people are strange Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Echo & The Bunnymen “People Are Strange”

sfilzen — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 19:03:15 +0000

Echo & The Bunnymen “People Are Strange” from The Lost Boys soundtrack, 1987. 12″ single, UK import, 1988/1991 release. “People Are Strange” is, of course, a Doors cover that Echo & The Bunnymen recreated rather faithfully (and Ray Manzarek produced) for the opening sequence to one of my favorite 80′s movies. (Back in the day rumor had it that one of the punks filmed on the Santa Cruz streets was one of our friends who had run away to California, but I’ve never been able to spot him in any of the scenes). The B-side has three more covers, recorded live, that are slightly less faithful to their originals though still quite respectful, all great and Echo’d up: “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones), “Run, Run, Run” (Velvet Underground) and “Friction” (Television). That last song in particular is notable because I’m not a big Television fan but Echo & The Bunnymen’s cover is hard-driving (well, to be fair, the original is as well), melodic and a bit Talking Head-ish with notes of neo-psychedelia thrown in. These three tracks, along with “People Are Strange” also appear on Echo & The Bunnymen’s 1988 EP New Live and Rare; the live songs were recorded in Sweden for a radio show in April 1985.

The post Echo & The Bunnymen “People Are Strange” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

The Doors “Strange Days”

sfilzen — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 19:26:42 +0000

The Doors “Strange Days” 1967. Today, December 8th, is Jim Morrison’s birthday (b. 1943, d. 1971). I went through a short but intense obsession with Strange Days, the Doors’ second album, back in high school, probably spurred by Echo and the Bunnymen’s 1987 cover of “People Are Strange” which appeared as a B-side to “Lips Like Sugar” and as the intro to The Lost Boys movie (rumor had it that one of the group of punks pictured in the intro had several runaways, including a guy from our hometown who was supposedly in Santa Cruz during filming. I’ve watched The Lost Boys probably a hundred times, pausing it and examining that crowd of kids – haven’t spotted him yet.) The Doors’ “People Are Strange” is still one of my favorites; the single reached #12 on the US charts. Also great is the second and final single released from the album, “Love Me Two Times,” along with many of the non-singles: the title track “Strange Days,” “Moonlight Drive” and exotically psychedelic “My Eyes Have Seen You.” The final track, “When the Music’s Over” is an exhausting 11 minutes long with lots of 60′s-style noodling and an example of Morrison’s often questionable poetry, i.e. “Before I sink into the big sleep I want to hear the scream of the butterfly” and “What have they done to the earth? What have they done to our fair sister? Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her, Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn and tied her with fences and dragged her down.” That said, 50 years after Strange Days initial release, it’s still a completely great album (though I doubt I’ll listen to it on repeat the way I did 30 years ago).

The post The Doors “Strange Days” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Echo & The Bunnymen “Lips Like Sugar”

sfilzen — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:00:47 +0000

Echo & The Bunnymen “Lips Like Sugar” 1987. 12″ single with “Rollercoaster” on Side A. “People Are Strange,” a Door’s cover from the movie The Lost Boys, is on Side B. UK import.

“Lips Like Sugar” appears on Echo & The Bunnymen’s fifth studio album and reached #36 on the UK charts. It was still going strong two years later, at least at the university I went to, as it was on heavy rotation on my dorm floor and on the jukebox in the student union – “Lips Like Sugar” for me is freshman year at UW-Madison.

“People Are Strange” from The Lost Boys is the best song on the movie’s soundtrack. In the film, the song introduces the audience to the “strange” and fictional city of Santa Clara, CA – which is actually Santa Cruz – by showing all of the missing person posters and punks hanging on the boardwalk. Rumor had it that one of the group of punks pictured in the intro had several runaways, including a guy from our hometown who was supposedly in Santa Cruz during filming. I’ve watched The Lost Boys probably a hundred times, pausing it and examining that crowd of kids – haven’t spotted him yet.

The post Echo & The Bunnymen “Lips Like Sugar” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.