Day After Day #279: Cities in Dust

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Cities in Dust (1985)

Before she became one of the most influential figures in post punk, Siouxsie Sioux (aka Susan Ballion) was known for being one of the first fans to follow the Sex Pistols around when they were initially playing in London. Siouxsie, Steven Severin and several others became known as the Bromley Contingent (because most were from the Bromley area of London). When one of the bands dropped out of the 100 Club Punk Festival in September 1976, Siouxsie suggested she and bassist Severin fill in, despite not having a band name or other members. With the help of Marco Pirroni on guitar and Sid Vicious on drums, the two played a 20-minute improvisation based on "The Lord's Prayer."

After the festival, the band was asked to play other gigs. Eventually, Siouxsie and Severin added drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist Peter Fenton and played some shows in early 1977; Fenton was replaced by John McKay. By 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees were selling out shows and signed a contract with Polydor, releasing their debut album The Scream in November of that year. A second album, Join Hands, came out in 1979, getting good reviews. A few days into the tour, McKay and Morris left an in-store appearance after an argument and quit the band. Budgie (Peter Clarke), formerly of the Slits, joined as the new drummer, but the search for a new guitarist took longer. A new band called the Cure was opening for them on tour and its guitarist, Robert Smith, offered to fill in on guitar if they couldn't find anyone and the band finally accepted. After the tour ended, Smith returned to the Cure.

The band later added John McGeoch of Magazine as their new guitarist and made Kaleidoscope, their third album. After two more albums, McGeoch was fired after having issue with alcohol abuse and Robert Smith rejoined the Banshees in 1982. In 1983, Siouxsie and Budgie, who were now a couple, worked on an album for their side project the Creatures, while Severin and Smith were recording as the Glove. Siouxsie and the Banshees recorded a cover of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence," which hit #3 on the U.K. Singles chart, released a live album and finished their sixth album, Hyaena. Smith left again just before the album came out in May 1984.

Although the band was big in the U.K., it hadn't made much of a dent in the U.S. to this point. That changed with "Cities in Dust," the lead single from their album Tinderbox, which featured new guitarist John Valentine Carruthers. The single was released in October 1985, a dark dance-rock song about the volcanic eruption in 79 AD that wiped out the entire city of Pompeii.

"Water was running, children were running/You were running out of time/Under the mountain, a golden fountain/Were you praying at the Lares shrine?/But, oh oh, oh your city lies in dust, my friend/Oh oh, oh your city lies in dust, my friend/We found you hiding, we found you lying/Choking on the dirt and sand/Your former glories, and all the stories/Dragged and washed with eager hands/But oh oh, oh your city lies in dust, my friend/Oh oh, oh your city lies in dust, my friend."

Siouxsie's commanding presence carries the song, but there's a lot going on musically: majestic guitars, toy piano, thundering drums, electronic effects. 

"Hot and burning in your nostrils/Pouring down your gaping mouth/Your molten bodies, blankets of cinders/Caught in the throes, and/Whoa oh, oh your city lies in dust, my friend/Oh oh, oh your city lies in dust, my friend."

The song hit #1 on the U.K. Singles chart and #17 on the U.S. Dance Clubs Songs chart. The song got some play on alternative rock radio; in the Boston area, it could be heard regularly on WBCN and WFNX.

Siouxsie and the Banshees performed the song in a club scene in the 1986 Anthony Michael Hall movie Out of Bounds. The song was also featured in the movies Grosse Pointe Blank and Atomic Blonde, as well as the TV shows 13 Reasons Why, Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Siouxsie was already a goth style icon years earlier, but as the band's videos got more play on MTV, that image only became amplified. Songs like "Peek-a-Boo" (which went to #53 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart) and "Kiss Them for Me" (which was #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and all over commercial rock radio) got plenty of play on MTV. 

The timing of "Kiss Them for Me" was perfect, as it was a big hit in the summer of 1991 as the band was playing on the first Lollapalooza tour, in the second-to-last spot right before headliners Jane's Addiction. The Banshees only released one more album, 1995's The Rapture, before disbanding in April 1996. Siouxsie and Budget continued playing as the Creatures).

In 2002, Siouxsie, Severin, Budgie and guitarist Knox Chandler reunited for the Seven Year Itch tour, which beame a live album and DVD the following year. McGeoch died in his sleep after an epileptic seizure in March 2004 at the age of 48.  The last 20 years have seen a number of reissues and compilations, but the band itself has remained inactive.

 

Day After Day #277: The Bottom Line

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Bottom Line (1985)

After the Clash fired lead guitarist and co-lead singer Mick Jones in 1983, things really got weird. The band's appearance at the 1983 US Festival was Jones' last show with the Clash. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon fired Jones that fall, replacing him with Nick Sheppard and Vince White. That Clash lineup released the album Cut the Crap in November 1985 and other than the single "This is England," it was an abysmal failure. 

Meanwhile, after he left the Clash, Jones played briefly with General Public before forming the band Top Risk Action Company (T.R.A.C.) with former Clash drummer Topper Headon; after Jones fire Headon for being hooked on heroin and Lennard either left or was fired, the band split up. Jones and bassist Leo Williams from T.R.A.C. teamed with film director Don Letts, drummer Greg Roberts and keyboardist Dan Donovan to form Big Audio Dynamite in 1984. 

The band released This Is Big Audio Dynamite in November 1985, introducing a post-punk sound that incorporated tons of movie samples (mostly from spaghetti Westerns) and sound effects, beatbox rhythms and Jones' unmistakable lead vocals. The single was 4:35, but the 12-inch version of the song, which clocks in at 8:45, is considered the definitive version.

"The horses are on the track/There's a new dance that's going around/When the hits start flying you gotta get down/All the young people dance round the square/That old time groove is really nowhere/When you reach the bottom line/The only thing to do is climb/Pick yourself up off the floor/Don't know what you're waiting for."

B.A.D. was definitely focused on the dance floor, far from the Clash's weighty role as spokespunks for a generation. But Jones would sneak some political commentary in between the beats and samples.

"A dance to the tune of economic decline/Is when you do the bottom line/Nagging questions always remain/Why did it happen and who was to blame?/When you reach the bottom line/The only thing to do is climb/Pick yourself up off the floor/Don't know what you're waiting for."

The song is catchy and anthemic, although it didn't really hit with the public. It only reached #97 on the U.K. Singles Chart (as opposed to "This is England," which hit #24), although it hit #33 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the U.S. But it got plenty of play on WBCN in Boston, where I first heard it; similarly, the album's other singles "E=MC2" and "Medicine Show" also got some play. Strummer and Simonon actually appeared in the "Medicine Show" video as police officers.

Strummer, who had disbanded the Clash by this point, helped Jones out on 1986's No. 10, Upping Street, co-producing the album and co-writing five songs. B.A.D. had a good rest of the '80s, releasing two more well-received albums, including 1989's Megatop Phoenix. But in 1990, Jones debuted a new version of the band called B.A.D. II in which he was the only remaining member from the original lineup. After releasing a U.K.-only album Kool Aid in 1990, B.A.D. II released The Globe in 1991 and scoring the hit "Rush," which hit #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. In the U.K., the song was released as a double A-side single with the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go," which went to #1; the accolade was given to the Clash. The title track from the album was also a rock radio hit in the U.S. 

The band opened for U2 on the Zoo TV tour and then headlined an MTV 120 Minutes tour with Public Image Ltd., Live and Blind Melon. The rest of the '90s was a struggle for Jones and the band, however. In 1994, going as Big Audio, the band released Higher Power, which didn't do much; 1995's F-Punk did even less and the band's last album, Entering a New Ride, wasn't even released by the group's label, Radioactive Records. B.A.D. started releasing songs from the album online, but by 2001, the band split up.

Jones teamed with Tony James (Generation X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik) to form Carbon/Silicon in 2002. The group has been pretty prolific, releasing a ton of music (much of it for free online) but remaining fairly low profile. In 2011, the original lineup of B.A.D. reunited for a short tour; I saw them at Avalon in Boston and they were great.  But that's the last we've heard from the group. Jones has also worked as a producer and has collaborated with Gorillaz, the Wallflowers, the Flaming Lips and the Avalanches.

Day After Day #198: Take Me Out

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Take Me Out (2004)

Some songs just bowl you over on first listen. They just grab your attention immediately and don't let go. It was that way with "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand, an epic post-punk stomper that was everywhere in early 2004.

The Scottish band was formed in 2001 by singer-guitarist Alex Kapranos and drummer Paul Thomson; they were soon joined by Bob Hardy on bass and Nick McCarthy on rhythm guitar. They got the idea for the band name after a racehorse called Archduke Ferdinand won a race in the U.K. In 2003, the band signed to indie Domino Recording Company and started working on their debut album in Sweden with Cardigans producer Tore Johansson.

Franz Ferdinand released its first single, "Darts of Pleasure," in September 2003, but it came and went fairly quickly, hitting #44 on the U.K. Singles chart. "Take Me Out" was released in January 2004 and made an instant impact. Kapranos came up with the idea for the song while watching the WWII movie Enemy at the Gates, which featured a scene with a standoff between two snipers. Although he wrote the song about two snipers, he could have just as easily written it about a romantic situation.

The song begins with an intro section before the main riff kicks in. "So if you're lonely/You know I'm here waiting for you/I'm just a cross-hair/I'm just a shot away from you/And if you leave here/You leave me broken, shattered I lie/I'm just a cross-hair/I'm just a shot, then we can die/I know I won't be leaving here/With you."

The band was trying to parody big "jock jam" riffs when it came up with the next section, not having any idea that what they came up with would end up being played in stadiums across Europe.

"I say, 'Don't you know?'/You say, 'You don't know'/I say/'Take me out'/I say, 'You don't show'/Don't move, time is slow/I say/'Take me out'/I say, 'You don't know'/You say, 'You don't know'/I say/'Take me out'/If I move, this could die/If eyes move, this could die/I want you/To take me out."

"Take Me Out" has a dance-rock feel like classic Gang of Four, although the call-and-response riff and vocal melody were inspired by Howlin' Wolf. 

The song blew up, hitting #3 on the U.K. Singles Chart and #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and #66 on the Hot 100. It was voted Best Single of 2004 by the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll. It was all over MTV, which was still playing videos regularly at that point. The self-titled album was also a hit, going to #3 in the U.K. and #32 on the Billboard 200 chart. The band also scored hits in the U.K. with "The Dark of the Matinee" and "Michael."

This was prime MP3 blog era and I downloaded a bootleg of a French radio concert simulcast of the band that was excellent, including great introductions of the songs by the French DJ. Franz Ferdinand followed up their debut with 2005's You Could Have It So Much Better, which entered the U.K. chart at #1 and the U.S. one at #8. It didn't have a hit like "Take Me Out," but it was a strong album. They've had a solid career, although they've only released three studio albums since 2009, plus a collaboration with Sparks called FFS. 

It's tough for an artist to top such a killer song so early in their career, and honestly, Franz Ferdinand hasn't been able to and probably never will. It's not a criticism. They'll always have "Take Me Out," and that's not a bad thing.