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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.
The tragedy of being powerless against a serious illness and what it does to ourselves or those for whom we have compassion is not uncommon. Today's familiar and iconic post punk song and its dark wave cover are inspired by such tragedy. They share the theme, though each clearly approach it in a different context, and the story of both ends in sadly the same way: an ending beyond their control.:
Pisces Black - She's Lost Control (Joy Division)
Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in June 1979. It featured the track She's Lost Control which was later released in the fall of 1980 as the b-side of their single for Atmosphere. The b-side recording of the track included an additional lyric not found on the album version.
Frontman and songwriter Ian Curtis wrote the song after his time working in an occupational rehabilitation center where he encountered a young woman who suffered epileptic seizures. He is said to have been "greatly disturbed" because she would actually go into seizures there in the center while looking for employment opportunities, clearly a difficult thing for her given the severity of her condition. When she stopped coming in, Curtis imagined she had gotten lucky enough to find work until he found out that she had died in her sleep during another of her seizures. Curtis used those experiences to write the song about the stigma faced by victims of such neurological disabilities. Curtis himself suffered from epilepsy, which was only diagnosed just a few months before the band recorded She's Lost Control. It's reported that it was Curtis's own refusal to heed medical advisement to change his lifestyle habits which ultimately led to his condition worsening before his eventual suicide.
There are over two dozen covers of this song at least. The version released by Grace Jones was the first. Other notable artists who've covered it include Silver Surfers, Alive She Died, Shakespears Sister, Girls Against Boys, Left Spine Down, and Aïboforcen.
Possibly the most recent cover comes from Pisces Black, a Greek dark wave project helmed by Nicolas Maiis of the death metal bands Astarte(formerly Lloth) and Insected. Maiis seems to have first released the cover on the internet in November 2016. It was then included on a 6-track self titled EP also released online in January 2017. While there is no specific information about his motivations, it's not unlikely Maiis may intend it as a form of tribute to his late wife and former lead woman for Astarte (and Lloth beofore), Maria 'Tristessa' Kolokouri, who died in 2014 of complications resulting from the treatment of her leukemia. When she died he pledged to her online, "I will always honour you and you will never be forgotten." So while Maiis never directly says what it's about, he has called it a "personal cover" and often shares it with the quote "and she gave away the secrets of her heart," (a variation of the lyric replacing "heart" with the original "past" which he sings unaltered on the recording.) The rest of his social media is entirely devoted to music or Tristessa in one way or another. Pisces Black seems to be a lesser project for him for now as he keeps Astarte alive in her absence, but it is clearly a different expression of his loss. The song unquestionably resonates with him on a visceral level and he sings it from soul-sorrowed depths.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Five Sundays in December mean we'll end the year with a Fifth Sunday A La Mode. I only mention it because next week we'll go downtempo for Second Sunday Slowly with something "petite" from industrialists whose very name might be a deathwish on those Fifth Sunday "reports of fashion."
Meanwhile, here's a little poll for any who've been reading for a while. What artists or songs have you found by way of this blog that you really love or led you to something else that you really love? Feel free to leave a comment about that or tell me what you think about today's cover!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Nov 25 - PIG w/ Sasha Grey - That's the Way (I Like It) (KC and the Sunshine Band)
Nov 18 - Andi Sex Gang - Broken English (Marianne Faithfull)
Nov 11 - Strvngers - Closer (Nine Inch Nails)
Nov 04 - Ayria - Invincible(Pat Benatar)
Oct 28 - NoBunny - Monster (Fred Schneider)
. 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.
The tragedy of being powerless against a serious illness and what it does to ourselves or those for whom we have compassion is not uncommon. Today's familiar and iconic post punk song and its dark wave cover are inspired by such tragedy. They share the theme, though each clearly approach it in a different context, and the story of both ends in sadly the same way: an ending beyond their control.:
Pisces Black - She's Lost Control (Joy Division)
Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in June 1979. It featured the track She's Lost Control which was later released in the fall of 1980 as the b-side of their single for Atmosphere. The b-side recording of the track included an additional lyric not found on the album version.
Frontman and songwriter Ian Curtis wrote the song after his time working in an occupational rehabilitation center where he encountered a young woman who suffered epileptic seizures. He is said to have been "greatly disturbed" because she would actually go into seizures there in the center while looking for employment opportunities, clearly a difficult thing for her given the severity of her condition. When she stopped coming in, Curtis imagined she had gotten lucky enough to find work until he found out that she had died in her sleep during another of her seizures. Curtis used those experiences to write the song about the stigma faced by victims of such neurological disabilities. Curtis himself suffered from epilepsy, which was only diagnosed just a few months before the band recorded She's Lost Control. It's reported that it was Curtis's own refusal to heed medical advisement to change his lifestyle habits which ultimately led to his condition worsening before his eventual suicide.
There are over two dozen covers of this song at least. The version released by Grace Jones was the first. Other notable artists who've covered it include Silver Surfers, Alive She Died, Shakespears Sister, Girls Against Boys, Left Spine Down, and Aïboforcen.
Possibly the most recent cover comes from Pisces Black, a Greek dark wave project helmed by Nicolas Maiis of the death metal bands Astarte(formerly Lloth) and Insected. Maiis seems to have first released the cover on the internet in November 2016. It was then included on a 6-track self titled EP also released online in January 2017. While there is no specific information about his motivations, it's not unlikely Maiis may intend it as a form of tribute to his late wife and former lead woman for Astarte (and Lloth beofore), Maria 'Tristessa' Kolokouri, who died in 2014 of complications resulting from the treatment of her leukemia. When she died he pledged to her online, "I will always honour you and you will never be forgotten." So while Maiis never directly says what it's about, he has called it a "personal cover" and often shares it with the quote "and she gave away the secrets of her heart," (a variation of the lyric replacing "heart" with the original "past" which he sings unaltered on the recording.) The rest of his social media is entirely devoted to music or Tristessa in one way or another. Pisces Black seems to be a lesser project for him for now as he keeps Astarte alive in her absence, but it is clearly a different expression of his loss. The song unquestionably resonates with him on a visceral level and he sings it from soul-sorrowed depths.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Five Sundays in December mean we'll end the year with a Fifth Sunday A La Mode. I only mention it because next week we'll go downtempo for Second Sunday Slowly with something "petite" from industrialists whose very name might be a deathwish on those Fifth Sunday "reports of fashion."
Meanwhile, here's a little poll for any who've been reading for a while. What artists or songs have you found by way of this blog that you really love or led you to something else that you really love? Feel free to leave a comment about that or tell me what you think about today's cover!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Nov 25 - PIG w/ Sasha Grey - That's the Way (I Like It) (KC and the Sunshine Band)
Nov 18 - Andi Sex Gang - Broken English (Marianne Faithfull)
Nov 11 - Strvngers - Closer (Nine Inch Nails)
Nov 04 - Ayria - Invincible(Pat Benatar)
Oct 28 - NoBunny - Monster (Fred Schneider)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .