Keeping with my turn back time/nostalgia/’80s unofficial theme, today’s Top 5 Music Obsessions features some of my favorites. These five are leaning into the Goth side of my ’80s past (which also led into my early ’90s past). Those leanings have never left me. I don’t think they ever will. Forever a goth-girl, despite being a grown-up one.
“She” is very much DJ’ing these 5 songs today.
Top 5 Music Obsessions – Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Lyriquediscorde
1. “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” by Bauhaus
from the album, The Sky’s Gone Out (1982)
“All we ever wanted was everything.
All we ever got was cold.”
By far, my favorite Bauhaus song.
Though it has changed through the years, this track has always been in my Top 5, and over the years has settled into that #1 position. Haunting, mysterious, melancholic, and yet there is something in the lyrics that is laced with hope. I feel like its a snapshot of a lonely, suburban adolescence, one that is misunderstood, and yet not all that uncommon.
The Bowie/Man Who Fell to Earth inclusion in the music video above is really cool.
“All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” (live) by Bauhaus
2. “Marquee Moon” by Television
from the album, Marquee Moon (1977)
“I remember,
ooo how the darkness doubled.
I recall,
lightning struck itself.
I was listening,
listening to the rain.
I was hearing,
hearing something else.”
Though not really from the ’80s (1977, actually) “Marquee Moon” has the sound, style, and sentiment that my past goth-girl self embraced (and still does).
10:38 minute long song, veering into jam-band territory while in the dark making out with punk and goth, this song, and band, fits into that catch-all of First Wave. Bands like this I’m always puzzled by when asked what music style/genre/category they fit into. I’m still not sure.
I do know that for me they fit perfectly into today’s Top 5.
“Marquee Moon” (live) by Television
3. “A Strange Kind of Love (version One)” by Peter Murphy
from the album, Deep (1989)
“A strange kind of love.
A strange kind of feeling.
Swims through your eyes.”
Peter Murphy, this album, and this year in my life. Unforgettable.
So many good things happened. So many bad things happened. So much living. So much life. There are particular years that change you, make you more of who you are, and have an irreversible impact. 1989 was that year for me. My 19th year.
This song was one of many that was everything to me, at 19.
“Strange Kind of Love” (live) by Peter Murphy, featuring Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jeordie White
4. “Marian” by Sisters of Mercy
from the album, First and Last and Always (1985)
“I hear you calling Marian.
Across the water,
across the wave.”
Haunting. Gorgeous. Perfectly representative of the music I was listening, and dancing to, in the late ’80s (though this track came out in 1985, which is more mid-’80s).
I would see them live much later. In the ’90s. They still gave me those haunting, gorgeous chills that their music always has/always does. “Marian” is my #2 favorite Sisters of Mercy, coming in just barely below “Black Planet”.
“Marian” (live) by Sisters of Mercy
5. “Spellbound” by Siouxsie and the Banshees
from the album, Juju (1981)
“Following the footsteps,
of a rag doll dance,
we are entranced –
spellbound.”
To me, the lyrics above describe perfectly how dancing at underground clubs in 1988-1990 looked and felt like. At least the ones I frequented.
“Spellbound” was written by Siouxsie and the Banshees, the full band, and co-produced with Nigel Gray. It was released in 1981 by record label Polydor as the first single from the band’s fourth studio album, Juju. (from Wikipedia)
The guitar work on the song has garnered a lot of praise, including from The Smiths’ beyond stellar guitarist, Johnny Marr, who said this about The Banshees’ John McGeoch’s guitar on the song:
“It’s so clever. He’s got this really good picky thing going on which is very un-rock’n’roll and this actual tune he’s playing is really quite mysterious”.
“Spellbound” (live) by Siouxsie and the Banshees
