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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.
Today's entry follows up on last week's Ragnarok theme with a Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover that puts an updated industrial spin on an 80s hit from the former frontman of Genesis, a "Grandmaster" narrating the folly of those Contests of Champions in which various countries compete carelessly.:
Inertia(w/ Ayria) - Games Without Frontiers (Peter Gabriel)
Peter Gabriel released his third of four self-titled solo albums in May 1980. It is also known as 3 and Melt (on account of the image of Gabriel melting on its cover art). The album, an amalgam of new wave, post-punk, progressive pop, and art rock styles, was also released in a version with all German lyrics titled, Ein Deutsches Album, making a number of his darker songs from 3 seem all the more sinister. The English version of the album was rejected by Gabriel's U.S. distributor, Atlantic Records, who believed it was "commercial suicide" until they saw how successful the first single became. Gabriel, however, refused to work with the label again, except on rare occasions.
That single, Games Without Frontiers, was released three months in advance of the album and became Gabriel's first top-ten hit in three countries: Canada, Ireland, and the U.K. The track title is a reference to a popular European television game show, Jeux Sans Frontières, which began in 1965 and was broadcast over 34 years. The show's premise was to pit teams from neighboring countries against each other in various, often goofy, games of skill and chance while dressing the competitors in colorful zany costumes. The popularity of the show was such that the BBC also produced a version of it called, It's A Knockout, which only ran from 1966 to 1988. The familiarity of these shows made it possible for Gabriel to draw on them as lyrics in a kind of short hand allegory to criticize war and international diplomacy being handled in ways he observed as dangerous and childish. While there's no outright lines drawn to any particular political figures of the time, it is believed that many if not all of the names called out throughout the song have direct real-world and historically significant counterparts to whom he was alluding.
There have been at least a couple dozen covers of the track. One of the earliest was done by Pop Will Eat Itself for a 1993 benefit compilation, Peace Together, featuring various artists with the goal of promoting peace in Northern Ireland.
Inertia, a London-based electro-industrial project, was formed 25 years ago by Reza Udhin, former keyboardist and founding member of Killing Joke. They released their cover in November 2016, just days before the U.S. Presidential election.(Coincidence?) It was included as a "b-side" track on the remix EP of their single, Stormfront. The cover is also included on their latest full length album, Dream Machine, released in October this year. The project has previously released a eleven-track album of covers in 2010 titled, Kloned, featuring songs originally by Concrete Blonde, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Falco, Nick Cave, and others.
Their version of Games Without Frontiers features Ayria on backing vocals singing the titular line in French, which was sung in the original by Kate Bush. It appears this version follows suit with Gabriel's radio edit of the track which omitted the lyric "we piss on the goons in the jungle" to repeat " we're kissing baboons in the jungle." It has a down-tempo pace but also additional layers of electronic medley and gritty guitar riffs that give it a mildly more energized character than the original.
The Cover:
https://inertia1.bandcamp.com/track/games-without-frontiers
The Original:
Next week:
I had a very different intention for the Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th Century, but by amazing coincidence, that cover led me to another, and that one led me to a fiendish cover born of batcave goth that serves as a belated tribute to the heroic west!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
The only gig on my schedule this month happens this Friday in western Mass. If you're in the area and in the mood, feel free to join us! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Nov 05 - Rummelsnuff - Mongoloid (Devo)
Oct 29 - 5X5: Bonecollectors/Dead Brothers/Camping Car/Godhead/Pink Skulls - Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bauhaus)
Oct 22 - Strvngers - Pet Sematary (The Ramones)
Oct 15 - The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck (Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads)
Oct 07 - Perturbator - Come To Me (Brad Fiedel)
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.
Today's entry follows up on last week's Ragnarok theme with a Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover that puts an updated industrial spin on an 80s hit from the former frontman of Genesis, a "Grandmaster" narrating the folly of those Contests of Champions in which various countries compete carelessly.:
Inertia(w/ Ayria) - Games Without Frontiers (Peter Gabriel)
Peter Gabriel released his third of four self-titled solo albums in May 1980. It is also known as 3 and Melt (on account of the image of Gabriel melting on its cover art). The album, an amalgam of new wave, post-punk, progressive pop, and art rock styles, was also released in a version with all German lyrics titled, Ein Deutsches Album, making a number of his darker songs from 3 seem all the more sinister. The English version of the album was rejected by Gabriel's U.S. distributor, Atlantic Records, who believed it was "commercial suicide" until they saw how successful the first single became. Gabriel, however, refused to work with the label again, except on rare occasions.
That single, Games Without Frontiers, was released three months in advance of the album and became Gabriel's first top-ten hit in three countries: Canada, Ireland, and the U.K. The track title is a reference to a popular European television game show, Jeux Sans Frontières, which began in 1965 and was broadcast over 34 years. The show's premise was to pit teams from neighboring countries against each other in various, often goofy, games of skill and chance while dressing the competitors in colorful zany costumes. The popularity of the show was such that the BBC also produced a version of it called, It's A Knockout, which only ran from 1966 to 1988. The familiarity of these shows made it possible for Gabriel to draw on them as lyrics in a kind of short hand allegory to criticize war and international diplomacy being handled in ways he observed as dangerous and childish. While there's no outright lines drawn to any particular political figures of the time, it is believed that many if not all of the names called out throughout the song have direct real-world and historically significant counterparts to whom he was alluding.
There have been at least a couple dozen covers of the track. One of the earliest was done by Pop Will Eat Itself for a 1993 benefit compilation, Peace Together, featuring various artists with the goal of promoting peace in Northern Ireland.
Inertia, a London-based electro-industrial project, was formed 25 years ago by Reza Udhin, former keyboardist and founding member of Killing Joke. They released their cover in November 2016, just days before the U.S. Presidential election.(Coincidence?) It was included as a "b-side" track on the remix EP of their single, Stormfront. The cover is also included on their latest full length album, Dream Machine, released in October this year. The project has previously released a eleven-track album of covers in 2010 titled, Kloned, featuring songs originally by Concrete Blonde, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Falco, Nick Cave, and others.
Their version of Games Without Frontiers features Ayria on backing vocals singing the titular line in French, which was sung in the original by Kate Bush. It appears this version follows suit with Gabriel's radio edit of the track which omitted the lyric "we piss on the goons in the jungle" to repeat " we're kissing baboons in the jungle." It has a down-tempo pace but also additional layers of electronic medley and gritty guitar riffs that give it a mildly more energized character than the original.
The Cover:
https://inertia1.bandcamp.com/track/games-without-frontiers
The Original:
Next week:
I had a very different intention for the Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th Century, but by amazing coincidence, that cover led me to another, and that one led me to a fiendish cover born of batcave goth that serves as a belated tribute to the heroic west!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
The only gig on my schedule this month happens this Friday in western Mass. If you're in the area and in the mood, feel free to join us! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Nov 05 - Rummelsnuff - Mongoloid (Devo)
Oct 29 - 5X5: Bonecollectors/Dead Brothers/Camping Car/Godhead/Pink Skulls - Bela Lugosi's Dead (Bauhaus)
Oct 22 - Strvngers - Pet Sematary (The Ramones)
Oct 15 - The Cramps - Goo Goo Muck (Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads)
Oct 07 - Perturbator - Come To Me (Brad Fiedel)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies