Giving Up The Ghost
Taking the opposite tack from our last post, today we got the wonderful chaos that is Suicide. When trying to pinpoint the origins of new wave, techno AND punk (a genre they coined) one need look no further than Alan Vega and Martin Rev. Playing second only to The Velvet Underground in terms of influence, the NYC tough guy duo’s abrasive singing style paired with their signature one-note driven Farfisa backing tracks would also prove indelible on legions of spacerock, shoegaze and goth acts like Spiritualized, Joy Division, Clinic, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Kills etc.
So today we have Suicide’s pièce de résistance, Ghost Rider (taken from the comic book of the same name). One note: While a grip of artists have technically covered it, the most disappointing thing about today’s post unfortunately is that the vast majority only bothered to cover it live. Additionally, as much as I’d love to feature those versions by The Horrors, Sisters of Mercy, Soft Cell and many others, it was hard to find a copy where it doesn’t sound like the taping was done from the inside of somebody’s sock. Damn our commitment to quality!
Playing favorites I’m gonna lead with a new cover by Gavin Friday & Dave Ball (of Grid and Soft Cell fame). Ex-Josef K member Paul Haig goes psychobilly while a surprising The Young Gods drop the keyboards for a couple of nifty acoustic renditions. Other goodies include 80s French Coldwave act Norma Loy, The Gories (AKA Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs), and OG obscuro UK Danish punks The Sods. Funny enough I’m also digging two by a couple of artists with whome I’ve had a great affinity for their early work but not so much anymore, Henry Rollins and R.E.M.. Thats said these versions truly redeem the last 25 years of questionable output.
So heading into murkier territory this is one of those few times I’m going to actually going to feature industrial/hard rock as it seems germane. So in that dept we got Cassandra Complex, Dkay.Com, Dive, Bloodstar and the Rollins Band (FYI these are VASTLY different to the ’Henry Rollins’ versions above). And finally if that wasn’t unlistenable enough for you, we also have original noise merchants Merzbow and Etant Donnes with Alan Vega, Lydia Lunch & Genesis P-Orridge. Proceed with caution.
Gavin Friday & Dave Ball – Ghost Rider
Paul Haig – Ghost Rider
The Young Gods – Ghost Rider
The Young Gods – Ghost Rider (Live)
Norma Loy – Ghost Rider
The Gories – Ghost Rider
The Sods – Ghost Rider
R.E.M. – Ghost Rider
Henry Rollins – Ghost Rider
Cassandra Complex – Ghost Rider
Dkay.Com – Ghost Rider
Dive – Ghost Rider
Bloodstar – Ghost Rider
Rollins Band – Ghost Rider
Rollins Band – Ghost Rider (Session Outtake)
Merzbow – Ghost Rider
Etant Donnes with Alan Vega, Lydia Lunch & Genesis P-Orridge – Ghost Rider
Enjoy!
LS
PS Those in Thee Versions Galore Facebook Fanclub, got a bonus track on the wall for y’all.
*** PPS LAST MINUTE ADDENDUM: Caps off to the eagle eared Colin for pointing out an excellent, rather mellow, cover by Jeremy Jay
Tags: Ghost Rider, Suicide, Well is it me or do they both resemble Eric Bogosian's long lost twins.
August 18th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Dude, a Merzbow cover of Ghost Rider? You will never post another track that I’m more excited about.
August 18th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Hah! You and Ted Byrnes can go roll around on the carpet and have a noisey feedback love fest.
If you can honestly sit through all 12 minutes of what sounds like a mic tumbling around in a dryer, and actually concentrate on design at the same time, I’ll buy you a beer. And if you can get Delmy sit through it, hell it’s open bar on me at 1642.
August 18th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Fantastic blog, and a superb list of covers. Check out Jeremy Jay’s slow, almost ‘shoegaze-style’ cover. Excellent sound too.
August 18th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Damn how’d I miss THAT?!?!
Great version. Thanks Colin!
August 19th, 2010 at 5:02 am
Damn our commitment to quality!:
Stick to it, there’s enuff bad sounding music around.
Thanks for these Covers, never heard before, although I saw the movie on german TV last year.
@ Colin
Jeremy Jay: Cool, one of my favourites!
August 19th, 2010 at 9:45 am
>And if you can get Delmy sit through it, hell it’s open bar on me at 1642.
Ha. I doubt I could even get her to sit through me describing it!
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:45 am
Great post: it’s one of those songs that seems to have taken on a life of its own. Some of these versions I had no idea about.
A couple of others who have covered it are The Sisters of Mercy, who played it live as an encore between 1983 and 1985 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0iMxvIpMjg&feature=related), and Marc Almond and Clint Ruin (aka Jim Thirlwell, aka Foetus, etc., etc) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqrH4wU9ydY&p=DECD285DAF87F492&playnext=1&index=12) – both very different, both great interpretations.
August 22nd, 2010 at 11:08 am
Hey CNN
Yeah really wanted to feature Sisters and Soft Cell & Ruin as I’m a big fan of all of them but the sound quality just wasn’t up to snuff.
(See 2nd paragraph above)
September 19th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
I am pretty sure that the “Sods” you posted about are a Danish band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybY5hfyF8TY
September 19th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
yeah I think you may be right .sort of. there was a UK Sods:
“The Sods were a superb band from Harlow Essex who deserved more than history has currently accorded them.”
http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/sods.htm
So it looks like there were 2 ‘Sods’ UK & Danish
but I you’re right, this is the Danish band. My bad.
Thanks for the correction…
September 20th, 2010 at 3:16 am
Happy to help, I am glad I found out about both these bands.