The Sisters - What's the joke?

[a.r.kane]

[quote="Dark"]The Sisters aren't the only band to dislike the way people see them and complain that there's some "joke" that the fans have missed.quote]

So are you laughing with them?

[sultan2075]

BRMC have a great joke. well i like it anyway.

They do? I didn't realize that being a bad Jesus and Mary Chain rip-off was a great joke. I thought it was just insipid and boring--to the point where I walked out on one of their live shows.

That said, I've always found Von and co. very amusing--there's something utterly ridiculous about being in a rock band, and Von knows it. It's inherently stupid. Von is laughing at the cliches of rock and roll just as much as the Supersuckers are.

Didn't he once comment that whether or not you "got" the joke of the Sisters depended entirely upon whether you laughed or cried when they played Emma?

[Dark]

The Sisters aren't the only band to dislike the way people see them and complain that there's some "joke" that the fans have missed.

So are you laughing with them?

At them.

[Electrochrome]

That's the thing. Von knows rock can be ridiculous, he knows being in a rock band and doing it professionally is a strange way to make a living, he recognizes the utter absurdity of it all. But he puts a lot of effort into the songs, obsesses over the lyrics

But at the same time, he's doing it seriously. If you read his words around the release of Floodland, that's what he's alluding to, especially with This Corrosion. What does he call it? A 'gloriously stupid' record. He says it right there....the only way to make fun of it all (take the p*ss) is to do it seriously.

That's one of the reasons they are worth seeing, worth listening to, etc, etc. Any guy that smart who knows rock is idiotic to begin with but can make good rocks tunes and has that brutal irony...yes, I think many of us are here for that reason.

And the songs, of course.

[mugabe]

Did Ben Gunn not leave around Temple of Love ('83) as he thought it was being taken too seriously?

No, he left because he thought Eldritch was taking things too seriously.

[Electrochrome]

Didn't he once comment that whether or not you "got" the joke of the Sisters depended entirely upon whether you laughed or cried when they played Emma?

That about says it.

Another key to why Eldritch has contempt for the large goth contingent that swarm to shows out of some sense of obligation. You can see how or why people take it too seriously...especially on the records. If you have only the records and take it all too seriously and at face value...

Of course, that nasty irony of his...the artwork, the imagery, titles like Black Planet. Ridiculous Dracula vocals that, as we all know, far too many people took too seriously and have imitated, to much embarassment....of course, he can't not be flattered to some extent, though at the same time he likely thinks anyone who imitates him that much is an idiot. Again, that total contempt.

The guy's a bastard, but a loveable one.

[a.r.kane]

Did Ben Gunn not leave around Temple of Love ('83) as he thought it was being taken too seriously?

No, he left because he thought Eldritch was taking things too seriously.

Didn't he leave to go to Oxford Uni in order to qualify him to get a proper job where he wouldn't be laughed at?

[Electrochrome]

Did Ben Gunn not leave around Temple of Love ('83) as he thought it was being taken too seriously?

No, he left because he thought Eldritch was taking things too seriously.

Didn't he leave to go to Oxford Uni in order to qualify him to get a proper job where he wouldn't be laughed at?

Yes, and the health insurance of said proper job was probably much better than The Sisters.

[9while9]

No, he left because he thought Eldritch was taking things too seriously.

Didn't he leave to go to Oxford Uni in order to qualify him to get a proper job where he wouldn't be laughed at?

Yes, and the health insurance of said proper job was probably much better than The Sisters.

I'm not hip to this, so what exactly is his proper job?

Please don't tell me it's "Intellectual love god".

[Dark]

I seem to think he made a band called Torch, started a record label, then pretty much disappeared.

[a.r.kane]

I seem to think he made a band called Torch, started a record label, then pretty much disappeared.

He then re-appeared (must have studied quantum physics) as a tv producer - musc shows.

So you laugh at the sisters? The Wurzels are funny as well.

[paint it black]

They do? I didn't realize that being a bad Jesus and Mary Chain rip-off was a great joke.

the joke was that particular song. the point was that it's still a good song, regardless of whether you know strauss or not. bit like the sisters aand marlowe.

i know a guy who was sat next to ben when he said f**k it i'm off. 1983 and andy didn't sit with the band anymore. cheaper round but still...

[ruffers]

The Sisters aren't the only band to dislike the way people see them and complain that there's some "joke" that the fans have missed.

And IMHO, The Sisters are no more a rock and roll band than The Assembly.

Never Never, one of my top ten pieces of vinyl.

[a.r.kane]

Never really thought of the sisters as being so much of a novelty act that everyone laughs at. What's the point in Iggy, Motorhead, Suicide, Led Zep, Hawkwind if all rock & rock is absurd and inane - or is that just the point of the sisters?

[a.r.kane]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha!!

Just got it!


hahahahahahahahahahahaha HA!

[markfiend]

You've got an infectious laugh there a.r.

[timsinister]

If you have to ask the question, you probably won't understand the answer...

I thought someone or twenty would add that cop-out. Which usually implies, you don't know!!

Good Grief, of course! Why do you think I haven't posted anything else? I'm still young and naieve enough to be dazzled by the shiny lights and billowing fog.















...and more importantly, not to care about anything else.

[mugabe]

I never got the joke, myself. Apart from the supposedly ironic clash of erudite, inter-textual lyrics in cock-rock garments, I don't see what's so funny about Floodland, for instance. Apart from the sheer over-the-topness of "This Corrosion", maybe, which was a standard Steinman production.

[Jaimie1980]

I never got the joke, myself. Apart from the supposedly ironic clash of erudite, inter-textual lyrics in cock-rock garments, I don't see what's so funny about Floodland, for instance. Apart from the sheer over-the-topness of "This Corrosion", maybe, which was a standard Steinman production.

Nope don't see anything funny about Floodland, Vision Thing is another matter.

[Stumpy Pete]

Nope don't see anything funny about Floodland, Vision Thing is another matter.

I myself find the bombast of it quite amusing. When you can re-appreciate something like 'This Corrosion' the way you did the first time you heard it, you can't help but laugh. It's an absolutely ludicrous song, obscenely decadent and over the top. Same goes for 'Dominion.' That's not to say there isn't substance hiding beneath all the flash, but the flash is riotously funny. And let's not even talk about '1959'--hysterical!

[9while9]

The Sisters aren't the only band to dislike the way people see them and complain that there's some "joke" that the fans have missed.quote]

So are you laughing with them?

The joke, as it were > Andrew, a priest, a Buddhist, a rabbi, a contortionist, Albert Schweitzer, and a whore walk into a bar.

I'm really foggy on the next bit but, then the rabbi says
"Not even with my tongue sister!"

[mugabe]

I myself find the bombast of it quite amusing. When you can re-appreciate something like 'This Corrosion' the way you did the first time you heard it, you can't help but laugh. It's an absolutely ludicrous song, obscenely decadent and over the top.

That was just another day of Steinman's at work. In an interview Eldritch spoke about working with him and asking something in the lines of "Erm, do we need all these choirs?" to which Steinman just replied "We need more choirs!". No inherent Sisters bombast or tongue-in-cheek OTT-ness there. Also, I find "1959" as hilarious as any Tori Amos piano ballad, i.e. not at all.

[Stumpy Pete]

That was just another day of Steinman's at work. In an interview Eldritch spoke about working with him and asking something in the lines of "Erm, do we need all these choirs?" to which Steinman just replied "We need more choirs!". No inherent Sisters bombast or tongue-in-cheek OTT-ness there. Also, I find "1959" as hilarious as any Tori Amos piano ballad, i.e. not at all.

Well, I'll grant you it's not as funny as 'Me and a Gun.' (Oh no, he didn't....)

But seriously, the delivery of the vocal on 1959 is, I think, quite funny. Again, there's a disjunction often present in Eldo's work between serious content and absurd delivery. And, I would imagine, if Andrew really wanted to ditch those choirs he could have . It's a disjunction that has been present in most if not all of his recorded work; though I'll grant he made it a bit more explicit with Vision Thing. Rock and roll is a fabulously stupid beast, in all its forms. Andrew knows that and plays with it, and tries to inject a bit of grey-matter into it, and he subverts the conventions underlying it; but it's that very subversion that's funny.

Seriously (once again, once again), you don't find his delivery (not the content of the lyric, but the way it's sung) on 1959 funny? What about the vocals on FALAA? Some of that stuff will make me laugh every time. Emma? How about the end of Gimme Shelter? It's absolutely absurd. The first time I heard it I needed to change my pantaloons I laughed so hard!

[a.r.kane]

The Sisters aren't the only band to dislike the way people see them and complain that there's some "joke" that the fans have missed.quote]

So are you laughing with them?

The joke, as it were > Andrew, a priest, a Buddhist, a rabbi, a contortionist, Albert Schweitzer, and a whore walk into a bar.

I'm really foggy on the next bit but, then the rabbi says
"Not even with my tongue sister!"

Who's albert schweitzer?

[mugabe]

Seriously (once again, once again), you don't find his delivery (not the content of the lyric, but the way it's sung) on 1959 funny? What about the vocals on FALAA?

Well, now that you mention it ... I guess it is kinda funny.