TITLE....... Dressed In Black - Goth Divas From The Dark Side 1941-2025 LP
STYLE...... Alternative, Gothic, Post-Punk LABEL...... Ace Records
QUALITY..... 320kbps / Joint-Stereo
COUNTRY... UK
“Dressed In Black” was curated and annotated by Cathi Unsworth, author
of the book Season Of The Witch: The Book of Goth – a woman who
considers herself fortunate to have had Siouxsie Sioux, Lydia Lunch and
Diamanda Galàs for role models while she was growing up. For further
illumination in Cathi’s own words, read on.
“The music gathered
here is an aural manifestation of turbulent times, made by women
possessed of supernatural abilities. The music I fell in love with
emerged from the dark end of the 1970s: The Winter of Discontent of
1978-79, when intractable industrial action left the dead unburied and
mountains of rubbish in the streets. All the promise of punk came to a
brutal end with the deaths of Sid and Nancy in New York; IRA bombs
exploded in central London and a seemingly uncatchable ripper roamed
West Yorkshire with 13 murders under his belt. Ill omens that augured
badly for the events of 3 May 1979, when Margaret Thatcher became our
first woman prime minister. Dressed in blue and ready to whip the
country to her heel.
“But at night, malcontent youth were united
by forces of opposition, whose dissenting voices were aired across the
land on John Peel’s Radio 1 show, set to the sound of slasher guitars,
swirling fairground keyboards, loping basslines and percussion that
recalled the echo of jackhammers or the march of insect feet. Here,
punk’s unruly offspring distilled the dissonance of the times into a new
kind of music. Flirting with the fetishist and taboo, drawing upon
horror and science fiction imagery, they were the outlaw leaders of the
greatest style tribe of the decade: the goths. Dressed in black, these
kohl-eyed women voiced the alienation of their generation during the
decade of the Cold War, the Miners’ Strike, privatisation and AIDS.
“To
make sense of the absurd is genius enough. But to then cast the glamour
of sublime music around those insights – I come back to my point about
supernatural abilities. I hope you will find illumination within. You
know the dress code.”
Tracklist:
1. Diamanda Galás with John Paul Jones - Do You Take This Man? (6:09) 2. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Night Shift (6:00) 3. Danielle Dax - Cat House (3:28) 4. Anita Lane with Die Haut - Subterranean World (How Long…?) (5:52) 5. Lydia Lunch with Rowland S Howard - Cisco Sunset (5:47) 6. Anni Hogan - Wasting Time (3:44) 7. The Cramps - Garbageman (3:31) 8. Judy Henske - Road to Nowhere (2:59) 9. Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billie Joe (4:14) 10. Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity - Season of the Witch (8:00) 11. Anna Calvi - Ain't No Grave (4:00) 12. Shirley Collins - Death and the Lady (4:45) 13. M U M M Y - Idiot Milk (2:54) 14. Cocteau Twins - Iceblink Luck (3:18) 15. The Velvet Underground & Nico - All Tomorrow's Parties (5:59) 16. The Shangri-Las - Dressed In Black (2:54) 17. Billie Holiday - Gloomy Sunday (3:12) 18. Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel (2:45) 19. Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You (2:35) 20. Juliette Gréco - Ça Va "Le Diable" (2:12)
Categories
