Thursday, February 09, 2006

You’re Lost Little Girl (1987) – Siouxsie and The Banshees

Siouxsie and The Banshees transform “You’re Lost Little Girl” into a vehicle that veers in a direction darker than the original. While The Doors’ version is a bit mysterious, their arrangement is also suffused with a subtle breeziness which merely hints at a girl’s mental affliction. The Banshees, on the other hand, toss her headlong into a bout with schizophrenia. Siouxsie’s aseptic intonations drift over a gloomy waltz that soon crumbles into a brazen march embellished with majestic bells, gallant flamenco strums, ceremonial synthesizers and a jittery tambourine. Negotiating the maze of an insane mind, the girl soon plunges into a nightmarish amusement park funhouse, as if circus sideshow freaks have usurped the park after-hours and forced her to confront her madness. Deranged howls spiral on a rollercoaster of erratic glockenspiel and piano in a bizarre interlude—completely foreign to the original—that typifies the ordeal of a girl interrupted, wandering the catacombs of dementia. Perhaps she will find solace in the grotesque distortions of the funhouse mirrors—the only ones which accurately reflect her reality.

  • Not available from iTunes Music Store.
  • See also "Land's End" (1987)– Siouxsie and The Banshees
  • No comments: