Tainted Love: Addendum to Part 1

It would seem that Wikipedia is NOT all-inclusive! Shock! Here's a bit of what's missing from Part 1: 1964-1994.

Ruth Swann (not her real name) was some chick from Wigan. She recorded a version of "Tainted Love" in 1975.  It starts out a little rough but it's not bad:



1986: A rockabilly cover by a group called The Boppin' Kids. It's awful. Here they are doing it still in 2008. In Antwerp. They're Sicilian. TMI.

 

Um, Blammo! Blammo! was from Sheffield, England, and recorded a version of "Tainted Love" in 1992.  This Blammo! is NOT this Blammo, who are from Indiana and also do a cover of "Tainted Love." Blammo!

And there are, of course more, versions, but I think this will be enough to get you through.
There's also a "rave" version by something called Tainted Cash from around 1991. You can check that out on your own. It's too gruesome.

A History of the Song "Tainted Love" Using Wikipedia: Part 1

I've decided to do a special series of posts for one of my all-time favorite songs (?): Tainted Love. I didn't know this was one of my all-time favorite songs but since I just wrote that it was, I'm going to go with it. Enjoy.


In the beginning there was Gloria Jones... She recorded the song as a B-side in 1964 and nobody cared.



Then she recorded it again in 1976, after it began getting underground attention, but again, nobody cared. 



Then, in 1981, Soft Cell released their version and it became a number one hit in the UK, where the Gloria Jones version had originally found its underground popularity in the Northern Soul scene.  It reached #8 in the US.



Next, the industrial/goth-y group Coil released a version of the song which was the first AIDS benefit music release and the video starred Marc Almond, the singer of Soft Cell. The video was banned for being weird or something.



According to Wikipedia, the song didn't really resurface until the 90s. Soft Cell did a remix in 1991, then a British a cappella group called The Flying Pickets who apparently had "radical socialist politics," covered the song in 92. Yeah. Here they are doing their thing in Croatia that same year:



Also in 92, the band Inspiral Carpets, who happen to be one of my favorite teen-angst bands, (see espcecially Two Worlds Collide) recorded the song which appeared on an NME 3-disc collection, Ruby Trax. How crazy is it that one of my favorite songs when I was 15 has "what have I done with my life" as its main lyric? Seriously, I was 15, what was I supposed to have done?



In Part 2 I'll pick up with David Benoit's 1994 cover and we'll go from there. Stay tuned, won't you?

She had her hair did. It was bound to fall.

My husband's playing a show at a place called "Howlers" while I sit at home listening to my iPod and drinking beer. Who's having a better time? 

Good question. Right now "Jackie" by Scott Walker via Jacques Brel is playing. If you haven't seen the literal cartoon interpretation of this then you need to go to it RIGHT NOW!

I've become a terrible blogger. I get bored with things so easily. Things like blogs. And my attention span is soooo short. Have you seen the pilot for Raising Hope? It's really funny. It won't last on the TV. It's too funny and smart.

I'm supposed to be pretending right now (writing) but it's not happening. Not fictionally, anyway.

Oh, yeah. I thought "Rill Rill" would be a good wedding song.

So. I was, hold on, let me find the message... "being used as a librarian against my will," earlier. Apparently that's what my new temp job's about. "Through December!" I'm the admin assistant for two faculty at the Graduate School of Public Health currently. Hoo fuckin' ray. At least I have some sort of job.

And they're paying me a ridiculous amount of $$$. I have a masters degree.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS.

GACK!

Jesus christos. I've been VERY absent from the internet since right before vacation. And I've loved it! I've been feeling very protective of my crazy lately and not sure if you deserve to share it.

Every once in a while I'll think I want to share with you then I think, "aw, fuck it." I'm still bitter and jealous and angry and anxious and slightly paranoid but with fewer panic attacks and more of a sense of propriety and boundaries. And it's destroying my blog!

Went to "Rehobo" (pretty sure I'm the only one who calls it this) Beach last week and had a lovely time. Okay, so I was pretty much my usual wreck of a self for most of the trip, especially the camping portion, but by Thursday I had started to calm down. Of course we were leaving on Friday. Figures. I think I only cried twice.

We camped one night at Cape Henelopen and were positively DEVOURED by mosquitoes! I had 12 bites on my back (and I was wearing a shirt!) 5 bites on my SKULL, 3 on my legs and only 1 on my arm. It was awful. Plus one on my big toe and one on my pinky. So we packed up the next day and got the fuck out of there.

As a tribute to my youth, I convinced Allen that we should get a room for one night at the EconoLodge.  

It was a treat. There were various stains on various things but it was awesome compared to camping. And the pool was quite pleasant.

The next two nights we spent at the Sands on the boardwalk. Another lovely pool.

I'll tell you a secret: We both peed in the pool at the Sands!  Naughty! And GROSS!

We got pretty drunk at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in town and on the way back we both got overly excited about a shop called "Downtown Cowgirl," imagining it was some crazy sexual position. We were standing in front of the shop giggling and taking pictures of the logo when this younger couple walked by and the woman said, "I think they're drunk!" Cue more giggling.

That's about all I have for you right now, I am, as Holly Golightly would say, just trying "to keep my hand in" at this point while I continue to work on reinventing my life. Maybe I'll move to the beach.

Cheers!