Pure Punk Picks
Spellbound – Siouxsie & The Banshees
“You hear a laughter, cracking through the walls. It sends you spinning, you have no choice.”
I’m wondering how many reading this might know who Siouxsie (pronounced Susie!) and her band The Banshees is?
I feel it’s probably more than I imagine, but if you don’t know of them- I don’t think any less of you.
She was part of the so-called “Bromley Contingent” the most prominent fans of The Sex Pistols, who were in the studio when The Sex Pistols were interviewed live on mainstream English television, only because the band Queen had to cancel.
And then, when the drunken, old interviewer made suggestive remarks towards Siouxsie Sioux during the segment- Steve Jones, the Pistols guitarist, stepped up in proper masculine, protective fashion and laid into the interviewer, “So why don’t you fuck off, you dirty sod?”
Well, that’s when the outrage began, the headlines overflowed and the ending of The Sex Pistols ever performing live, at least at that time, in England ever again.
But Siouxsie’s band was also there at the start of the British punk scene, right along with The Clash, The Damned and The Pistols- Sid Vicious was actually their original drummer.
And though they went on to have a career that invented goth music with moody, atmospheric music and downbeat lyrics-along with vibrant, African influenced rhythms, treated guitars and were a kind of prediction of what was to come in music, especially in the indi and alternative styles-
That maybe then-they’re not the most punk sounding band I could write about.
But with their background and groundbreaking history, they are probably more punk than ninety-five percent of bands
I know that claim to be so.
This song starts with a “chorus effect” guitar that was so popular in the eighties. It was very “effective” combining a subtle, tremolo with a more obvious echoing sound.
Though, not that far off from what instrumental surf bands like The Ventures were doing in the sixties, this effect created an icily, cold, chilling sound.
And more popular bands that used this effect were U2 and The Police.
So along with the spooky guitar and the somber, lyrics and voice comes- a tribal, pounding rhythm that enters pushing the song forward in a frantic rush of energy.
“Following the footsteps of a rag doll dance, we are entranced. Spellbound.”
The definition of entranced- “Filled with wonder and delight, holding their entire attention.”
During the chorus, the energy is still sustained as the guitar flails away in a rhythm that is not unlike a classic Ramone influenced punk style as the rhythm gallops like a runaway horse.
“And don’t forget, when your elders forget, to say their prayers. Take ’em by the legs and throw them down the stairs.”
During this part the drum accents simulate someone falling down the stairs. Hey! I guess this song is pretty much punk after all.
The song ends with some simple but “effective” guitar lines interrupting Siouxsie while the rhythm section continues to wail behind them like the flickering flames of a fire devouring everything in sight with its heat and intensity.
The vocal reappears with a jubilant chant of “Wooh, wooh, wooh, wooh. Wooh, wooh, wooh, a-wo-wooh,” with the chorus again, but phrased differently.
The “falling down the stairs” rhythm is briefly revisited as the song abruptly ends much like a door being slammed shut.
I feel this song captures and conveys the mystery of life in not so much a phony, mystic “fortune-teller” kind of way but in a more poignant, slice of uneasiness- suggesting terror and horror.
“From the cradle bars, comes a beckoning voice. It sends you spinning, you have no choice.”
The beckoning voices of male and female, American and British, punk rock voices sent me spinning, over forty years ago, so much so that I still haven’t recovered from it. It was like I had no choice.
But where I landed was a place that I felt I was always meant and wanted to be. It was a bit harrowing, a bit strange at times but it was always enticing and interesting. It captured my attention, I became entranced, I was spellbound.
Still am.
I’m an elder now, I only say prayers to my female Goddess who lives on earth, not to any male god who may or may not exist in the skies above us.
But then, if you listen to the words of this great song- Well, I think…
You know what you have to do with me.
(Slimedog)
