Song of the Day: 'Spellbound' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Classic first single off Siouxie and the Banshees' fourth LP, "Juju," a promo copy of which my brother Bill brought home from the review pile at the Phoenix Gazette in the summer of 1981. Spellbound? Indeed we were! I remember the album came with a bonus 45 of a song called "Israel," which I later learned had been a standalone single the previous year in the U.K. (We had no idea why it was tucked in the album at the time.) 

With its Star of David on the record's center, I wasn't really sure what was happening. Having grown up agnostic in two vanilla suburbs -- no religious iconography of any kind in our house -- I was kind of weirded out by it. (I didn't even know what "being a Jew" meant until I was in college, much less why Duran Duran and the Queen of Post-Punk were writing songs about this mysterious land.) What strikes me as funny now is that this memory is eight years older than the nation of Isarel was then!

Song of the Day: 'Kiss Them for Me' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

 

Whenever I come across Siouxsie Sioux, I just stop myself and ask: What have we done as a people to deserve someone like this? (We are truly not worthy.) 

Picked "Kiss Them for Me" for my SOTD after seeing it on this Modern Rock chart from Aug. 10, 1991, on Twitter, where the person who posted it noted that this was the last summer before grunge, when the chart was still dominated by older groups and U.K. acts -- or in the case of Siouxie and the Banshees, the Psychedelic Furs, Squeeze, Kirsty MacColl, Electronic and OMD, both.

Song of the Day: 'The Passenger' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Hilarious that I needed to fly 10 hours south to hear "my" music -- but my music did I hear during my two weeks in Argentina. In the cab from Buenos Aires "Back on the Chain Gang" by the Pretenders and "Things Can Only Get Better" by Howard Jones immediately came on the radio. And then over the course of our stay, we heard 'Til Tuesday ("What About Love?"!), "I've Been in Love Before" (Counting Crew), "Getting Away With It" (Electronic) "You Needed Me" (Anne Murray), countless Sade songs (including "Is It a Crime?"!) and the complete works of Roxette ... in Spanish. (You haven't lived until you've heard "No Se Si Es Amor"!) Perhaps the biggest surprise was Siouxsie and the Banshees' "The Passenger," which I don't think I ever heard here, even in the heyday of KROQ.

Song of the Day: 'Cities in Dust' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Readers of Slicing Up Eyeballs ranked "Cities in Dust" the best Siouxsie and the Banshees song of all time. See where the other 175 landed HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Dazzle' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

When I hear gorgeous songs like this, I wonder what my life would have been like if my heart hadn't belonged to Debbie and Chrissie ...

Song of the Day: 'The Killing Jar' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

It was hard being a casual Siouxsie and the Banshees fan in the mid-'80s when so many of my high school friends lived and breathed by 'em. (And it happened again when I worked at The New York Times!) I'm making up for lost time now.

The Love Cats

Loving BuzzFeed's photo roundup of rock stars chilling with their pet cats. Madonna and Siouxsie are probably with props, but they really missed the boat not including Debbie Harry with two of her feline friends. 

Maybe Tina Turner Was Wrong ...

Perhaps we do need another hero or two, especially if they're anything like these post-punk icons re-imagined by Marvel Comics! Click HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Face to Face' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

With thanks to Michael: Every talking picture Marlene Dietrich starred in is featured here in this video set to Siouxsie Sioux. 

Song of the Day: 'Dear Prudence' by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Another classic from "The White Album": I remember my brother bringing home the import 12-inch single of this back in '83 -- and how tickled I was when I found out John Lennon had written if for Mia Farrow's sister, which references her time studying Transcendental Meditation in Rishikesh with the Beatles in early 1968.