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Best Goth Songs

Started by Dr Rock, June 07, 2019, 01:55:04 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: Jockice on June 09, 2019, 12:53:20 PM
Wake Up by The Danse Society. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brYFSxXBilo

Yes, that is a good track. Unfortunately, there are signs in that album of where they were heading...

The Danse Society - Say It Again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dra86K502gQ

Stock, Aitken and Waterman, iirc.

Gotta say, Steve Rawlings was a beautiful man, so I suppose in some ways it was inevitable. You'd think he would be a candidate for being a right preening cunt. However, I was reading a blog post by the drummer Paul Gilmartin and it seems Rawlings wasn't interested in reforming the Danse Society, which is why they got themselves a female goth singer to do that instead. Bearing in mind that Gilmartin is a drumming hero of mine and that the blog posts only gave his side of the story about why both incarnations of the band fell apart, it was still clear that it is him that is the massive cunt.


McChesney Duntz

Does Tones on Tail qualify? My goth-adjacent high school cronies and I certainly seemed to think so - I tend to like their output more than Bauhaus, L&R, et al (and I do persist in liking all of them to an almost-embarrassing degree to this day). I'm particularly fond of this particular number, which I've always assumed is to early Robyn Hitchcock what Talking Heads' "The Overload" was to Joy Division...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1AsuzzCxBE

And hell, while we're plumping for Bauhaus side-projects that may or may not count as goth except by association, there's this Alan Moore/David J canardophobic one-off...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGL8Fx6SOjg

Johnny Yesno

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on June 09, 2019, 03:34:26 PM
Does Tones on Tail qualify? My goth-adjacent high school cronies and I certainly seemed to think so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1AsuzzCxBE

Of course they do. Some of my goth mates were into them too and Dalis Car. I never got round to giving either of them a proper listen. Shame, cos that is an excellent track.

QuoteAnd hell, while we're plumping for Bauhaus side-projects that may or may not count as goth except by association, there's this Alan Moore/David J canardophobic one-off...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGL8Fx6SOjg

Haha! That's great. Never heard that before either. I'm sure this is the second reference to sinister ducks I've read on here this week. What's going on?

Dr Rock

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on June 09, 2019, 03:34:26 PM
Does Tones on Tail qualify? My goth-adjacent high school cronies and I certainly seemed to think so - I tend to like their output more than Bauhaus, L&R, et al (and I do persist in liking all of them to an almost-embarrassing degree to this day). I'm particularly fond of this particular number, which I've always assumed is to early Robyn Hitchcock what Talking Heads' "The Overload" was to Joy Division...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1AsuzzCxBE

And hell, while we're plumping for Bauhaus side-projects that may or may not count as goth except by association, there's this Alan Moore/David J canardophobic one-off...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGL8Fx6SOjg

Toes On Tail count, but I decided that Love and Rockets don't. Maybe I was wrong.

Jockice

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 09, 2019, 03:12:16 PM
Yes, that is a good track. Unfortunately, there are signs in that album of where they were heading...

The Danse Society - Say It Again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dra86K502gQ

Stock, Aitken and Waterman, iirc.

Gotta say, Steve Rawlings was a beautiful man, so I suppose in some ways it was inevitable. You'd think he would be a candidate for being a right preening cunt. However, I was reading a blog post by the drummer Paul Gilmartin and it seems Rawlings wasn't interested in reforming the Danse Society, which is why they got themselves a female goth singer to do that instead. Bearing in mind that Gilmartin is a drumming hero of mine and that the blog posts only gave his side of the story about why both incarnations of the band fell apart, it was still clear that it is him that is the massive cunt.

Yeah, maybe I should have posted We're So Happy or Clock from their earlier days but I think Wake Up is my favourite track by them.

I was a big fan of them in my late teens because they were (sort of) local and just seemed really cool. The first band I ever travelled to see a gig by (in Birmingham. That night will be an entire chapter in my autobiography) and I even knew people who knew them. Which is how I once saw a band called Silent Scream in a pub in Barnsley. Their singer ended up being Nirvana's press officer.

Can't really remember ever speaking to Paul. But Tim the bassist was a nice bloke and I've had a couple of interactions with other members over the years. Including Rawlings' shocked 'what the fuck are you doing here?' when he saw my mate and I in Birmingham. In fact one of my first ever Facebook friend requests was from Paul Nash. I accepted it straight away but it turned out it was a different Paul Nash, who it turned out had only sent me the request because he thought I was a different **** *****. A dozen years later we're still 'friends.'

But I digress. I heard that when they reformed they had managed to get Rawlings on board but he soon bailed out to replaced by the female. They played a tiny pub just up the road from me a few years ago but I happened to be away that evening so I couldn't go. Probably for the best. I think Gilmartin is the only remaining founding member anyway.

I wonder what Rawlings looks like nowadays. Has 'the face of 84' aged well?  There don't seem to be many recent photos of him around.

Jockice

Quote from: Jockice on June 09, 2019, 04:12:54 PM
Yeah, maybe I should have posted We're So Happy or Clock from their earlier days but I think Wake Up is my favourite track by them.

I was a big fan of them in my late teens because they were (sort of) local and just seemed really cool. The first band I ever travelled to see a gig by (in Birmingham. That night will be an entire chapter in my autobiography) and I even knew people who knew them. Which is how I once saw a band called Silent Scream in a pub in Barnsley. Their singer ended up being Nirvana's press officer.

Can't really remember ever speaking to Paul. But Tim the bassist was a nice bloke and I've had a couple of interactions with other members over the years. Including Rawlings' shocked 'what the fuck are you doing here?' when he saw my mate and I in Birmingham. In fact one of my first ever Facebook friend requests was from Paul Nash. I accepted it straight away but it turned out it was a different Paul Nash, who it turned out had only sent me the request because he thought I was a different **** *****. A dozen years later we're still 'friends.'

But I digress. I heard that when they reformed they had managed to get Rawlings on board but he soon bailed out to replaced by the female. They played a tiny pub just up the road from me a few years ago but I happened to be away that evening so I couldn't go. Probably for the best. I think Gilmartin is the only remaining founding member anyway.

I wonder what Rawlings looks like nowadays. Has 'the face of 84' aged well?  There don't seem to be many recent photos of him around.

Ah, apparently there are two versions of them now. Just like that other Barnsley band Saxon.

Johnny Yesno

One of my many music regrets is that I never saw the Danse Society play, the goth motherlode being when they supported Bauhaus. Ho hum.

Sorry if I have Gilmartin all wrong. I only have his writings to go on and the fact that there are two Danse Society's on the go says a lot. Pathetic, innit?

What was Rawlings like when you met him? Somewhere in the stuff I was reading it said he was a nice bloke. Quiet, iirc.

Also, DRUMS!

The Danse Society - Ambition - Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QbIIKZe80s

purlieu

Ooh yes, Tones on Tail were good. 'Rain's my favourite there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJjVwyC_V20

And let's not forget Current 93's ludicrous 'Crowleymass' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDjy4CMfp78
Terrible, but knowingly. David Tibet's sense of humour is often underappreciated.
"His name is Croh-ley, it rhymes with holy, it isn't Crou-ley, that rhymes with fowl-ey, urgh"

How about some And Also the Trees https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2FNzGMM5go
and some All About Eve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNwqPltoiK8

Desperate Journalist do a pretty good modern gothy sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-bJd3_FoqI

DukeDeMondo

The Best Goth Songs is clearly Black No. 1.

Clearly it is. Best Goth Songs.

"You can't go out cause your roots are showin'..."

McChesney Duntz

Shame they didn't have too much of a sense of humor, because they should have spelled their name Typo Negutiv.

a duncandisorderly

these guys, & also the band they're covering here, who themselves sound rather like the au pairs with a hint of goth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJEMl_fQc9c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zel808l5B14

& yes, I am toying with the idea of a chorus pedal for my ibanez 'black eagle' bass.


canadagoose

Quote from: Fishfinger on June 07, 2019, 08:55:50 PM
If you're bringing in The Cure, you have to include All Cats Are Grey. Goth before mandatory barre chords.
That's got to be the best. The single in my avatar is good, too, as it its B-side, although Johnny Yesno has mentioned the latter already.

Which Siouxsie songs count? I'm mostly familiar with Kaleidoscope, which was vaguely gothic in a way.

Crabwalk

^ 'Spellbound' springs to mind.

I have to echo 'Marian' by the Sisters of Mercy as top pick though. I fucking love it. It's the sound of drowning in dark waters.

buzby

Quote from: Crabwalk on June 09, 2019, 11:09:05 PM
^ 'Spellbound' springs to mind.

I have to echo 'Marian' by the Sisters of Mercy as top pick though. I fucking love it. It's the sound of drowning in dark waters.
This man knows!
Quote from: buzby on June 07, 2019, 11:31:35 PM
However, for uber-goth points, there's the ridiculous vocal (including a verse in German!) on Marian.

For Siouxsie & The Banshees, it has to be Spellbound.

Ferris

Siamese Twins by the Cure

Johnny Yesno


jamiefairlie

#46
Goth is s hard thing to pin down. It's on a continuum from Post-punk and where you draw the line is somewhat arbitrary. I'd say on one hand, Joy Division, Wire and The Cure (up to and including Pornography) are archetypal post-punk and not Goth at all, whereas the Sisters Of Mercy, Sothern Death Cult, March Violets and their ilk were certainly Goth. And then you have likes of The Danse Society, and Xmal Deutschland who sit somewhere in the middle of that continuum.

Overall I think the defining characteristic that separates the two is the amount of 'classic rock' stylings on display, Goth having significantly more.

Anyway, ignoring all that, I'll pretend that this thread is about early 80s gloomy music and submit:

A Certain Ratio - And Then Again (Live): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfmUUvbtfLM

Department S - Is Vic There - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUUA0Fdw_6Q

Killing Joke - The Wait - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f42MLoLbnnQ

Modern English - Swans on Glass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDs4FJQCMCo

Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls - Dream Sequence 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2SUs_vxX4o

The Comsat Angels - Sleep No More https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX-PCmjroY0

The Wake - The Old Men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFBky9bdn0w

jamiefairlie

Quote from: canadagoose on June 09, 2019, 11:04:38 PM
That's got to be the best. The single in my avatar is good, too, as it its B-side, although Johnny Yesno has mentioned the latter already.

Which Siouxsie songs count? I'm mostly familiar with Kaleidoscope, which was vaguely gothic in a way.

All Cats.. is my favourite Cure song, especially the Peel Session version.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 09, 2019, 05:44:40 PM
One of my many music regrets is that I never saw the Danse Society play, the goth motherlode being when they supported Bauhaus. Ho hum.

Sorry if I have Gilmartin all wrong. I only have his writings to go on and the fact that there are two Danse Society's on the go says a lot. Pathetic, innit?

What was Rawlings like when you met him? Somewhere in the stuff I was reading it said he was a nice bloke. Quiet, iirc.

Also, DRUMS!

The Danse Society - Ambition - Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QbIIKZe80s

Aye, their early stuff is drumtastic. All the sadder then that they moved to horrible drum machine simplicity later on.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: wosl on June 07, 2019, 04:01:14 PM

And two of early Dead Can Dance (a Lisa one and a Brendan one): Threshold / In Power We Entrust, etc

Almost sums up DCD, that split...is it a Brendan or a lisa? I like most of both but really hated when they disappeared into the fucking Amazon or wherever with their bongos and dreary, tuneless, endless songs later on.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: purlieu on June 07, 2019, 04:11:32 PM
Yes, 'Ocean' isn't the most conventional one on there, but it's my favourite, and one of my favourite DCD tracks in general. And yeah, the first album is superb. Listen to it, everyone.

It's a great album, and different to their subsequent albums, sort of Like how Movement was to the rest of New Order,

I do agree though that the production was somewhat muddy, to say the least.

Johnny Yesno

Not sure if these belong in here but what do people make of the more recent Nordic tribal stuff?

Heilung | LIFA - Krigsgaldr LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRg_8NNPTD8

Wardruna - Bjarkan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYL28CxOZO0

Heilung are another of those artists like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu that make me realise there's a whole shitload of music going totally under my radar. I mean, over 13 million views and I only heard of them at new year.

Christ! I've just read the comments under the Wardruna vid :-(

Fishfinger

From the Joy Division canon, I'd add In a Lonely Place (12"). Technically, this and Ceremony were written as JD songs in 1979-80, but only published as New Order (hence Barney on vocals in this version). I think it counts as proto-Goth. Moving in context, but possessed of a somewhat pompous, declamatory style, rhythm and synths at the forefront.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Fishfinger on June 10, 2019, 01:28:30 AM
From the Joy Division canon, I'd add In a Lonely Place (12"). Technically, this and Ceremony were written as JD songs in 1979-80, but only published as New Order (hence Barney on vocals in this version). I think it counts as proto-Goth. Moving in context, but possessed of a somewhat pompous, declamatory style, rhythm and synths at the forefront.


Both sides if that single would be in my top 10, a poignant taste of what was still to come for Joy Division if Ian's death had been avoided.

Fishfinger

#54
Quote from: jamiefairlie on June 10, 2019, 01:44:41 AM

Both sides if that single would be in my top 10, a poignant taste of what was still to come for Joy Division if Ian's death had been avoided.

They're in my top 10s of anything, but I think only the B-side could count as Goth in terms of this thread. I don't know where the axe(s) should fall in terms of post-punk, gothic punk, gothic rock, Goth (deserving the capital) and so on.

ETA: I see you mentioned that earlier. Yeah, I just don't know. As a late 70s kid I tend to associate pure 'Goth' as being heavy on the guitar for the most part, e.g. 80s bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim.

Fishfinger


a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 10, 2019, 01:24:19 AM

Wardruna - Bjarkan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYL28CxOZO0


Christ! I've just read the comments under the Wardruna vid :-(

yes, that's unfortunate. pretty standard for yt these days though.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Fishfinger on June 10, 2019, 01:51:34 AM

ETA: I see you mentioned that earlier. Yeah, I just don't know. As a late 70s kid I tend to associate pure 'Goth' as being heavy on the guitar for the most part, e.g. 80s bands like The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and Fields of the Nephilim.

Yeah, Goth bands always tended to have ideologically problematic rockist tendencies that would inevitably sneak out over time

Twed

Mainly posting this one to remind us all that goth doesn't necessarily mean moody-voiced men:

Switchblade Symphony - Gutter Glitter

A lot of the best of goth music sounds like the inside back cover of a misunderstood secondary school girl's textbooks turned into audio.

Crabwalk

Quote from: buzby on June 10, 2019, 12:18:57 AM
This man knows!

Crabwalk: No original thoughts since 1977.