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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.
Last week began my annual series: Octoberween! Each edition devoted to cover songs appropriate for the Halloween season... a season that celebrates ghosts, ghouls, witches, and, of course, vampires. (I know, we did vampires last week. Never too many blood suckers in October ;-7 ):
Blutengel - Cry Little Sister (Gerard McMann)
A few weeks ago, I highlighted some of the story behind the soundtrack of the 1987 film, The Lost Boys, with respect to the covers included on it. However, about the original music for the album there is much more to tell.
Gerard McMahon is a rock musician who had forged his career recording original music for film soundtracks and writing a few popular songs for other artists (like Is That You for KISS.) According to McMahon, director Joel Schumacher gave him a copy of the script and asked him to write a theme song for the movie. (Note: On the soundtrack, Lost In The Shadows by Lou Gramm is subtitled "The Lost Boys," but may well have been specifically intended as the theme of the vampire biker gang characters, not the film as a whole.) With only the script to work from and having seen no footage of the film, McMahon wrote Cry Little Sister.
McMahon has said in interviews that originally there was intent to have Phil Collins or Chrissie Hynde sing the song. Possibly half a dozen auditions took place, but, according to McMahon, Schumacher ultimately didn't want anyone else to do it. However, there is also indication that the film's music budget was already tight with the inclusion of artists like Roger Daltrey, Lou Gramm, and INXS, so it might be that they couldn't afford the likes of Collins, Hynde, or the others who auditioned.
Long after the film, G Tom Mac (the nom de guerre Mcmahon uses these days,) rerecorded other versions of the song. One for a badly panned sequel to the original film. Another, a bluesy acoustic version done for HBO's hit vampire series, True Blood.
Over the span of nearly 30 years there have been many covers of the track by artists like Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister, Tangerine Dream, Zug Izland, Carfax Abbey, and in recent years by Celldweller in a production that mashed in music and samples from the movie Saw as well as samples from the original Lost Boys film.
Blutengel, a darkwave/futurepop duo from Berlin, included a cover of Cry Little Sister on their 2005 EP, The Oxidising Angel (in so much as it can be considered an "EP" with nine full length tracks and three remixes.) It may well be the most recognizable cover of the song in the goth community, distinctive in part due to a change made in the chorus that holds the note of one lyric discordantly longer than the original's.
While both are ever present staples in goth clubs, the original has resonated beyond those boundaries and stands as McMahon's most defining accomplishment to this day.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Octoberween continues with a spooky Third Sunday Throwback from 1980 by a no wave/post punk witch!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin this Wednesday in Boston and have two other gigs lined up during Halloweek! Check my schedule for details in you're in the area and would like to join me on the dancefloor during these Octoberween celebrations! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Oct 02 - goJA moon ROCKAH! - Bloodletting [The Vampire Song] (Concrete Blonde)
Sep 25 - Grendel - Zombienation V.2K5 (Zombie Nation's Kernkraft 400)
Sep 18 - Bauhaus - Rosegarden Funeral of Sores (John Cale of Velvet Underground)
Sep 11 - Placebo - Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush)
Sep 04 - Azar Swan - Broken English (Marianne Faithfull)
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.
Last week began my annual series: Octoberween! Each edition devoted to cover songs appropriate for the Halloween season... a season that celebrates ghosts, ghouls, witches, and, of course, vampires. (I know, we did vampires last week. Never too many blood suckers in October ;-7 ):
Blutengel - Cry Little Sister (Gerard McMann)
A few weeks ago, I highlighted some of the story behind the soundtrack of the 1987 film, The Lost Boys, with respect to the covers included on it. However, about the original music for the album there is much more to tell.
Gerard McMahon is a rock musician who had forged his career recording original music for film soundtracks and writing a few popular songs for other artists (like Is That You for KISS.) According to McMahon, director Joel Schumacher gave him a copy of the script and asked him to write a theme song for the movie. (Note: On the soundtrack, Lost In The Shadows by Lou Gramm is subtitled "The Lost Boys," but may well have been specifically intended as the theme of the vampire biker gang characters, not the film as a whole.) With only the script to work from and having seen no footage of the film, McMahon wrote Cry Little Sister.
McMahon has said in interviews that originally there was intent to have Phil Collins or Chrissie Hynde sing the song. Possibly half a dozen auditions took place, but, according to McMahon, Schumacher ultimately didn't want anyone else to do it. However, there is also indication that the film's music budget was already tight with the inclusion of artists like Roger Daltrey, Lou Gramm, and INXS, so it might be that they couldn't afford the likes of Collins, Hynde, or the others who auditioned.
Long after the film, G Tom Mac (the nom de guerre Mcmahon uses these days,) rerecorded other versions of the song. One for a badly panned sequel to the original film. Another, a bluesy acoustic version done for HBO's hit vampire series, True Blood.
Over the span of nearly 30 years there have been many covers of the track by artists like Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister, Tangerine Dream, Zug Izland, Carfax Abbey, and in recent years by Celldweller in a production that mashed in music and samples from the movie Saw as well as samples from the original Lost Boys film.
Blutengel, a darkwave/futurepop duo from Berlin, included a cover of Cry Little Sister on their 2005 EP, The Oxidising Angel (in so much as it can be considered an "EP" with nine full length tracks and three remixes.) It may well be the most recognizable cover of the song in the goth community, distinctive in part due to a change made in the chorus that holds the note of one lyric discordantly longer than the original's.
While both are ever present staples in goth clubs, the original has resonated beyond those boundaries and stands as McMahon's most defining accomplishment to this day.
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Octoberween continues with a spooky Third Sunday Throwback from 1980 by a no wave/post punk witch!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin this Wednesday in Boston and have two other gigs lined up during Halloweek! Check my schedule for details in you're in the area and would like to join me on the dancefloor during these Octoberween celebrations! ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Oct 02 - goJA moon ROCKAH! - Bloodletting [The Vampire Song] (Concrete Blonde)
Sep 25 - Grendel - Zombienation V.2K5 (Zombie Nation's Kernkraft 400)
Sep 18 - Bauhaus - Rosegarden Funeral of Sores (John Cale of Velvet Underground)
Sep 11 - Placebo - Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush)
Sep 04 - Azar Swan - Broken English (Marianne Faithfull)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies