage to Puvis de Chavannes. Take for example ‘Stigmata Martyr’, Peter’s strict Catholic upbringing no doubt explored and perhaps exorcised within, and second single ‘Dark Entries’, their first for the label that became 4AD, there in all its dark glory on page 20 of this weighty and impressive 290-plus-page tome.

‘I came upon your room it stuck into my head

We leapt into the bed degrading even lice

You took delight in taking down

My shielded pride

Until exposed became my darker side.’

Heading back by car from my old South-East manor on Saturday morning, I caught Paul Gambaccini’s Pick of the Pops on BBC Radio 2, the veteran broadcaster revisiting the last top-20 of July 1980, this punter – still three months off his teens at the time – pleased to hear early influences such as Dexys Midnight Runners, Joy Division and The Undertones featured. It’s odd to think though that in the same month Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins, and Peter Murphy were putting finishing touches to their self-produced debut LP at Southern Studios in Wood Green, North London. As it was though, nothing quite broke into the mainstream for this post-punk Northamptonshire quartet until October ’82, when their take on ‘Ziggy Stardust’ reached the higher half of the top-40.

Only April ‘83’s ‘She’s in Parties’, the lead track on posthumously released fourth LP Burning from the Inside – its glorious dub reggae vibe proof if it were needed that this was no one-dimensional goth rock act – came anywhere close. Had they reached a point by then where they were seen as the more acceptable side of goth rock, as borne out by two weeks in the top-10 for The Sky’s Gone Out the previous autumn? I don’t think so. There was certainly little if any concession to crossover territory, even if that would come at later points on Peter’s solo journey (to good effect).

I’m pretty sure the charts were purely incidental for this outfit anyway. I got my first exposure – as with so many leftfield forces – via John Peel, who first caught them live in their native Northants in the summer of ’79, leading to several plays of debut single ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ (that’s where you expected me to start this feature, right?) and an invitation to record their debut BBC Radio 1 session before the year was out. And by the time 1982 was over, they not only had two Festive Fifty entries that year but were also sharing space with two perennial Peel faves mentioned earlier, Joy Division and The Undertones, in the top-10 of the All-Time Festive Fifty, the appeal of that initial tribute to the 1930s’ celluloid Count undiminishing.

There are certainly hints of contemporaries like the Banshees and the Ants and Joy Division on that self-produced first LP, as well as the influential Bowie and Iggy Pop. The critics weren’t quite so kind, but there was something of a goth rock blueprint laid down. 

As it was, half of the band went on to more stateside exposure with follow-up act Tones on Tail and all bar Peter went on to form Love and Rockets. As for the vocalist, he was already the face of the Maxell audio cassette by then, with those memorable TV ads, those chiselled looks put to good use and of course instantly recognisable.

Musically, Peter went on to make The Waking Hour in 1984 with Japan’s Mick Karn, as Dalis Car (they reconvened in late 2010, managing just one recording session amid Mick’s cancer struggles, his death following in January), going on to record nine solo studio albums between 1986’s Should the World Fail to Fall Apart and 2014 late highpoint Lion, many of the lyrics from those tracks across those records included here.

Perhaps the most successful (and arguably most accessible) was 1989’s Deep, including the lead single that lent its name to the title of this new book, and ‘Cuts You Up’, which spent seven weeks at the top of the US modern rock charts and crossed over for a modest Billboard Hot 100 showing. That caught out even his label, Beggars Banquet, by all accounts. But still he made his own way, and as he let on in ‘A Strange Kind of Love’,

‘There is no middle ground

Or that’s how it seems

For us to walk or to take

Instead we tumble down

Either side left or right

To love or to hate.’

By the early 2000s, there was something of a sea change, his Beggars Banquet era behind him, 2002’s Dust (with Turkish-Canadian composer and producer Mercan Dede) seeing Peter experiment with traditional Turkish instrumentation, fusing elements of a more prog rock bent, trance, classical music, and Middle Eastern music with electronica, having moved to Istanbul with his Turkish wife a decade earlier. 

Bauhaus returned in 2008, after a quarter-century break, for the Go Away White album, and beyond there Peter has carried on his solo journey in style, 2011’s Ninth his first album for Nettwerk. And then came Lion three years later, Killing Joke’s Youth performing his trademark wonders as a producer, bringing the best out of this now veteran artist (whisper it, but he recently turned 66), helping unleash his inner Bowie and Scott Walker, not least on a clear contender for my personal favourite across the mighty Murphy catalogue, ‘The Rose’.

I say contender as that fine record throws up many more tracks to at least match what had come before, including ‘Eliza’, and whether he’s talking about himself or his heroine there, I’m always going to love that line,

‘I’m a painter on the hearts of those I sing for.’

Now here we are with this published celebration of sorts of that career in oversized hardback deluxe art and lyric coffee table book form, limited to 600 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the main man, the song words including those from 1979-recorded, 2018-released The Bela Session. And as Peter, in the book’s introduction, puts it, “Lyric writing is a dive into the never-ending internal depth of your sea of being. You’re writing to, from, and for your fellow beings and Earth friends.”

Don’t shell out on this mighty tome – housed in a slipcase with gold foil design and coming with an exclusive giclee print painted by Peter – expecting major biographical detail. You’ll have to find that elsewhere. Instead, you get an impressive artsy artefact, including hand-written journal entries and previously unpublished paintings and illustrations from the main man, with quality photography throughout, including rare and unseen shots from Fin Costello, Paul Cox, E Gabriel Edvy, Kevin Haskins, Rob Sheridan and Justin Thomas.

My own musings will count as nothing or little to his legion of extremely loyal fans, many of whom took that darker path from post-punk into gothic rock while I swung towards indie pop, soul and more. But I always looked on with fascination and was pleased to hear his voice remained rather epic and intense by the time of that most recent solo triumph.

What we get here certainly provides a fascinating read, albeit posing several questions as to why certain key songs have been left out when they might have added a little more to the mix. However, I don’t think Peter will be worried that he remains as enigmatic a figure by the time you reach the endpapers as when you turned to the first page, the lyrics and paintings within suggesting little more than the notion that here is an iconic figure that remains difficult to easily pigeonhole, for all those somewhat lazy but understandable Godfather of Glam descriptions down the years.

Above all else, for all his dark theatrical leanings and brushes with a gothic showbusiness world, he remains very much underground and, I’d venture, private, a prime exponent of the ‘less is more’ school of rock, despite his grand on-stage and on-record presence and all he gives of himself in those instances. And that’s some tightrope walk to perfect.

As he put it, ‘My lyrics have always been of the sacred – not ‘inspired by’ – but from and of the sacred. Because I, like you, am sacred.’ And in this instance, we have almost 400 pages of lyrical and graphic content and yet we’re left barely any closer to knowing the real Peter Murphy… most likely the way he’d prefer it. 

the line between the devil’s teeth and that which cannot be repeat: peter murphy lyrics 1980-2014 is released today (July 31^st), and is available from www.thefloodgallery.com/products/the-line-between-the-devil-s-teeth

Meanwhile, this month Peter also unveiled his debut series of artwork at www.petermurphy.studio, exploring his iconic gothic aesthetic through self-portraiture and music iconography, with 21 works being released online throughout this month and August.

It’s something he’s contemplated since he was 17, when he was accepted into art school. Unable to attend due to work commitments – as a bookbinder, then a printer – he took a different path and progressed into music instead. However, Peter has always been a passionate fine artist, and this inaugural series of artwork provides ‘an in-depth exploration of Peter’s introspective journey throughout the last couple of years, with strong references to his ‘Godfather of Goth’ persona.

‘Expect bold colours, gothic undertones, energetic brushstrokes, and distinctive references to his musical career showing how interlaced the artist and musician are. There will be two releases of original artworks through his website and a limited-edition print series via online gallery partners, SOTA.’

And as the man himself puts it, “If you’ve got art in you, it has to come out.”

For further details, head to www.petermurphy.studio and www.sotamarketplace.co

SOTA or State Of The Art Marketplace is an affordable online gallery created by entrepreneur, curator and artist, Emma Lang, to bring much needed change to the art industry. SOTA’s purpose is to democratise the arts by providing a fair and trustworthy platform for artists to sell their work. For more information, visit @sota_marketplace on Instagram or go to www.sotamarketplace.co