Through The Looking Glass

I have not played my vinyl copy in 10 years (at least) since the turntable finally went into the loft never to be seen again. Back then it was a total 5 star album for me. It still is, right now, as I write this comment on first hearing it again in a decade or more. I don't know when this finally got released onto CD but I certainly couldn't find it for years. Never has the one-click button been so rapidly fired than when this popped up on my screen.

I've have not listened to that much SATB (my loss I think) so how did I get into this lesser known work? I once had to borrow a pool car from work in 1987 spending a few days travelling around southern England. I forgot my box of tapes so the only thing I had to listen to was this Siouxsie covers version album which a previous user of the car had abandoned in the cassette player (their loss I think).

Any port in a storm I thought - it's better than listening to an idiotic radio DJ for hours on end. I wasn't expecting much from a covers album but what a revelation this tape was. The choice of material is so eclectic. The obvious extremes being a Disney cartoon song from the Jungle Book and Billie Hollidays bleak 'Strange Fruit' done in part as a New Orleans style funeral march. How many white artists would dare interpret this song given the subject matter, much less succeed against the odds. These two are only separated by Siouxsies interpretation of a song (Wheels On Fire) that, just a little later, would become forever more familiar as the 'Ab Fab' signature theme. Back then, even 'the Passenger' was nowhere near as ubiquitous as it is today. There really isn't a duff track on this album and the musical arrangements are often literally mesmerizing - ('Hall Of Mirrors'). Why was there never a volume II of yet more Siouxsie musical influences?

I played it constantly for days on end whilst hacking up and down the M3 and M4 - and never got tired of it. On handing back the car I 'liberated' the tape which was unfortunately lacking its case and liner notes. At the first opportunity I was down at the V*rg*n Megastore (pre-Amazon days these) buying the previously mentioned vinyl copy to get the original artist details from the sleeve notes.

So 5 stars it is from me for this album. And it doesn't even have their most famous cover version on it - the sublime Siouxsie version of 'Dear Prudence'. I'm never driving anywhere without this in the cd changer from now on.

The LP opens with a faithful rendition of Sparks' This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us (from Kimino My House- like many of the covers here, the songs come from key 70s LPs), prior to a cover of Kraftwerk's The Hall of Mirrors (from Trans Europe Express) that is very much a Banshees-track. Things get more adventerous with Trust in Me from Disney's The Jungle Book, which has much in common with The Creatures' output & cover versions like Right Now. Next up is the single This Wheel's on Fire, a song recorded by several artists (Dylan- who co-wrote it with Rick Danko; The Band; Julie Driscoll)- but given the drama you expect from the band who recorded string-soaked epics like Dazzle & Fireworks. The first side concludes on a cover of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit- which is given a New Orleans funeral feel and along with Israel (& Siouxsie's adoption of St David's Star to irk skinhead-nazis- see the biography) shows that the accusations of fascism/racism etc were wide of the mark. Strange Fruit remember is about slavery and depicts a lynching- though it's dark (perhaps more Southern Gothic than Gothic?) & perfectly suited to a band who have previously focused on mental disorder, voodoo, & other sinister joys...

The second side opens with a cover of The Doors' You're Lost Little Girl, this has a very 60s production (Hedges was quite OTT- see Almond's LPs with the Willing Sinners)- it makes me think of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (or Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion), for some reason! Next-up is a cover of Iggy's classic The Passenger, which is perfectly satisfactory & got performed on a surreal episode of The Tube shot around cult series The Prisoner! The LP concludes on the three-best tracks here- a brilliant version of John Cale's Gun (from Fear- not as long as Cale's, almost as scary!); a gorgeous take on Roxy Music's Sea Breezes (from the debut) & finally a version of Television's debut single/cult Little Johnny Jewel- which typifies the record: a song you think untouchable is rendered wonderfully, balancing the Banshees i.d. with the source song. So here are ten clues that explain the Banshees' back catalogue from the late 70s to the mid 80s!

Through the Looking Glass remains one of the better covers-collections, and should be thought of alongside such records as A Woman's Story (Marc Almond), Counterfeit (Martin L Gore) & the myriad of cover versions recorded by This Mortal Coil on such LPs as Blood & It'll End in Tears. Of course it's nowhere near the heights of the Banshees' greatest LPs Ju-Ju, A Kiss in the Dreamhouse & The Scream...