Cover Me Monday #14 - Corrosive Lambchop

Cover Me Monday was a regular feature on this blog, pre-lockdown... and then the world fell apart, and so did most of my regular features. Late last week, I stumbled across a classic forgotten cover version that made me want to resurrect the feature... particularly as it had stopped at #13, and I'm a bit superstitious that way. What if I caused the world to fall apart, just by stopping this feature at #13? (I realise that's a rather egocentric view of the world, but I have limited contact with anyone else at the moment... I'm starting to wonder if you're all just figments of my imagination.)

Anyway: Lambchop covering The Sisters of Mercy. From the bonus disc of their 2002 album Is A Woman. I'm sorry, this record can not be almost 20 years old. Where has my life gone?

First, here's the original, because I adore it. (Though I'm betting a few of you don't.)

The Sisters of Mercy produced by Jim Steinman. Like trying to put out a fire by pouring petrol in it. According to Andrew Eldritch, "I called Steinman and explained that we needed something that sounded like a disco party run by the Borgias. And that’s what we got."

Strip away that "disco party run by the Borgias" though, and you're still left with a top song. As Kurt Wagner reveals here...

And while we're on the subject, I'd be remiss if I didn't post this. It's as different from the two tracks above as can possibly be, but together they make up three sides of one very interesting triangle.

They don't throw him a parade

He just comes in on a train

One suitcase in his hand

And an old army backpack

From the second world war

From a Leipzig secondhand store

Pick the keys up from the agent

Everything's been taken care of

No big changes in the roadways

Since you've left that I'm aware of

A few old buildings gone to dust

And some new ones in the way

They'll look just like the old ones

When the winds have had their say

I do take issue with the "No big changes in the roadways" line though, since back in the late 80s, early 90s, I found it pretty easy to get around Leeds in a car. The inner loop is a Kafka-esque nightmare now though.