Wednesday 14 July 2010

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Join Hands (1979)


















Forget the cute goth songs of "Christine"
or "Spellbound" - this is ice cold Art
Rock ...... and on that bombshell, come back
in time with me to the mid seventies when
I had never heard of the Velvet Underground.

"What the fuck!!! ..... I do not wanna read
this shit ...... you dumb prick .... just gimmie
the album"

Hold on dear download monkey .... my tale
continues. When I was a teenager, '73-'75
was a golden time for me and music. Heavily
into hard rock and prog, every month brought
a classic album being released by Bowie, Sabbath,
Zepp, Genesis, Cooper, Hawkwind, Yes, Purple etc.

I would buy them on the day of release and play
them over and over in my bedroom, listening
to the songs that the band had written just
for me.

Drift into '76 and I had discovered Lou Reed and
his live album "Rock and Roll Animal" Hey, these
songs were first done by his previous band called
the Velvet Underground.

'77 came and went - I was a punk crazy fool and
fuck yeah, I loved the Velvets ..... and still do ....
but you know what? They were not MY band -
they split up when I was a kid, I had not
discovered them myself ..... but the Banshees
and all the other punk stuff was mine, all mine
I tell you!

When "Join Hands", the 2nd Banshees record
came out, it was my "White Heat, White Light".

It spoke to me in strange tongues, no guitar solos,
no shouting, atonal sax breaks, cold remote lyrics,
14 minute songs, THIS was my V. Underground -
this was the album that lead me to listen to PIL,
Television, Gang of Four, Pere Ubu, Devo etc.

Anyway, what do you care - Listen

9 comments:

  1. I love the VU, it's good to hear your story. I was born too late man. Far too fucking late

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  2. Don't wish your life away! I have had to live through new romantics, hair metal, dirty dancing, disco, bon scott / sid / malcolm owen dying, metallica turning crap, cabbage patch dolls, bono, thatcher, the punk look in woolworths, arsenal in the '80's, self help books and far too much other shit to mention!!! :)

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  3. Haha, at least music had a place back then, now it's just background noise for dribbling idiots. You really have to dig to find good music, which is why we are here, but a lot of music we post is from the 70s and 80s, what does that say lol. Zeppelin, I missed Zeppelin, nothing can console me about this.

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  4. Zepp were one of the bands I missed - being 15/16, there was no way I could afford the huge arena shows they were doing at that time + no credit cards or bank account meant the 'grown ups" always got tickets 1st.

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  5. My dad got to see Zep, Knebworth. What a prick. he was 19 at the time, he rubs it in every opportunity he gets.

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  6. Back to VU for a second - I have a boxed set of bootlegs - 3 entire nights from 1969 "The Quine Tapes Vol 1"

    Have you got this? or do I need to upload for you?

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  7. I don't have that, but I would be very thankful if you were to upload it!

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  8. No problem but I am away from my Mac for a couple of days, so will probably not be able to sort out until Monday.

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