And this is what they say about it:
The last couple of years have been a Dead Season for most of us.
We discovered that things we deemed important were, in fact, of no consequence, or things we took for granted, like handshakes, hugs, kisses…were all lost for an unforeseeable long time.
This Dead Season saw us changing the way we lived our music, too: once together, now apart; once playing, listening, dancing in the same room, now entrusting our notes to the Ether, like messages in bottles committed to the seas, in the hope whomever gets them, will understand their secret meaning.
These songs are the cries of our souls staring into the Abyss. The desperation, the frustration, the will not to break under extreme circumstances, but also the love, the hope to get soon back to a life we can look forward to.
We dedicate these feelings to all the brave souls who are still fighting to make it through this Dead Season, and to those who didn’t make it.
Today it's exactly 41 years since Siouxsie and the Banshees, released their Christmas single 'Israel'!
Today it's exactly 41 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
Difficult things take a long time – impossible things a little longer. It’s been a long time in the making but ‘Touring Skyward’ will eventually see its release on January 2022. The Covid pandemic, technical and manufacturing issues all of that contributed to the frustrations of putting this together but now is your chance to get your hands on the blu-ray. An in-depth behind the scenes view of life on the road with us. A good and honest insight into how it all works and the team of people who make it happen.
“Touring Skyward – A Tour Movie” will be released on January 28, 2022 as 60-page hardcover book edition including the blu-ray with 3 ½ hours playing time and 2 CDs with 23 live-tracks among other items.
Gothic/Post-Punk band CYBORG AMOK has just unveiled their new video for the song, "Burden Away." The song appears on CYBORG AMOK's self-titled album.
Greg Bullock (synths/vocals) says about the song: "Burden Away" was one of those songs that came together start to finish in a few hours one afternoon. I recorded all of the music and vocals. We felt that "Burden Away" best represented the direction CYBORG AMOK is going in. So, it was chosen for the video. We let Nick and Pete at Howl Peak depict the song as they interpreted it for themselves.
As for CYBORG AMOK, we prefer to allow the audience to find their own meaning in our music."
For fans of: goth, industrial, post-punk
On this day, 40 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
