Atrocity Exhibition Lyrics
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"
[Chorus]
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
[Verse 2]
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
[Chorus]
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
[Bridge]
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
[Verse 3]
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
[Chorus]
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
[Outro]
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
About
The title of this track comes from J.G. Ballard’s disturbing, surrealistic short story collection The Atrocity Exhibition, which sees a name-changing protagonist creating bizarre fantasies about celebrities, such as Ronald Reagan and Marilyn Monroe, in his head, often to the point where the line between these inner imaginings and reality is blurred. Though the precise meaning of Joy Division’s “Atrocity Exhibition” is unclear, it does create a similarly unnerving atmosphere, painting grotesque lyrical pictures of chaos, massacre and lunacy.
From a compositional standpoint, this is one of the band’s most daring and unsettling tracks. Built around Stephen Morris’s incessant tribal drumming and Peter Hook’s screeching, snarling guitar, it’s a far cry from “Shadowplay”’s straightforward post-punk drive.
The song was immensely influential, inspiring artists as stylistically opposed as The Cure and Danny Brown.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Drummer Stephen Morris spoke to GQ about the song’s recognisable drum pattern in 2020:
I just did this hypnotic tom riff. I was probably trying to do “A Saucerful Of Secrets” or something by Captain Beefheart. I remember making them put in synths through fuzzboxes and making a horrible ambient racket, which you could barely hear on the record, but it’s like a buzz saw. That one was pretty easy to make, because it was already written. Probably Ian was still tweaking the lyrics and, obviously, it shows his interest in the works of JG Ballard.
I’d written the lyrics way before I read Atrocity Exhibition and I was looking for a title because sometimes I just can’t think up a good title. Anyway I just saw this title at the beginning of one of his books and I thought that it just fitted with the ideas of the lyrics. Sometime after I wrote the lyrics and the song had been established in our set, I read the book and it is by pure coincidence that some of the ideas in the book are similar to some of the ideas in the lyrics.
— Ian Curtis on choosing the song’s title, via Extro in 1980; sourced by Discogs in 2020.
Yes, here it is:
- 1.Atrocity Exhibition
- 2.Isolation
- 3.Passover
- 4.Colony
- 8.The Eternal
- 9.Decades
