Burning Love

Watch it and weep. What happened to Elvis? He’s so tacky and he’s so drugged he can barely stand. He used to be cool, yes he did. Some people can survive massive fame with their sanity intact, but it seems Elvis was not one of them. Elvis had no mind of his own, really. He just wanted money and food and pills and girls in white panties, all of which he got plenty of, at the cost of any shred of dignity he may ever have had. The whole Elvis cult is very weird and alien to me, very uniquely lower American and frankly a bit offputting, yet I find myself frequently defending him. There are Elvis Fans and there are Elvis fans. The hardcore Elvis Fans are most likely insane in the brain, but there are some of us who merely enjoy some of his music and that’s an embattled position. I’m always arguing that if you look past the horrendously bad taste swirling around the icon, you find a rather good singer lurking underneath. Especially in the early years. Liking Elvis shouldn’t have to be a deep dark secret. It’s ok. Burning Love is a good song. The jumpsuit may be bad, but the song is good. Really.

Bela Lugosi’s Dead

Bela Lugosi is still dead.

Most classic Bauhaus song ever, although they did have some other good ones this is what’s remembered. My problem with Bauhaus, as well as their appeal, is that Peter Murphy tries all too valiantly and successfully to sound like David Bowie. They did a cover of Ziggy Stardust that sounded eerily like the real thing. My other problem with Bauhaus is they are credited with birthing the entire Goth culture (them and The Cure) back in the 80s, which is when it was kind of cool but now I’m so deathly over it. I’ve made a thing of going to 80′s night every week and I’ve noticed that (apart from being 99% gay) the majority of revelers come dressed in full Goth drag. Which seems a wee bit inaccurate. Goth was a rather small subculture during the actual 80′s – it’s only today that every mall boasted an emporium of all things ‘Goth’ (aka Hot Topic). Most nightclubbers those days wore spangly miniskirts and giant floofy shoulders and gold lame and hot pink and aquamarine spandex tighties – which is what I like to wear to 80s Night. And it’s not like the DJ would even play a Bauhaus or Cure song, no no no that would just be too radical. So if you’re going out and you know you’ll be dancing to Madonna and MJ, and Eurythmics and Billy Idol all night, why not dress in an appropriate manner? Bring out the shoulder pads!

Here we have a nearly full length music video. And of course I had to throw in the opening clip from The Hunger, because that is undoubtedly the golden moment of Bauhaus crossing paths with mainstream culture and because David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve are doing sexy vampire stuff.