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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.
Happy PRIDE Month! We continue with our month long focus on songs by, or covered by, LGBTQ+ artists. Some entries may have less to say other than recognizing the original or cover artists for their identity. Some may be straight/cis artists covering queer artists or vice versa. The point is there are many LGBTQ+ artists inspiring amazing music that is worth appreciation and consideration. This week it's a Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century when an eighties synthpop act with one of the most prominently out lead singers covered a one time disco dancefloor hit from the seventies that has its roots in post-punk new wave artistry.
Erasure – Supernature (Cerrone)
Supernature was the title track and first single from Cerrone's third album released in September 1977. Marc Cerrone, a French euro-disco producer and musician, composed the song with Alain Wisniak, but the lyrics were written by Lene Lovich just before her career in the new wave/post-punk/goth scene blossomed. Lovich, who was uncredited on the album, penned the song as a sci-fi eco-horror story, imagining the consequences of continually exposing the earth to harmful chemicals which would mutate animal life into monstrous beasts that take their revenge on humanity. How much of this story was hers or something she was interpreting for Cerrone is questionable. In one interview she said, "It all started with a vague phone call while I was in the studio with a soul band (The Diversions?). Somebody needed somebody to work with this foreign guy who couldn't speak much English, but he was into disco, and because we were doing soul/funk, they just sort of shouted in our direction. And I, grabbing every opportunity whether I could handle it or not, said I could do that, and because I had put my hand up I ended up being on a plane to Paris and had to figure out how to do this new thing."
Cerrone conceived the album art and video depicting naked men and women with animal heads, though the video handled the nudity with a little more stealth than the album jacket. Vocals were provided by Kay Garner who was known at the time under the alias "Chi-Chi Favelas." She was also not credited on the album.
Supernature was a dance club success but was not much of an overall breakout hit. It has had very few covers; one done by Lovich herself for a various artists compilation released in 1987 titled Animal Liberation, produced by Al Jourgensen with royalties donated to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The ironically named synthpop duo Erasure, led by the very demonstratively and openly gay Andy Bell, released their cover of Supernature first as a b-side track on their single for You Surround Me in 1989. Gaining somewhat more attention than the A-side (from their fourth album Wild!), they opted to release the cover as a single of its own shortly after. While there is little to speak to their overall motivation or inspiration for doing the cover, they certainly seemed committed to the activism of it. They worked in collaboration with Lovich on the song Rage for yet another of her PETA benefit compilations, Tame Yourself, released in 1991.
They released two mixes of Supernature nigh simultaneously; one mixed by Daniel Miller and the other by William Orbit. They have indicated Orbit's as their preferred version, though it's a little unclear which came first. Erasure have also covered Gina X, a couple by Blondie, several by ABBA, and many more. But out of every other song they've covered, this is for them perhaps one of the darkest they've done in both tone and message, even if it is, at its core, still pretty pop.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Pride month continues and we'll try to get you something from a more gothic vein!
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.
(And if, after 4 years and 216 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like.)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 09 - Xiu Xiu – Falling (Julee Cruise)
Jun 02 - Bones UK – I'm Afraid of Americans (David Bowie)
May 26 - Stoppenberg – Knight Rider Theme (Stu Phillips)
May 19 - Deathline International– Rawhide (Frankie Laine)
May 12 - Covenant – A Rider On A White Horse (Lee Hazelwood)
. 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.
Happy PRIDE Month! We continue with our month long focus on songs by, or covered by, LGBTQ+ artists. Some entries may have less to say other than recognizing the original or cover artists for their identity. Some may be straight/cis artists covering queer artists or vice versa. The point is there are many LGBTQ+ artists inspiring amazing music that is worth appreciation and consideration. This week it's a Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century when an eighties synthpop act with one of the most prominently out lead singers covered a one time disco dancefloor hit from the seventies that has its roots in post-punk new wave artistry.
Erasure – Supernature (Cerrone)
Supernature was the title track and first single from Cerrone's third album released in September 1977. Marc Cerrone, a French euro-disco producer and musician, composed the song with Alain Wisniak, but the lyrics were written by Lene Lovich just before her career in the new wave/post-punk/goth scene blossomed. Lovich, who was uncredited on the album, penned the song as a sci-fi eco-horror story, imagining the consequences of continually exposing the earth to harmful chemicals which would mutate animal life into monstrous beasts that take their revenge on humanity. How much of this story was hers or something she was interpreting for Cerrone is questionable. In one interview she said, "It all started with a vague phone call while I was in the studio with a soul band (The Diversions?). Somebody needed somebody to work with this foreign guy who couldn't speak much English, but he was into disco, and because we were doing soul/funk, they just sort of shouted in our direction. And I, grabbing every opportunity whether I could handle it or not, said I could do that, and because I had put my hand up I ended up being on a plane to Paris and had to figure out how to do this new thing."
Cerrone conceived the album art and video depicting naked men and women with animal heads, though the video handled the nudity with a little more stealth than the album jacket. Vocals were provided by Kay Garner who was known at the time under the alias "Chi-Chi Favelas." She was also not credited on the album.
Supernature was a dance club success but was not much of an overall breakout hit. It has had very few covers; one done by Lovich herself for a various artists compilation released in 1987 titled Animal Liberation, produced by Al Jourgensen with royalties donated to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The ironically named synthpop duo Erasure, led by the very demonstratively and openly gay Andy Bell, released their cover of Supernature first as a b-side track on their single for You Surround Me in 1989. Gaining somewhat more attention than the A-side (from their fourth album Wild!), they opted to release the cover as a single of its own shortly after. While there is little to speak to their overall motivation or inspiration for doing the cover, they certainly seemed committed to the activism of it. They worked in collaboration with Lovich on the song Rage for yet another of her PETA benefit compilations, Tame Yourself, released in 1991.
They released two mixes of Supernature nigh simultaneously; one mixed by Daniel Miller and the other by William Orbit. They have indicated Orbit's as their preferred version, though it's a little unclear which came first. Erasure have also covered Gina X, a couple by Blondie, several by ABBA, and many more. But out of every other song they've covered, this is for them perhaps one of the darkest they've done in both tone and message, even if it is, at its core, still pretty pop.:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Pride month continues and we'll try to get you something from a more gothic vein!
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.
(And if, after 4 years and 216 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like.)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 09 - Xiu Xiu – Falling (Julee Cruise)
Jun 02 - Bones UK – I'm Afraid of Americans (David Bowie)
May 26 - Stoppenberg – Knight Rider Theme (Stu Phillips)
May 19 - Deathline International– Rawhide (Frankie Laine)
May 12 - Covenant – A Rider On A White Horse (Lee Hazelwood)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .