Spellbound was the lead single off of Siouxsie and the Banshee’s fourth studio album, Juju. In later interviews, Siouxsie would describe Juju as being an accidental concept album as all of the songs dealt with dark themes and subject manner. Juju was a horror-themed album but the horror was psychological and not supernatural. As a sign of that theme, Spellbound was named after an Alfred Hitchcock film about a man who is troubled by disturbing dreams.
Clive Richardson directed several videos from Siouxsie and the Banshees. He also worked with Depeche Mode, Steve Winwood, Big Country, and Tears for Fears.
In this music video for Playground Twist, Siouxsie and the Banshees show that, despite it’s fearsome reputation, punk rock could be just as fun as any school playground song. The children who appeared in this video probably had no idea that they were dancing with the woman who Bill Grundy was attempting to hit upon when Steve Jones of the Sex Pistol called him a “dirty sod” on live British television. The British tabloids labeled this exchange and the entire interview between Grundy and the Sex Pistols as being “the filth and the fury.”
This was one of several videos that Clive Richardson did for Siouxsie and the Banshees. He also directed videos for several other groups that were a prominent part of the New Wave scene, including Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, and Adam and the Ants.
That’s the story of Darryl Cage, the protagonist of the 1986 film, Out of Bounds. Played by Anthony Michael Hall, Darryl is an Iowa farm boy who goes to Los Angeles to live with his brother. Unfortunately, when his flight lands, Darryl’s suitcase is switched with another one that’s full of cocaine! Darryl becomes an accidental drug mule and end up getting his brother killed! WHAT A DUMBASS!
So now, Darryl is on the run. He’s a small town farmer in the big city, trying to avoid bad guy Roy (Jeff Kober) and the police, led by Lt. Delgado (Glynn Turman). Fortunately, Darryl meets an aspiring actress named Dizz (Jenny Wright). Dizz gives him a makeover and introduces him to the Los Angeles club scene. Siouxsie and the Banshees make a cameo appearance at one club. They perform one song and fortunately, it’s Cities in the Dust. Unfortunately, they don’t actually get involved in the plot of the film. I would have liked to have seen Siouxsie beat up Jeff Kober. But it doesn’t happen.
Out of Bounds is one of the many films that came out in the mid-to-late-80s in which the actors who were (somewhat unfairly) considered to be Brat Packers attempted to prove that they were capable of doing more than just projecting teen angst. Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy, for instance, starred in a forgettable neo-noir called Blue City. Andrew McCarthy starred in an interesting but ultimately uneven film called Kansas. Emilio Estevez not only starred in Wisdom but he directed it too. And Anthony Michael Hall starred in Out of Bounds.
Anthony Michael Hall was best-known for playing nerdy characters in Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club and it’s probable that he was attempting to escape being typecast when he took his role in Out of Bounds. This was Anthony Michael Hall’s chance to play an action hero! Unfortunately, Anthony Michael Hall made the same mistake that many of his peers made while trying to give the performance that would allow them to break free of the Brat Pack label. He tried too hard. While Glynn Turman, Jeff Kober and Jenny Wright obviously understood the type of rather silly movie that Out of Bounds was going to be and they modified their performances accordingly, Anthony Michael Hall apparently tried to duplicate the method intensity of Marlon Brando or James Dean. In other words, Hall took the film far more seriously than it deserved to be taken.
Out of Bounds get off to a bad start as soon as it opens with Anthony Michael Hall on the farm in Iowa. There’s absolutely nothing about the young Anthony Michael Hall that leaves on with the impression that he’s ever spent any time on a farm. Everything about him screams Hollywood before he even lands in Los Angeles. Hence, it gets difficult to really buy him as being the wide-eyed innocent that everyone else views him as being. Since a good deal of the film’s plot is dependent upon Hall being naïve, that’s a problem. He may be a farm boy but he certainly doesn’t freak out after shooting someone. He’s also somehow learned how to throw a knife straight into someone’s gut. Out of Bound‘s director, Richard Tuggle, directed two films for Clint Eastwood so he obviously knew how to frame a fight scene but Hall is so miscast that it’s impossible to really get into the movie.
The film is pretty much stolen by Jenny Wright and Jeff Kober. Kober is properly menacing and, just as she did in Near Dark and I, Madman, Jenny Wright works wonders with a role that could have just been formulaic. Jenny Wright has apparently retired from acting. Jeff Kober still shows up in movies and on television, usually playing villains. (Earlier this year, he played yet another drug trafficker on General Hospital.) Watching them give compelling performance in a film like Out of Bounds, it’s hard not to feel that both of them deserved bigger career than they had (or, in Kober’s case, still have).
The film is also stolen by its soundtrack, which is very 80s but in the best possible way. Adam Ant, The Smiths, the aforementioned Souixsie and the Banshees, they all make an appearance and provide the film with a bit of narrative momentum that it would otherwise lack. Watching the film, 80s Los Angeles comes across like a fun place. No wonder Darryl Cage wanted to stay even though everyone was trying to kill him.
Out of Bounds is ultimately pretty forgettable and it didn’t make Anthony Michael Hall into an action star. But, that’s okay. Like a lot of former Brat Packers, he’s proven himself to be a reliable character actor. There is life after high school. Even more importantly, there’s also life after Iowa.
To be honest, the main reason that I picked this for today’s music video of the day is because Erin and I both love this song and it’s one that we’ve both listened to several times of the past few months. (When you’re basically stuck inside for the majority of the year, you really do come to appreciate good music.) Add to that, this song always makes me think of my sister, even if she isn’t listening to it with me. The sun is beautiful and so is she. As I always say, one of the best things about being involved with TSL is that I get to work with my sister. She’s always been there for me. She’s always put up with me, even when I was at my worse. I don’t know where I’d be without her.
This, of course, is a cover of a Beatles song. If you think you spotted The Cure’s Robert Smith in this video, you are correct. At the time this song was recorded (and this video made), Robert Smith was temporarily a member of the band. This video was filmed in Venice, which is a wonderful city that I hope I get to once again visit with everyone who I care about.
Today is November 9th. I’m 25 years old today and I don’t want to talk about it. Bleh. Instead, let’s just play one of the greatest songs ever written, Gimme Shelter.
Gimme Shelter is one of those songs that seems to turn up in every fourth movie that I watch and it’s easy to tell why. It’s a great song. Despite the apocalyptic subject matter, this is an undeniably exhilirating song. This is a song that makes my heart beat faster every time I hear it. If I ever happen to total my car again, it’ll probably be because I was listening to this song while driving. If I ever make out my list of top ten songs to fuck make love fuck to, Gimme Shelter will be at the top of the list along with Blondie’s Atomic, Siouxsie and the Banshee’s Kiss Them For Me, and every song on Moby’s Play CD.
Is it possible that Gimme Shelter is the greatest song of all time?
Last Monday, I made a change. I moved from my small, cozy apartment (with its paper-thin walls and bedroom window that I could never quite get to shut all the way) to a big, two-story house that I’ll be sharing with my sister and BFF, Erin Nicole. As excited and happy as I am having made this move, it also meant that, last week, I spent less time than usual obsessing over grindhouse exploitation and pop culture.
In other words, I’ve got to make up for some lost time.
I’d like to begin by highlighting one of my favorite songs, perhaps my favorite song of all time. Siouxsie Sioux may have been first known as simply a groupie for the Sex Pistols (Way back when, Bill Grundy’s lame attempts to hit on her led to the televised profanity that inspired the infamous “Filth and the Fury” headline) but she later proved herself to be a brilliant and intriguing artist in her own right. As the vocalist for Siouxsie and the Banshees, Siouxsie was (and is) one of the most important figures of the post-punk era.
Proving once again that I was simply born several years too late, I didn’t get a chance to appreciate the Banshees until they had already ceased to exist as an active group. In 2004, having just recently seen 24 Hour Party People, I was obsessed with all things punk and all things new wave. While everyone else was discovering the Black-Eyed Peas or trying to maintain a sense of ironic detachment while buying the latest from Ashlee Simpson, I was devoting my time to Joy Division, New Order, The Slits, the Talking Heads, Patti Smith, the New York Dolls, and Public Image, Ltd. I haunted the used book and music stores of north Texas and, like an archeologist, I would chip away at all of the boring, modern sediment in hopes of discovering something wonderful hidden underneath it all. Without a doubt, my greatest discovery was Siouxsie and the Banshees.
I discovered a CD entitled The Best of Siouxsie and the Bansheesat Recycled Books in Denton, Texas and it quickly became one of my most prized possessions. Over the years, my life has taken a lot of twists and turns but there has always been one constant — whenever I’ve needed them, Siouxsie and the Banshees have been playing on my CD player.
My favorite song off that CD is Kiss Them For Me, a song first released in 1991. The song, which admittedly does have more of a “pop” feel to it than other Banshee songs, is Siouxsie’s tribute to another frequently misunderstood icon, Jayne Mansfield. Like Mansfield, the song is unapologetically over-the-top and wonderfully self-aware. It’s a song that pays tribute to a legend by being legendary itself.
(It’s also the song that I had playing nonstop while my sister and I were unpacking our things this week.)
The song’s lyrics refer both obliquely and explicitly to Mansfield’s decapitation in a 1967 car accident. (Mansfield’s daughter — Mariska Hargitay — survived the accident and is currently the star of Law and Order: SVU.)
It glittered and it gleamed
For the arriving beauty queen
A ring and a car
Now you’re the prettiest by far
No party she’d not attend
No invitation she wouldn’t send
Transfixed by the inner sound
Of your promise to be found
“nothing or no-one will ever
Make me let you down”
Kiss them for me — I may be delayed
Kiss them for me — if I am delayed
It’s divoon, oh it’s serene
In the fountains pink champagne
Someone carving their devotion
In the heart shaped pool of fame
“nothing or no-one will ever
Make me let you down”
Kiss them for me — I may be delayed
Kiss them for me — I may find myself delayed
On the road to new orleans
A spray of stars hit the screen
As the 10th impact shimmered
The forbidden candles beamed
Kiss them for me — I may be delayed
Kiss them for me — I may find myself delayed
Through the Shattered Lens 