Michael's Blog: Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence (Official Music Video)

Sunday, 11 February 2024

Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence (Official Music Video)

Hyæna, Tinderbox and Through the Looking Glass (1983–1987)[edit]

During 1983, the band members worked on several side projects; Siouxsie and Budgie composed the first Creatures album, Feast, while Severin and Smith recorded as the Glove. Smith then insisted on documenting his time with the Banshees, so the group released a cover version of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence" in September 1983. It became their biggest UK hit, reaching number 3 on the Singles Chart.^[40] They also released a live album, Nocturne, and completed their sixth studio album, Hyæna.^[41] Shortly before its release in May 1984, Smith left the group, citing health issues due to an overloaded schedule, being in two bands at once.^[42]

Siouxsie and the Banshees version[edit]

English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees released a cover version of "Dear Prudence" as a single in 1983.^[62] The single had been recorded at a tumultuous time for the band; guitarist John McGeoch had left the band due to his purported alcoholism and had temporarily been replaced by Cure frontman Robert Smith.^[67] Siouxsie Sioux explained, "It was an insane period for us, extremely busy. We were just being totally hyperactive. I think it took its toll maybe a year or so later. John had been hospitalised for stress and overworking, so he was suffering a bit. Robert stepped in, for the second time, as he did in '79, so the show was still going on, and the touring was all pretty intense and crazy. We went on to record Hyæna together, and then he imploded as well. He just couldn't cope with it."^[67]

The band had already recorded a version of "Helter Skelter" on their 1978 album The Scream.^[67]Siouxsie came up with the idea of doing another Beatles cover while they were touring Scandinavia and listening to the Beatles' music.^[68] According to drummer Budgie, they were all big fans of the White Album except for Smith, and they settled on "Dear Prudence" because it was the one song he knew.^[69] Bassist Steven Severin recalled that the track particularly appealed to him because "John Lennon's version sounds a bit unfinished".^[70]^{[nb 5]} They recorded the song at a studio in Stockholm in July 1983 and completed it at Angel Recording Studios in north London, where Smith's sister Janet added a harpsichord part.^[69]

This version of the song became the band's biggest British hit, peaking at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.^[28] The success came as a surprise to Siouxsie, who later said, "It was a surprise, but it didn't really sink in until we'd finished the touring and we were back home for the winter. Then we thought, 'Blimey! We got to number three!'"^[67] The single was kept from the top of the charts by Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon", much to the chagrin of the band.^[70] In the wake of the single's success, the band performed the track on the Christmas Top of the Pops show. Siouxsie said of this performance, "I don't remember much about doing it except for I was wearing a new leather dress that a friend had made for me, and stripy tights."^[67]

Riley cites the fact that Siouxsie and the Banshees would choose to record a song by the Beatles as evidence of the latter's "pervasive influence", and he describes this version as "a surprisingly effective distortion of the Beatles' elegiac original".^[71] Further to his view on the "spookiness" evident in the Beatles' 1968 recording, Quantick says that its "ambience [was] so at odds with the floaty hippie vibe of India" that this characteristic "goes a long way toward explaining why the 1980s punk/psychedelic/Goth band Siouxsie and the Banshees were able to cover the song so successfully, bringing out its buried but implicit sun-blinded sense of menace".^[72] "Dear Prudence" was the group's first single released on Geffen Records in the United States.

"Dear Prudence"