Lydia Lunch - 'Frankie Teardrop' (originally from Suicide - Suicide, 1977)
This is the latest release from the Alan Vega 70th Birthday Limited Edition EP Series from BLAST First (petite), the same as Bruce Springsteen's cover of 'Dream Baby Dream'. This one won't get as much attention - that post of mine got picked up by Metafilter - but if anything, Lydia Lunch, from the original No-Wave movement, is best placed to cover probably Suicide's most aggressive song:
"Lydia Lunch.
Known to Rev & Vega as the Baby Faced Killer who they so kindly chaperoned through that lost downtown night world crucible from where both their futuristic, and highly influential, black arts would be born.
Artistic Kings & Queens from the dumpster side of town.
Lydia gets all wet and dirty with thought of what young Frankie Teardrop might do to her, over a twisted frug of an electronic beat-nicked soundscape by David Knight."
Yeah, if you read that last part - best not play this in the streets, it might frighten the horses. The transition from male to female vocals - equally unconventional in the original and cover, and both intensely carnal in their own ways - and the more 21st-century sounding backing track makes this a really good updated version of 'Frankie Teardrop'.
Of course, the original is pretty untouchable, and the 'Frankie Teardrop, the Detective vs. The Space Alien' extended demo version which, while interesting enough in itself, is still a far cry echoey scream from the finished version we all know and fear:
"...We're all Frankies
We're all lying in hell"
The cover image is very real: an X-ray from a knife attack in November 2007 on a 16-year old boy in London (he survived) that was released to the press by the Metropolitan Police.
(Click to expand images)
10" vinyl available from Cargo Records
Downloads from BLAST First (petite) on eMusic - this particular release isn't up yet, but the Springsteen and Horrors ('Shadazz') are
2 comments:
i am very, very frightened by this.
ha! If you think that's bad, I just played the Lydia Lunch side of the record at 45rpm, as it apparently says on the label (though by the time, that's obviously a mistake). Sounds like a constipated baby...
but yeah, even at normal speed this is scary. this whole record is basically "the most vicious in current UK urban crime" combined with "the most vicious music to come out of New York in 30 years".
hopefully, though, a load of Springsteen fans will listen to this, and then lock themselves away in a room with Nebraska for a long time.
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