MUSIC FROM SPACE: Siouxsie and the Banshees - CITIES IN DUST

I was going to write something about how Siouxsie Sioux was the godmother of goth, and how her band Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1985 single Cities in Dust is about as gothic as goth music gets. (Click the image at left to buy the band's classic CD Tinderbox, featuring this song.) But then on Siouxsie's Wikipedia page I read a quote from Shirley Manson that made me stop and wonder whether Siouxsie is actually goth at all.

(In 1981), the press began to describe (the Banshees) as a goth band. I never thought of them as goth. Goth has never been particularly angry, just a little dismayed. It had a weak, submissive side to it. Siouxsie & The Banshees always had a real edge to what they did. There was so much articulated spite, humour, politics with a small 'p' there that I never felt they went down that simple, gloomy path.

Manson has a point. There is a real difference between the Banshees and the countless wannabe vampire bands who followed. But Jesus, if Souxsie isn't goth, who is?

Somehow I've heard this song 400 times or so without ever seeing the video until now. With all that eyeliner, the little dancing skeletons and chilly chimes, it seems ridiculous to have ever wondered if this was a goth band. Of course they were. But the Banshees were ur-goth, the bloody fountain from which countless lesser bands have drunk.



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