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Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
For "timing" reasons, I skipped last week's "Third Sunday Throwback," when I usually feature a cover from the 20th century. So today I present a "Fourth Sunday Flashback" to make up for it.
As somewhat of a tangent, there happens to be highly anticipated event this weekend. I hadn't considered the timing when I made the switch in schedule. However, I did want to say something about how I feel about it without saying anything about it at all. (That's not "vague-blogging," it's "trend reduction.") So if you detect a subtly veiled message embedded in today's entry, it's not a coincidence. Though originally, I intended the choice of cover to relate more to Easter... in the sense of scary things that rise from the dead:
White Zombie - I'm Your Boogie Man
In October of 1976, American disco icons KC & the Sunshine Band released their fourth album, Part 3, though none of their previous albums were titled in "parts." I'm Your Boogie Man was their first single from the album, released in January 1977. It's said that the song is a tribute to a Miami DJ who was the first to play their hit Get Down Tonight on air. Boogie Man has been featured on several film soundtracks, including Superbad and Watchmen, but is among the least covered of their hits.
Rock-industrialists White Zombie provided their cover of I'm Your Boogie Man for the soundtrack of the 1996 film, The Crow: City of Angels, a critically panned follow-up to 1994's The Crow. The sequel (with screenplay written by David Goyer) suffered from the fact that creator James O'Barr had no hand (or interest) in any part of the film nor any input on the soundtrack as he had with the original. One of O'Barr's concerns was that he didn't want the character concept to be developed into a franchise like another popular superhero, one who at that time was on the brink of burning out his box office appeal.
The track plays in the film ever so briefly (and somewhat disjointedly) after The Crow's first kill, just before Iggy Pop's character comes to the explosive scene and sees shattered glass in the shape of a crow. (Interesting side note: Pop originally turned down the role of Funboy in the first film.)
The soundtrack isn't as bad as the film, for all the talent of artists like Iggy Pop, Tricky, Deftones, Filter, and Korn. However, the glaring tonal difference between it and the previous one underpinned what the film exhibited as a grievous misunderstanding of the character's core aesthetic; amplifying unnecessarily action and loudness while diminishing its sense of dread and mystery.
I'm Your Boogie Man was one of the last few songs recorded by the band before Rob Zombie moved on to his solo career. (A career that has him and Korn beginning their Return Of The Dreads Tour in the U.S. this April.) Despite the failings of the film in which it debuted, the White Zombie cover is nevertheless a fun rock-industrial romp with gritty and distorted vocals, converting a disco dance anthem into a grave chiller and redefining the "boogieman" as less of a hustle-inspiring disc-slinger and more of the creature who, as the children chant in their version's opening, is "gonna get you!":
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
After all the messianic (or messy-anic) metaphor this week, we'll go from the Lord of Lords to Lux Lucifer! (Chirst, I'm so punny. It's like there's a devil in me...) ^_^
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin tonight in Cambridge and on Tuesday in Western Mass. As always the details of my schedule and relevant links can be found on my website. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Mar 20 - Information Society(w/ Ayria) - Heffalumps And Woozles (The Mellomen)
Mar 13 - Cosmetics - Black Candy (Beat Happening)
Mar 06 - Erotic Elk - Wicked Game (Chris Isaak)
Feb 28 - A7ie - Bad Romance (Lady Gaga)
Feb 21 - Orgy - Blue Monday (New Order)
Directory of All DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
For "timing" reasons, I skipped last week's "Third Sunday Throwback," when I usually feature a cover from the 20th century. So today I present a "Fourth Sunday Flashback" to make up for it.
As somewhat of a tangent, there happens to be highly anticipated event this weekend. I hadn't considered the timing when I made the switch in schedule. However, I did want to say something about how I feel about it without saying anything about it at all. (That's not "vague-blogging," it's "trend reduction.") So if you detect a subtly veiled message embedded in today's entry, it's not a coincidence. Though originally, I intended the choice of cover to relate more to Easter... in the sense of scary things that rise from the dead:
White Zombie - I'm Your Boogie Man
In October of 1976, American disco icons KC & the Sunshine Band released their fourth album, Part 3, though none of their previous albums were titled in "parts." I'm Your Boogie Man was their first single from the album, released in January 1977. It's said that the song is a tribute to a Miami DJ who was the first to play their hit Get Down Tonight on air. Boogie Man has been featured on several film soundtracks, including Superbad and Watchmen, but is among the least covered of their hits.
Rock-industrialists White Zombie provided their cover of I'm Your Boogie Man for the soundtrack of the 1996 film, The Crow: City of Angels, a critically panned follow-up to 1994's The Crow. The sequel (with screenplay written by David Goyer) suffered from the fact that creator James O'Barr had no hand (or interest) in any part of the film nor any input on the soundtrack as he had with the original. One of O'Barr's concerns was that he didn't want the character concept to be developed into a franchise like another popular superhero, one who at that time was on the brink of burning out his box office appeal.
The track plays in the film ever so briefly (and somewhat disjointedly) after The Crow's first kill, just before Iggy Pop's character comes to the explosive scene and sees shattered glass in the shape of a crow. (Interesting side note: Pop originally turned down the role of Funboy in the first film.)
The soundtrack isn't as bad as the film, for all the talent of artists like Iggy Pop, Tricky, Deftones, Filter, and Korn. However, the glaring tonal difference between it and the previous one underpinned what the film exhibited as a grievous misunderstanding of the character's core aesthetic; amplifying unnecessarily action and loudness while diminishing its sense of dread and mystery.
I'm Your Boogie Man was one of the last few songs recorded by the band before Rob Zombie moved on to his solo career. (A career that has him and Korn beginning their Return Of The Dreads Tour in the U.S. this April.) Despite the failings of the film in which it debuted, the White Zombie cover is nevertheless a fun rock-industrial romp with gritty and distorted vocals, converting a disco dance anthem into a grave chiller and redefining the "boogieman" as less of a hustle-inspiring disc-slinger and more of the creature who, as the children chant in their version's opening, is "gonna get you!":
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
After all the messianic (or messy-anic) metaphor this week, we'll go from the Lord of Lords to Lux Lucifer! (Chirst, I'm so punny. It's like there's a devil in me...) ^_^
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin tonight in Cambridge and on Tuesday in Western Mass. As always the details of my schedule and relevant links can be found on my website. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Mar 20 - Information Society(w/ Ayria) - Heffalumps And Woozles (The Mellomen)
Mar 13 - Cosmetics - Black Candy (Beat Happening)
Mar 06 - Erotic Elk - Wicked Game (Chris Isaak)
Feb 28 - A7ie - Bad Romance (Lady Gaga)
Feb 21 - Orgy - Blue Monday (New Order)
Directory of All DisCOVERies