Siouxsie and the Banshees never ran away from a cover. It's how they started after all. Their debit gig at the 100 Club Punk Festival on 20th September 1976 entailed a cover of 'The Lord's Prayer' (if in fact that can count that as a 'cover version') interspersed with some other very familiar tunes. Eleven years on from the 100 Club they deemed it to be right and proper that they release an album of covers of tracks by musicians that influenced them. It's a tried and tested pathway that is as old as rock 'n' roll itself... the difference being that by the time that the '80's came around the original recording artists were getting just royalties(I hope!) With a nod to Bowie's 'Pin Ups' (and well, if it's good enough for David well then)...
The Banshees released 'Through The Looking Glass' in early March 1987 which featured an eclectic selection of covers from some of the biggest movers and shakers within the underground music scenes of the '60s and '70s, including Iggy's 'The Passenger' and Bob Dylan's 'This Wheel's On Fire'. There were also a couple of curveball selections in there, notably 'Trust In Me' from the Jungle Book adaptation by Disney and the dark and deeply disturbing 'Strange Fruit' by Billy Holiday.
The subject of this post though is the track 'Hall of Mirrors', originally recorded and released on Kraftwerk's 1977 album 'Trans Europe Express'. Seemingly, Dusseldorf's electronic kings were aware of the Banshees' tribute to the song, which in turn celebrates the iconic, international train service that transected the European continent, ferrying its passengers in first class style for nearly 20 years. Of the cover, Ralf Hütter is on record as stating "In general, we consider cover versions as an appreciation of our work. The version of 'Hall of Mirrors' by Siouxsie and the Banshees is extraordinary".
The song did form part of the Banshees set in 1987 as in this example from St Petersburg in Florida.
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-zkwvnZzySB1RjtBM
In contrast and perhaps unsurprisingly, Kraftwerk's 1977 original is rather different altogether to Siouxsie and Co.'s version. Reassuringly cold and precise, the song tells of a group of shop mannequins who seemingly tire of posing for the public and instead break through their shop front windows and enter the city (presumably their home city of Dusseldorf). And having gained their freedom, what do these free-thinking showroom dummies do? Well of course they head for a nightclub in order to dance through the night to some of the latest tunes (avantgarde German electronica for sure!). Looks like Ralf and Florian had a premonition 49 years ago of our AI reality today. Whatever, the song paints a brilliant picture that could have come from the imagination of Philip K. Dick.
Kraftwerk did not tour in 1977 and 'Showroom Dummies' never got much in the way of live exposure until the band started their album retrospective tours in the 2010s such as this nice sounding gig from Tokyo in 2013.
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-bncG4LRfedE5jy2V
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