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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.
I guess last week's entry got me in the mood for the "dark and twangy" because for this Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover we take on an obscure country folk-rock waltz from the seventies covered recently in duet as a creepy languorous electro-goth dirge, warning of the tidal rise and oncoming flood.:
Covenant – A Rider On A White Horse (Lee Hazelwood)
Lee Hazelwood released A Rider On A White Horse on his 1977 album, Back On The Street Again, his last original LP for 25 years. The song was written for the second film adaptation of German writer Theodor Storm's 1888 novella, Der Schimmelreiter (translated as either The Dykemaster, The Dikegrave, or The Rider on the White Horse.) The film, released in 1978, did not include the song after all because the producers apparently would not pay Hazelwood. At one performance he told his audience about the song and said, "the director loved it, and the producer loved it, and of course I liked writing the song to the film and everything else. But they wanted to get me for nothing! And they don’t know this old redneck Indian: you’ve got to pay some money for him! So it wasn’t in the film, but it could have been."
The song is very much a variant of the novella's story of the lonely dikegrave (officer charged with maintaining dykes) traveling from town to town, warning that their dykes needed to be redesigned to prevent flooding. The author's story climaxes with the flooding of a town and the rider charging his horse into sea crying, "Lord, take me, spare the others!" The horse's skeleton is later found on a nearby island and during the stormy nights that follow after, a ghostly rider is seen patrolling the shore.
The track itself sounds a bit like a country western ballad for Xanadu, complete with occasional seventies laser effects, and sung in a style somewhere between Willie Nelson and Iggy Pop.
German electro industrialists Covenant covered the song on their 2016 album, The Blinding Dark. In their liner notes for the album, in lieu of the lyrics (which they were unable to print due to copyright law) they include this passage from Storm's Der Schimmelreiter (they credit it as The Dykemaster): "Something now came towards me along the dyke. I heard nothing; but when the half-moon cast its thin light I thought I made out a dark figure, and soon, as it came nearer, I saw it. It was riding a horse, a long-legged, lean grey; a dark cloak fluttered about the figure's shoulders, and as it sped past, a pair of burning eyes looked at me from a pallid face. Who was he? What did he want?"
They also include a quote from Revelations 19, verses 11-16. Covenant lyricist and composer Joakim Montelius seems to believe that such Christian symbology was "one of Lee Hazlewood’s possible inspirations."
Covenant, likely the only artists to have ever covered this particular song, transform it into a haunting duet with the help of vocalist Erica Li Lundqvist (of Lovac, a side project of Covenant's Andreas Catjar). The Blinding Dark was certainly not as big a hit maker as the band's previous albums, but marks an evolution in their artistic maturity. This cover, indicative of that progression, is a unique gem, considering their two previous covers: Norman Bates by Landscape and Not to Be Here by Dimbodius. They certainly like them obscure!
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
A Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century! As I write this I've only just realized that I've inadvertently made "riders" the theme so far this month... so maybe you have have a good guess about what to expect next. Maybe... ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
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 211 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 exploring the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
May 05 - The Death Riders – Mexican Radio (Wall Of Voodoo)
Apr 28 - Caustic – The Humpty Dance (Digital Underground)
Apr 21 - Klaus Nomi – Ding Dong (The Witch Is Dead) (The Munchkins)
Apr 14 - Discohen – Like A Virgin (Madonna)
Apr 07 - Front Line Assembly w/ Jimmy Urine – Rock Me Amadeus (Falco)
. 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.
I guess last week's entry got me in the mood for the "dark and twangy" because for this Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover we take on an obscure country folk-rock waltz from the seventies covered recently in duet as a creepy languorous electro-goth dirge, warning of the tidal rise and oncoming flood.:
Covenant – A Rider On A White Horse (Lee Hazelwood)
Lee Hazelwood released A Rider On A White Horse on his 1977 album, Back On The Street Again, his last original LP for 25 years. The song was written for the second film adaptation of German writer Theodor Storm's 1888 novella, Der Schimmelreiter (translated as either The Dykemaster, The Dikegrave, or The Rider on the White Horse.) The film, released in 1978, did not include the song after all because the producers apparently would not pay Hazelwood. At one performance he told his audience about the song and said, "the director loved it, and the producer loved it, and of course I liked writing the song to the film and everything else. But they wanted to get me for nothing! And they don’t know this old redneck Indian: you’ve got to pay some money for him! So it wasn’t in the film, but it could have been."
The song is very much a variant of the novella's story of the lonely dikegrave (officer charged with maintaining dykes) traveling from town to town, warning that their dykes needed to be redesigned to prevent flooding. The author's story climaxes with the flooding of a town and the rider charging his horse into sea crying, "Lord, take me, spare the others!" The horse's skeleton is later found on a nearby island and during the stormy nights that follow after, a ghostly rider is seen patrolling the shore.
The track itself sounds a bit like a country western ballad for Xanadu, complete with occasional seventies laser effects, and sung in a style somewhere between Willie Nelson and Iggy Pop.
German electro industrialists Covenant covered the song on their 2016 album, The Blinding Dark. In their liner notes for the album, in lieu of the lyrics (which they were unable to print due to copyright law) they include this passage from Storm's Der Schimmelreiter (they credit it as The Dykemaster): "Something now came towards me along the dyke. I heard nothing; but when the half-moon cast its thin light I thought I made out a dark figure, and soon, as it came nearer, I saw it. It was riding a horse, a long-legged, lean grey; a dark cloak fluttered about the figure's shoulders, and as it sped past, a pair of burning eyes looked at me from a pallid face. Who was he? What did he want?"
They also include a quote from Revelations 19, verses 11-16. Covenant lyricist and composer Joakim Montelius seems to believe that such Christian symbology was "one of Lee Hazlewood’s possible inspirations."
Covenant, likely the only artists to have ever covered this particular song, transform it into a haunting duet with the help of vocalist Erica Li Lundqvist (of Lovac, a side project of Covenant's Andreas Catjar). The Blinding Dark was certainly not as big a hit maker as the band's previous albums, but marks an evolution in their artistic maturity. This cover, indicative of that progression, is a unique gem, considering their two previous covers: Norman Bates by Landscape and Not to Be Here by Dimbodius. They certainly like them obscure!
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
A Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century! As I write this I've only just realized that I've inadvertently made "riders" the theme so far this month... so maybe you have have a good guess about what to expect next. Maybe... ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ
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 211 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 exploring the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
May 05 - The Death Riders – Mexican Radio (Wall Of Voodoo)
Apr 28 - Caustic – The Humpty Dance (Digital Underground)
Apr 21 - Klaus Nomi – Ding Dong (The Witch Is Dead) (The Munchkins)
Apr 14 - Discohen – Like A Virgin (Madonna)
Apr 07 - Front Line Assembly w/ Jimmy Urine – Rock Me Amadeus (Falco)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .
I adore covenant :)
Date: 2019-05-13 08:15 pm (UTC)I listen to it at least once a week!
Re: I adore covenant :)
Date: 2019-05-14 03:38 am (UTC)Re: I adore covenant :)
Date: 2019-05-14 11:58 am (UTC)the lyrics and tune seemed kind of almost folksy? kind of different from their usual melody :)