Siouxsie And The Banshees - Metal Postcard / Mittageisen (1978)

4th single from the band, and the first to not chart (although Love In A Void became wildly successful a year later).

Originally titled “Letter To Heartfield”, single cover comes from John Heartfield’s “Hurrah, die Butter ist alle!” The chorus is taken from one of Goerring’s speeches during the Second World War. 

Siouxsie: “It’s a warning song. The whole propaganda of the Nazis at that time was very dangerous and it could easily creep its way in without there being all the hysteria of killing the Jews. Their whole propaganda could easily fit in today… Not being able to get away from the commands of the day, not being able to escape, the idea of having cameras in your room and having people watching you…” [1 2]

Bauhaus - In The Flat Field - Live (The Space Palace in Chicago, September 9th, 1980)

 The best live album of the band (other than Gotham). The show consisted mostly of material from ‘Mask’ and featured an impromptu poem by Peter Murphy while Daniel Ash fixes a broken guitar string. Also features a cover of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Kind of Town’, perfect song for the venue.

Bauhaus - Spirit (1982)

  The title song features Bauhaus’ lyrical method at it’s finest. Stringing together phrases and quotes from their favorite books, to create something chaotic and dreamlike. Being the art-school inspired men that they were, this method method was directly connected to their influences in early 20th century art and architecture.

 Named ‘Spirit’ after what they described what they felt happened to them during live performances in the form of a psychedelic play. The B-Side ‘Terror Couple Kill Colonel (Live In Paris)’ is my favorite version of the song, being released separately as it’s own single earlier in 1980.

Bauhaus - 4AD

A collection of the band’s pre-1986 material, before changing labels. 

Bauhaus - Kick In The Eye (1981)

In Daniel Ash’s own words, the music was made to be “disco with black mascara”. A rocking song centered around a magnificent bassline (a slowed down version of the same later used by Trent Reznor as the centerpiece for “Sanctified” in Pretty Hate Machine.) A different version of the song is on the extended EP Kick In The Eye: Searching For Satori along with ‘Harry’, ‘Ear Wax’ and the far too short ‘Fear in of Dub’, the latter being a sped up contorted version of ‘In Fear of Fear’.

 The lyrics continue Peter Murphy’s obsession and interest in Japanese Zen Buddhism, describing the search for “Satori”, seeing yourself for what you really are. Here’s a much better explanation on the subject than my crude summary. But basically as well as naming the B-side itself, “Satori” Kick In The Eye is about Satori. Along with Kensho, it is tied to the enlightened path of Bod hi: knowledge through suffering, is the first step on one of the three roads to true Buddhahood, wisdom, that eventually open the gate to Nirvana. Although being the first step, it is also one of the most difficult and grueling. ‘Seeing one’s true self’ most often than not is never achieved in the first place due to fear and denial of the individual.

 The inspiration for suffering is specifically a reference to achieving “fake” Satori by inflicting pain on on oneself, via drug abuse/self mutilation and alcoholism making the individual blind and unable to see themselves as they truly are. All of this along with being one hell of a song to dance along to!

Swimming Horses - Siouxsie and the Banshees (1984)

This is based on a programme I saw about a female version of Amnesty, called ‘Les Sentinelles’. They rescue women who are trapped in certain religious climates in the Middle East, religions that view any kind of pre-marital sexual aspersion as punishable by death - either by the hand of the eldest brother in the family, or by public stoning. And there was this instance of a woman whose daughter had developed a tumour, and, of course, gossip abounded that she was pregnant. The doctor who removed the tumour allowed her to take it back to the village to prove that, no, it wasn’t a baby - but they wouldn’t believe her. The woman knew her daughter would have to be stoned to death so she poisoned her, out of kindness, to save her from a worse fate. Now this organisation has all these escape routes for women like her, mainly through the elder brother who pretends to have killed them. But once they’ve been saved, they can never go back. So the song starts, Kinder than with poison… I also used the imagery of, He gives birth to swimming horses, from the fact that male sea horses give birth to the children, so they’re the only species that have a maternal feel for the young. It was, I suppose, an abstract way of linking it all together without being sensationalist. I remember just being really moved by that programme, and wanting to get the sorrow out of me - Siouxsie Sioux

One of the most influential singles in the bands history along with the likes of to “Metal Postcard”, “Spellbound”, and “Melt!”. The title song being sampled by Crystal Castles to Skinny Puppy.

Bauhaus - Dark Entries (1980)

Peter originally wrote this song as a sort of sequel to Boys, the original B-Side to Bela Lugosi’s Dead. It’s analyzing how taboo carnal desires can be, and how most people try to quench their thirsts without being seen, in fear of social rejection. The ‘hero’ of the song is a young cross-dressing man, who pursues rich upper class women and men and seduces them for both money and gifts. Ultimately it ends with him viewing the world as only being driven by the vanity and narcissism of the individual.

Also, if you’re a fan of Tones On Tail Untitled is the precursor to what would eventually become Slender Fungus possibly one of the weirdest songs of the 80’s (at least to me it is).