Today it's exactly 43 years since Siouxsie and the Banshees, released their Christmas single 'Israel'!
Today it's exactly 43 years since Siouxsie and the Banshees released 'Israel' (28.11.1980 / Polydor Records) as a stand-alone single in between the albums Kaleidoscope (1980) and Juju (1981). The track was written by the band while touring in Europe in the autumn of 1980. The band wanted to write a Christmas song to be released in time for December of that year.
It peaked at No. 41 on the UK Singles Chart and it was the band's first single to also be released on a 12-inch, although the tracks are identical on both releases.
Even though it reached No. 73 on the US National Disco Action Top 100 chart as an import, 'Israel' did not appear on a Siouxsie and the Banshees album until the release of the Once Upon a Time: The Singles compilation (1981).
In 2002 the song was remastered for the The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees compilation CD album and in 2006 it was also featured as a bonus track on the Kaleidoscope reissue.
Israel (Track listing)
A. Israel
B. Red Over White
DISCOGS
Israel (Lyrics)
Little orphans in the snow
With nowhere to call a home
Start their singing, singing
Waiting through the summertime
To thaw your hearts in wintertime
That's why they're singing, singing
Waiting for a sign to turn blood into wine
The sweet taste in your mouth, turned bitter in its glass
Israel, in Israel
Israel, in Israel
Shattered fragments of the past
Meet in veins on the stained glass
Like the lifeline in your palm
Red and green reflects the scene
Of a long forgotten dream
There were princes and there were kings
Now hidden in disguise, cheap wrappings of lies
Keep your hearts alive with a song from inside
Even though we're all alone
We are never on our own when we're singing, singing
Home, home
There's a man who's looking in
And he smiles a toothless grin
Because he's singing, singing
See some people shine with glee
But their song is jealousy
Their hate is clanging, maddening
In Israel, will they sing Happy Noel
In Israel, in Israel
Israel, in Israel
In Israel, will they sing Happy Noel
Songwriters: Susan Ballion / Steven Severin / Peter Clarke / John McGeoch
© BMG Rights Management, Domino Publishing Company
On this day, 42 years ago, The Human League released probably one of their most iconic and commercially successful singles ‘Don't You Want Me’. It was released on 27 November 1981 as the fourth single from their third studio album Dare which was released just one month earlier. It became the Christmas number one in the UK, where it has since then sold over 1,560,000 copies, making it the 23rd-most successful single in the UK Singles Chart history.
Apparently head and voice Philip Oakey was inspired after reading a photo-story in a teen-girl's magazine. Initially they recorded and composed the song with only Oakey singing. Inspired by the film A Star Is Born Oakey decided to turn the song into a conflicting duet with one of the band's two teenage female vocalists. Susan Ann Sulley was then asked to take on the role. Until then, she and the other female vocalist, Joanne Catherall, had only been assigned backing vocals. The initial versions sounded harsher than the version that was actually released, but Virgin Records assigned producer was unhappy with them. They remixed the track, giving it a softer, and in Oakey's opinion, "poppy" sound. Oakey hated the new version and thought it would be the weakest track on Dare. In fact he disliked it so much that the track was placed as last track on the album.
The album Dare had already three of its tracks preliminary released. Each of them, ‘The Sound of the Crowd’ (April 1981), ‘Love Action (I Believe in Love)’ (July 1981), and ‘Open Your Heart’(September 1981), being relative successful singles. Virgin decided to release one more single from the album ‘Don't You Want Me. Much to the dislike of Oakey, who did not want another single to be released because he was convinced that "the public were now sick of hearing The Human League”. Oakey is also at pains to point out another misconception; “It is not a love song, but "a nasty song about sexual power politics."
Interesting tech fact, according to its creator, Roger Linn, this was the first hit song to use the LM-1 drum machine. Introduced in 1980, the LM-1 was the first programable unit that sampled real drums rather than creating them synthetically.
The promotional video, was like the song, loosely inspired on the film A Star Is Born, making Oakey, Sulley and Catherall visual icons of the early 1980s.
Don't You Want Me (Lyrics)
You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up
And turned you around
Turned you into someone new
Now five years later on you've got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don't forget it's me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too.
Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me
Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me
It's much too late to find
When you think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
That much is true
But even then I knew I'd find a much better place
Either with or without you
The five years we have had have been such good at times
I still love you
But now I think it's time I lived my life on my own
I guess it's just what I must do
Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me
Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me
It's much too late find
When you think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh!
Don't You Want Me (7")
- "Don't You Want Me" – 3:57
- "Seconds" – 4:59
Don't You Want Me (12")
- "Don't You Want Me" – 3:57
- "Seconds" – 4:59
- "Don't You Want Me (Extended Dance Mix)" – 7:30
As debut albums go, Soft Cell hits the ground running, on 27 November 1981 the duo of Marc Almond and Dave Ball had released the ground-breaking, synth-wave ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’, an album which gained a cult-following in its own right, at the same time defying the boundaries of taste in early nineteen-eighties.
This was an album strewn with the stench and sin of the nighttime jungle (Entertain Me), porn theaters (Seedy Films) and prostitution (Sex Dwarf), the single that should have been;
“Luring disco dollies
To a life of vice”.
What we have is an examination of the reality under the microscope of Almonds soulful delivery and Ball with his electronic wizardry.
In the midst of these themes was the classic track “Tainted Love” the song that gained them a number-one and introduced the world to them. This obscure Gloria Jones track was perfect to sculpt a creature with hit making material, however there is more to
‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’ than one song and the downside of that massive hit was the over-shadowing of what Soft Cell had on offer.
The track “Bedsitter” was released in conjunction with the album, breaking the top-five single charts, this was a self-penned track, making all the more worthwhile and laced with the flamboyant-sleaze that was part of the band’s makeup.
The final track and final release “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” again broke the top-five, proving the talent of the duo not just for the electro-experimentation but as songwriters in their own right.
Bedsitter (Lyrics)
Sunday morning going slow
I'm talking to the radio
Clothes and records on teh floor
Memories of the night before
Out in clubland having fun
Now I'm hiding from the sun
Waiting for a visitor
But noone knows I'm here for sure.
Dancing
Laughing
Drinking
Loving
And now I'm alll alone in Bedsit land,
My only home
I think it's time to cook a meal
To fill the emptiness I feel
Spend my money going out
I've nothing left, I'm left without
Clean my teeth and comb my hair
Look for something new to wear
And start the nightlife over again
And kid myself I'm having fun.
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (Original 1981 Track List)
1.”Frustration'
2.”Tainted Love'
3.”Seedy Films'
4.”Youth'
5.”Sex Dwarf'
6.”Entertain Me'
7.”Chips on My Shoulder'
8.”Bedsitter'
9.”Secret Life”
10.”Say Hello, Wave Goodbye”
[Kevin Burke, November 2018]
On 26 November 1982 Siouxsie and the Banshees released the double A-sided single 'Melt!' as the second single from their fifth studio album A Kiss in the Dreamhouse. It was released by Polydor Records and featured the song 'Il Est Né, Le Divin Enfant', a track which does not appear on the album.
The sensual lyrics of 'Melt!' compare an intense sexual interlude with a lover to dying. Its lyrics can also allude to a S&M encounter "...Handcuffed in lace, blood and sperm / Swimming in poison / Gasping in the fragrance / Sweat carves a screenplay / Of discipline and devotion..."
'Il est né, le divin Enfant' was an adaptation of a traditional French Christmas carol. This track was exclusive to this single, and remained unreleased on LP or CD for many years until the appearance of the Siouxsie and the Banshees box set Downside Up in 2004.
The single peaked at number 49 in the UK Singles Chart and was released as 7" and 12" single.
Melt! - Tracklist
Side A
A1. Melt!
A2. Il est né, le divin enfant"
Side B
B1. A Sleeping Rain
Melt! - lyrics
You are the melting men
You are the situation
There is no time to breathe
And yet one single breath
Leads to an insatiable desire
Of suicide... in sex
So many blazing orchids
Burning in your throat
Making you choke
Making you sigh
Sigh in tiny deaths
So Melt!
My lover, melt!
She said melt!
My lover, melt!
You are the melting men
And as you melt
You are beheaded
Handcuffed (in lace and blood and sperm)
Swimming in poison
Gasping in the fragrance
Sweat carves a screenplay
of discipline...and devotion
So Melt!
My lover, melt!
She said melt!
My lover, melt!
Can you see?
See into the back of a long, black car
Pulling away from the funeral of flowers
With my hand between your legs
Melting...
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc
On 26th November 1991 Siousxie and the Banshees released the U.S. only single ‘Fear (of the Unknown)’. It was released as the second U.S. single from the band's 10th studio album, Superstition. As this single was not released in the UK it became the only Siouxsie and the Banshees single not to be issued in their homeland.
Although the original version of ‘Fear (of the Unknown)’, as it appears on the album, was already a more uptempo and dance-oriented track with a lot of percussion work by drummer Budgie, it was still drastically remixed by Junior Vasquez to accentuate its 4/4 rhythm and give it a more house touch. When included on the 1992 compilation album Twice Upon a Time: The Singles, the track was presented in yet another version, being the fourth track on this single release.
The song became the Banshees' biggest hit in the U.S. climbing to number 6 in the Hot Dance/Disco chart.
The cover art is an homage to James Stewart's dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo.
‘Fear (of the Unknown)’ Lyrics)
I get the feeling -- I'm not alone
I get the feeling -- it's someone I don't know
Do you ever have the strange sensation
When you're standing mighty tall
To jump from 17 floors and crash into freefall?
But then fear takes control -- fear of the unknown
Imagines two complete strangers
Who suspect they were meant to be
Both in need of love and affection
Yet their suspicions prevent something heavenly
Fear takes control -- fear of the unknown
Aware of what will hurt you
You're prepared to remain this way
So sad yet safe with your afflictions
Afraid to start a brand new day
We all get the strangest feeling
When we're standing mighty tall
To jump from 17 floors and crash into freefall
But then fear carries all -- fear of the unknown
Fear takes its toll -- fear of the unknown
Aware of what will hurt you
You're prepared to remain this way
So sad yet safe with your afflictions
Afraid to start a brand new day
Fear (Of The Unknown) 12" vinyl track listing
- "Fear (Of The Unknown) (CHR Mix)"°
- "Fear (Of The Unknown) (House Of Fear Extended Mix)"°
- "Fear (Of The Unknown) (LP Version)"°
- "Fear (Of The Unknown) (Vertigo Mix)"°
- "Fear (Of The Unknown) (Urban Fear Mix)"°
- "Spiral Twist"
