gothdays

[darren_stranger]

 

Speaking of aus.culture.gothic days, i was listening to Billy Bragg's 'Great Leap Forward' the other day, and remembered a re-wording of it i played around with in about 1998 but don't think i ever got around to posting.  So i thought i might resurrect it as a bit of nostaligia.  Some lines relate to specific conversations on acg at the time, but otherwise i still think it's a cute little snapshot of how i remember being an old-schooler in the late 90s.

 

So here it be.

 

It may have been all a joke for Peter and the lads
But before too long it started to be more than just a fad.
It all seemed so exciting to middle class kids fleeing
From mainstream disappointment, so we gave it all out being.
We thought we were the future, but someone should have warned us
That the nineties were just around the corner.

 

Now over in America, the media are taken
With shock-rock horror satanists, we feel they are mistaken.
They're whipping up a frenzy and feeding on the furore
Of the bible belters.

 

In the 'gothic' nightclub, where every song you hear
Is the Prodigy or Nine Inch Nails, so you buy another beer
And settle in the corner, start counting off the hours
'Til that fifteen lousy minutes of the Cure and Sisters.

 

Mixing smoke and cowboy hats - i ask him where's the humour?
He mumbles in a baritone about Elder Gods in Sumer.
While looking on the internet, i'm reading of reunions
And rumours of a Bauhaus tour.

 

Guest DJs are advertised and passes circulated
Dog collars and PVC - the fashions are debated.
You can be spooky with the spooky kids or posing with the poseurs
While you're waiting for the Bauhaus tour.

 

So it's two steps forward, two steps back.
Will "nice boots" get you in the sack?
(Waiting for the Bauhaus Tour)

 

Here come the young ones, you can't ignore them.
You play them the old stuff but it just bores them.
(Waiting for the Bauhaus Tour)

 

'Cause it's a mighty long way from She's Lost Control
To Tourniquet and Head Like A Hole.
(Waiting for the Bauhaus Tour)

 

But if no-one out there plays The Damned,
Then start up your own club or join a band.
(Waiting for the Bauhaus Tour)

 

In a perfect world we'd all dress in black
But this is suburbia so cut me some slack.
(Waiting for the Bauhaus Tour)

 

Enjoy your subculture while you may,
The mainstream is just a remix away..

Comments

[slowlight.livejournal.com]

Billy himself did a rather witty rewording of it himself (no goth references, though). I've got it on a live recording of the last ever Red Stars gig. It basically takes into account the end of the Cold War as well as to take the piss out of himself. Have you heard it? Some time in the next few days I'll type it up for you.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I think Billy re-writes it quite often. I'm sure I've heard a version that mentions Kylie.

[drzero.livejournal.com]

That's true, I don't think I've heard Billy sing it the same way twice from performance to performance.

[txxxpxx.livejournal.com]

I remember him saying at one gig that if you wanted to sing along to the same old lyrics then you should go home & play the CD and stop whining (or words to that effect)

Cute version tho' :-)

[drzero.livejournal.com]

Hah, brilliant :)

As is Stranger's version!

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I do think you posted that to acg,
but when I Google I can only find it as your signature.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure i only posted fragments as sig. quotes. I did e-mail the whole thing to someone, either yourself or Everyone's Shadow i believe.

[cat-a-pillargal.livejournal.com]

And we're still waiting for the Bauhaus tour!

[coyoteaus.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmmmm, Bauhaus !
New Years Resolution, get myself a new Bauhaus T-shirt - my old one died.