Intravenously polite it was the walkie-talkies
That had knocked the pins down
As their shoes gripped the dirt floor
In the silhouette of dying
Dancing on the corpses' ashes
Yeah, they had plans for him
They has spun the last of the pimps
Polyester, satin nailed jewelry lips
While the guillotine just laughed again
Dancing on the corpses' ashes
And the paramedics fell into the wound
Like a rehired scab at a barehanded plant
An anesthetic penance beneath
The hail of contraband
Dancing on the corpses' ashes

On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well
On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well

They had defected and been excommunicated
And all the pulses were subverted
And they made sure that the obituaries
Showed pictures of smoke stacks
Dancing on the corpses' ashes
A vivid dissection that mocked
The strut of vivisection
A semiautomatic colony
And a silencing that still walks the streets
Dancing on the corpses' ashes
In the company of wolves
Was a stretcher made of cobblestone curfews
The federales performed
Their custodial customs quite well
Dancing on the corpses' ashes

On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well
On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well
On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well
On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well

Intravenously polite it was the walkie-talkies
That had knocked the pins down
As their shoes gripped the dirt floor
In the silhouette of dying
Dancing on the corpses' ashes
Yeah, they had plans for him
They has spun the last of the pimps
Polyester, satin nailed jewelry lips
While the guillotine just laughed again
Dancing on the corpses' ashes
And the paramedics fell into the wound
Like a rehired scab at a barehanded plant
An anesthetic penance beneath
The hail of contraband
Dancing on the corpses' ashes

On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well
On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well
On my way, nails broke and fell
Into the wishing well, wishing well, wishing well
On my way

Dancing on the corpses' ashes
Dancing on the corpses' ashes

Callous heels numbed in travel
Endless maps made by their scalpels, scalpels
Callous heels numbed in travel
Endless maps made by their scalpels, scalpels


Lyrics submitted by moloko

Invalid Litter Dept. Lyrics as written by Jim Ward Cedric Bixler

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Invalid Litter Dept. song meanings
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61 Comments

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  • +4
    General Comment

    As explained in the video for this song, this song is about something that takes place in mexico. There's factories there called maquilladoras where young women work for shitty pay. Each year, women that work there dissapear and are found months later dead. They are constantly mistreated and the government doesn't do anything, so ATDI made a song about it. Although they aren't girls...

    trevoron February 23, 2002   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    I love seeing different perspectives

    Here's my own interpretation of some of the song lyrics:

    "On my way, Nails broke and fell Into the Wishing well. Wishing well. Wishing well."

    "On my way" is the women's journey from birth to death

    "Nails broke and fell" is the women's effort they put into the work at the factories, and their working conditions

    "Wishing well" is a representation of MATERIALISM

    Put this all together and you get;

    All of their lives [on my way], the women have been doing hard labour in poor working conditions [nails broke and fell], for the gain of materialism that the factories represent [INTO the wishing well]. "Wishing well" can also mean the easy life these women are promised they will achieve by doing this labour.

    Also these lyrics:

    "Callous heels numbed in travel endless maps made by their scalpels"

    "Callous heels numbed in travel" notes the hardhip of the women traveling from home to work and back each day, I don't live in Mexico, but I could hardly imagine that these women were rich, which means they must of endured the harsh terrain most likely barefoot.

    "Endless maps made by their scalpels" in this line, "their", is a collective for the murderers and the paramedics/police. The murderers torture the women, then the paramedics/police cut them up later for autopsy.

    Finally, I will explore the title "Invalid Litter dept."

    "Litter" is a represention of the mass of dead bodies of the victims

    "Invalid" means not true, correct or valid

    "dept." short for department, gives the idea that "Invalid Litter dept." is an organisation

    Ultimately, the title is naming the mexican police dept., "Invalid Litter dept.", because they treat the "litter" that is the bodies as if they are "Invalid".

    This better help

    Thanks ;3

    ninjamikeyon September 15, 2009   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    This song is about the murders in El Paso, Texas.

    cbennetton January 27, 2002   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    As far as i know its about the rape and murder that happens to women in juarez, mexico. the video is really powerful as well and clever because it has subtitles and explains what is happening over there in recent times......very smart and informative. at the drive-in are great for capturing things like this and explaining it.

    onearmedscissoron April 18, 2002   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    well besides the obviuos i think this song emphasizes the fact that things like this can go so far and no one seems to care

    cedbixleron March 30, 2003   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    shadowwiththeeyes.. I dont know if i'm right but the line .. on my way nails broke and fell into the wishing well... to me this kind of just means like the woman as they are being captured are making wishes to survive and nails into the wishing well is just kind of like how we throw a coin into a wishing well but he used nails to emphasize that it is a woman because they have long nails

    livedb4idiedon November 16, 2004   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Having loved this song repeatedly and thoroughly but never understood it, I was gratified to read about the murder meaning, as horrified as I was by the stories of those murdered women. Finally this song comes clear to me. However: "Callous heels, numbed in travel, endless maps made by the scalpels" has been a line that I sung throatily along with, feeling like it meant: I've got a lot of miles on me, and my heels are numbed and calloused because of this. Contact with others has left me traced with "maps" of lines carved by their "scalpels"- hands, words, bodies, actions. Learning about the women makes me think that the anguish in those verses is theirs, the callous heels are theirs, numbed with travel to the shitty jobs and wherever else they had to go in their lives, and the maps were carved by the bastards that hurt those women with God only knows what kind of weapons (scalpels). I hope this makes sense to somebody. Thanks for reading.

    Eyeland Babyon March 17, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Well I beg to differ when people say that Sparta can't touch ATDI... Ever heard Collapse or breaking the broken? Anyway, this song is still amazing. I just wish there was something I could do about it...

    AlwaysAmyon October 01, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    A song about rape, and a lot more. I really love the part about "and they made sure the obituaries showed pictures of smoke stacks."

    aircataracton May 15, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    they sing about that in some other song too... one on acrobatic tenement...

    "they tipped their hats, respect for the dead... in jarez, mexico, where they buried my friend"

    napalmon May 24, 2002   Link

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