THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH - TRIVIA
 
 
  Musicians:

The Seven Year Itch:

  • Seven years after the demise of the Banshees, a request to play the Coachella Festival results in The Seven Year Itch tour.  The final two nights, the 9th and 10th July 2002 at the Shepherds Bush Empire are recorded for prosperity.

Pure:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:  
    STEVE: "For 'Pure', you can also substitute 'essence'. That song wasn't written - it just happened." It happened during a sound check in France some time ago. "Also it summed up all that we were going through back in those days. It happened on stage and we just called it 'Pure'. That's like what happens when the band lets loose." Source:  Melody Maker 21/10/78

Jigsaw Feeling:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:  
    SIOUXSIE: "It's the wrong things doing the right things for you. It started out as a self-disgust song and evolved from that. " Source:  Unknown 1978 
    SIOUXSIE: It's when your limbs won't do what your brain wants them to. You're so confused that you can't co-ordinate your limbs to do something positive, and you just twist yourself in knots." Source:  Melody Maker 21/10/78

Metal Postcard:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:  
    Dedicated to the celebrated photomontage artist of the Twenties/Thirties, John Heartfield, the original title for this song was 'Letter To Heartfield'. The chorus is taken from one of Goerring's speeches during the Second World War.
    SIOUXSIE: "It's a warning song. The whole propaganda of the Nazis at that time was very dangerous and it could easily creep its way in without there being all the hysteria of killing the Jews. Their whole propaganda could easily fit in today." How does she see this Metal Metropolis? "Not being able to get away from the commands of the day, not being able to escape, the idea of having cameras in your room and having people watching you..." Source:  Melody Maker 21/10/78
    SIOUXSIE: "What lies around the swastika I hate, but I also don't identify with blind patriotism either. I couldn't write a song based around Heartfield if I had that attitude." Source:  Melody Maker 17/02/79
  • Recorded for a BBC Session 02/78.
  • The original title for this song was going to be 'Letter To Heartfield'.
  • The re-recorded German language version was sampled on the Massive Attack song 'Suerpredators (Metal Postcard)' - The Jackal soundtrack .

Red Light:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:
    The lyrics started out life as a piece of automatic writing by Steven, who then used cut ups which resulted in the phrases 'kodakwhore' and 'shutterslut'.
  • Covered by Waiting For God - Reflections In The Looking Glass.
  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment: Based around the subject of pornographic modeling.
  • First Banshees' song Budgie played drums on.

Lullaby:

Lands End:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment: 
    CARRUTHERS: "There's a funny story here. We were in Berlin recording this track when, half way through, the Lands End tragedy happened. The lyrics don't really correspond to that - it's more a lover's leap for eternity." Source:  Melody Maker 1986.
  • Recorded for a BBC Session 02/86.

I Could Be Again:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:
    The lyric 'Just us, the cameras and those wonderful people out there in the dark' is a actually a line quoted by Gloria Swanson at the end of the film     Sunset Boulevard.

Icon:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment: 
    SEVERIN: "There’s a song we have called ‘Icon’ that was inspired by Dervishes getting themselves into such a state that they could put needles through their heads. Our interest in that state is a theme that runs through our work." Source:  Sounds 07/03/81. 
    SIOUXSIE: "There’s amazing religions in the East where they go into states of, umm…. Dervishes and they put skewers through their skin, I don’t know what that’s called, they go into mad dervishes, chanting and mantras and that. I’m just fascinated in the power of the mind over the body I suppose, and what’s outside, not just the mind, what other elements are involved in it, you can endure an incredible amount of pain without faltering, again, when the adrenalin and drive is pushed." Source:  Rox Box Interview 10/05/86.
  • Remixed and edited for release as a single, but not used.

Night Shift:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment: 
    SIOUXSIE: " 'Night Shift' was about the Yorkshire Ripper, not Bela Lugosi, or whatever. Goth was pantomime." Source:  Time out 26/09/98
  • Covered by Switchblade Symphony - Reflections In The Looking Glass.
  • Covered by Stone - Reflections In The Looking Glass.

Voodoo Dolly:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:  
    SIOUXSIE: "I suppose everyone has their own personal voodoo dolly which is capable of destroying them. A bad habit, or something they like but shouldn't. A vice, most vices; one that's hard to control, hard to kick. The same for men with certain girlfriends, they're like voodoo dollies, always winding them up and they destroy them." Source:  Sounds 20/06/81
    SIOUXSIE: "The fear is just seeing and being aware that things that might be pleasing to you… can be your downfall. People included. All the good things, all the happiness can be very negative in that they numb you. That’s where the danger is, when you’re numbed to other people’s pain and other people’s pleasure. That applies to anyone but more so given the unreality of being a pop star.” Source:  NME 24/12/83
    SEVERIN: "It's like anything, it takes a bit of concentration and concern to find those things within the lyric, which you can't really demand of a listener and shouldn't really expect... because it's such a supposedly trivial medium. So it's almost inevitable that you get tagged with doom 'n' gloom etcetera, simply because most people haven't got the inclination to open up and discuss some of the subjects. But I don't see why we should not try and do that. It's ridiculous to do anything else." Source:  NME 24/12/83
  • Recorded for a BBC Session 08/80.

Trust In Me:

Blue Jay Way:

  • Original by The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour.

Monitor:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment: 
    Inspired by the advent of Close Circuit TV and the idea of real violence as entertainment. A story was related to Siouxsie of how, when CCTV was installed in a tower block, in an attempt to curtail vandalism and crime, it instead resulted in the tenants deriving more pleasure from watching the ‘real life’ crime on CCTV, than watching fictionalised accounts on their own televisions.
  • Covered by Ex Voto - Reflections In The Looking Glass

Peek A Boo:

  • Inspiration/Influence/Band Comment:  The soft porn industry in particular its use in advertising.  " The lyrics are written from the perspective of someone who works in a peep show.  It's really a song about my disgust at the amount of soft pornography, things like Page Three girls and pervy ads on TV, that are being forced on people at the moment."
  • Harry Warren & Johnny Mercer receive a writing credit for the phrase "Jeepers Creepers, Where Did You Get Those Eyes?"
  • Was originally intended to be the B Side of 'The Passenger'.
  • A cover version of 'Peek A Boo' by Echo3 was used during a chase sequence in the film 'Jeepers Creepers'.

Dizzy:

  • Features in (but not on the soundtrack of) the film 'Notes On A Scandal'.