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seedarklyxeroWelcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's another "Third Sunday Throwback" when our featured cover comes to you from the 20th century. Sometime in the 80's I was given a mix tape with this cover on it and it has since been one of my all time favorites. Oddly, I never actually recognized it as a cover until this year, either because it is so different from the original or I'm just not that versed in "the Experience.":
The Cure - Foxy Lady (the Jimi Hendrix Experience)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, led by the psychedelic-rock legend Jimi Hendrix, released their debut album Are You Experienced in May 1967. Foxy Lady was the third single released from the LP. It was titled Foxey Lady in some markets (U.S.) though the exact reason for that is unclear. Various accounts indicate that the song was either about Kathy Etchingham (Hendrix's girlfriend at the time,) Lithofayne Pridgon (a previous girlfriend,) Heather Taylor (Roger Daltry's second wife), or another of many inspirations. Whomever inspired it, Hendrix had stated that this track was one of the only "happy songs" he had written and had typically not felt much happiness writing songs.
It's that which makes it all the more interesting that Jimi Hendrix is one of Robert Smith's favorite musicians and also that this is the track he'd choose to cover, when you consider The Cure is known for a significantly moody style, especially in their early catalog. Smith, along with those members of the band when they performing under their previous name,"Easy Cure," were playing Foxy Lady as a standard at live shows along with their original material and a few other covers. When they evolved into calling themselves just "The Cure" and began putting together their first album, Smith says their producer, Chris Parry, told them to "record every song" they had and they''d "work out what went on the album afterwards." During a soundcheck for those recordings, bassist Michael Dempsey sang lead vocals on their punkish cover of Foxy Lady, which made it past the final cut to end up on the band's 1979 debut album, Three Imaginary Boys. Some versions of the release however excluded this track. Dempsey, who left the band soon after the record, was baffled that the song made it to press, admitting, "it's not one of our better songs." Smith seemed to feel some betrayal of trust for Parry putting it on the album, saying he hated the track as it was "diabolical" and "the dregs of what [they] were doing" that should have only been a b-side at most.
The Cure eventually did a cover of Hendrix's Purple Haze they may be most pleased with, but Foxy Lady will forever be their first recorded cover and one of the most disparate and unique versions of the track ever, marking the first and only time any recording of anyone other than Smith singing for The Cure has been released.
(Hendrix's original album version has proven not so easy to find on any legitimate source I can embed here. Since I didn't discover that obstacle until it was too late to research another cover for this feature, I'm instead embedding the live recording from the 1968 Miami Pop Festival, which was released posthumously as an album and video in 2013. Should IP holders make the original available from the same source, I will likely swap it out then.)
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
While everyone's talking about "IT," obviously I'm going to be oh so different over here talking about a dancy darkwave tribute which shares the name of another of Stephen King's titles and might actually be related.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
One last gig for September, two upcoming in October! You can find details on my schedule if you'd like to join those events. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 10 - The Echoing Green - Voices Carry ('til tuesday)
Sep 03 - Gaywire - Nazi Goths Fuck Off (Originally Nazi Punks Fuck Off by Dead Kennedys)
Aug 27 - Clan of Xymox - Venus (Shocking Blue)
Aug 20 - Dead or Alive - That's the Way I Like It (KC and the Sunshine Band)
Aug 13 - Beseech - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! [A Man After Midnight] (ABBA)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's another "Third Sunday Throwback" when our featured cover comes to you from the 20th century. Sometime in the 80's I was given a mix tape with this cover on it and it has since been one of my all time favorites. Oddly, I never actually recognized it as a cover until this year, either because it is so different from the original or I'm just not that versed in "the Experience.":
The Cure - Foxy Lady (the Jimi Hendrix Experience)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, led by the psychedelic-rock legend Jimi Hendrix, released their debut album Are You Experienced in May 1967. Foxy Lady was the third single released from the LP. It was titled Foxey Lady in some markets (U.S.) though the exact reason for that is unclear. Various accounts indicate that the song was either about Kathy Etchingham (Hendrix's girlfriend at the time,) Lithofayne Pridgon (a previous girlfriend,) Heather Taylor (Roger Daltry's second wife), or another of many inspirations. Whomever inspired it, Hendrix had stated that this track was one of the only "happy songs" he had written and had typically not felt much happiness writing songs.
It's that which makes it all the more interesting that Jimi Hendrix is one of Robert Smith's favorite musicians and also that this is the track he'd choose to cover, when you consider The Cure is known for a significantly moody style, especially in their early catalog. Smith, along with those members of the band when they performing under their previous name,"Easy Cure," were playing Foxy Lady as a standard at live shows along with their original material and a few other covers. When they evolved into calling themselves just "The Cure" and began putting together their first album, Smith says their producer, Chris Parry, told them to "record every song" they had and they''d "work out what went on the album afterwards." During a soundcheck for those recordings, bassist Michael Dempsey sang lead vocals on their punkish cover of Foxy Lady, which made it past the final cut to end up on the band's 1979 debut album, Three Imaginary Boys. Some versions of the release however excluded this track. Dempsey, who left the band soon after the record, was baffled that the song made it to press, admitting, "it's not one of our better songs." Smith seemed to feel some betrayal of trust for Parry putting it on the album, saying he hated the track as it was "diabolical" and "the dregs of what [they] were doing" that should have only been a b-side at most.
The Cure eventually did a cover of Hendrix's Purple Haze they may be most pleased with, but Foxy Lady will forever be their first recorded cover and one of the most disparate and unique versions of the track ever, marking the first and only time any recording of anyone other than Smith singing for The Cure has been released.
(Hendrix's original album version has proven not so easy to find on any legitimate source I can embed here. Since I didn't discover that obstacle until it was too late to research another cover for this feature, I'm instead embedding the live recording from the 1968 Miami Pop Festival, which was released posthumously as an album and video in 2013. Should IP holders make the original available from the same source, I will likely swap it out then.)
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
While everyone's talking about "IT," obviously I'm going to be oh so different over here talking about a dancy darkwave tribute which shares the name of another of Stephen King's titles and might actually be related.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
One last gig for September, two upcoming in October! You can find details on my schedule if you'd like to join those events. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 10 - The Echoing Green - Voices Carry ('til tuesday)
Sep 03 - Gaywire - Nazi Goths Fuck Off (Originally Nazi Punks Fuck Off by Dead Kennedys)
Aug 27 - Clan of Xymox - Venus (Shocking Blue)
Aug 20 - Dead or Alive - That's the Way I Like It (KC and the Sunshine Band)
Aug 13 - Beseech - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! [A Man After Midnight] (ABBA)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies