Monday, March 08, 2010

Number 357 - Soft Cell


Number 357

Soft Cell

"Tainted Love"

(1981)
.
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................Genre: Synth Pop...............
tainted dreams
Sitting here with the love of my life sitting beside me I have a conflict of emotions and thoughts. This song made me realise a few things that I won’t go into detail on but lets just say, in back tracking to an earlier post about the next chapter. Hell’s bells .. some of my previous chapters I’ve come to realise just how much of a royal bitch I was to some. No I won’t apologise. For being such, I am who I am and where I am today because of it (them). [I took a break from writing it’s been a couple months since I started writing this]
Even the words of this song remind me of the past, I’m sitting here now a few months later smiling because of this song, I was such a bitch to the men in my life. I always ran from them when they tried to get close or I felt that they were getting to close. Made some excuse to leave. And it was an excuse because I never wanted what I now have. My new life has now become the only one I want. My man is the only one I’ve ever wanted just didnt know it back then. The things we learn as time goes on.
On a previous post, I mention chapters (as above) this is my final chapter. With this man, my life is complete; I searched the world over to find him on the next block so to speak. The search is over. Ahh to finally be so damn in love it pains the soul. Certain songs do that, they have the capability to linger stronger than photographs sometimes .. you can choose what you want to see but you can't always be in control of what you hear ~ Tez
Tonight we feast like Queens .. er .. Kings!
In the U.S., Soft Cell, the British duo of singer Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball, were a classic one-hit wonder, that hit being the 1981-82 remake of Gloria Jones' "Tainted Love," which dominated dance clubs and eventually peaked in the pop Top Ten with its synth-pop sound and Almond's plaintive vocals. In the U.K., the group not only had a longer career, but also influenced a raft of similar performers. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, originally released in Britain in the fall of 1981, contained both the band's first hit and its follow-up, "Bedsitter," its title referring to what in America would be called a studio apartment. (A third U.K. Top Five hit, "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye," [Covered by David Gray in 1998] emerged from the LP.) At full album length, lyricist Almond's primary preoccupation, only suggested in "Tainted Love," was spelled out; this was a theme album about aberrant sexuality, a tour of a red-light district. The point was well-made on "Sex Dwarf," with its oft-repeated chorus "Isn't it nice/Sugar and spice/Luring disco dollies to a life of vice?" Songs like "Seedy Films," "Entertain Me," and "Secret Life" expanded upon the subject. The insistent beats taken at steady dance tempos, and the chilling electronic sounds conjured by Ball emphasized Almond's fascination with deviance; it almost seemed as though the album had been designed to be played in topless bars. British listeners either saw through Almond's pretense or were amused by him, or both; more puritanical Americans tended to disapprove, which probably limited the group's long-term success stateside. But the music was undeniably influential. The 2002 CD reissue added two lengthy 12" single remixes of "Tainted Love," one of them a medley with the old Supremes hit "Where Did Our Love Go," the other a dub version. [A British version of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret includes eight additional tracks.] ~ [William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide]
Tainted Triv Time
Gloria Jones [aka: Mrs T.Rex]
Pictured right: Gloria Jones recorded the original version of "Tainted Love", which was written and produced by Ed Cobb. The 1964 single was a commercial flop, failing to chart in either the US or the UK. The vocal-and-synth duo Soft Cell had become aware of the song through its status as a Northern Soul hit, and recorded a drastically different arrangement of "Tainted Love" in 1981. Produced by Mike Thorne, the Soft Cell track featured a slower tempo than Jones' version, and instrumentally relied on synthesisers and rhythm machines rather than the guitars, bass, drums and horns of the original. Soft Cell's version of the song was recorded in a day and a half with singer Marc Almond's first vocal take being ultimately used on the record.
A video for the track was recorded specially for their video album 'Non Stop Exotic Video' and features band members Marc Almond and David Ball in togas on Mount Olympus.
Soft Cell also issued a remixed version of the song in 1991. Another video was made for this release, and involves a male pacing at night and dancing with starry apparitions while Almond sings amongst the stars.
Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love" ranked #2 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders but, oddly, only #5 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s.
Twisted and tainted in 2001
Marilyn Manson covered "Tainted Love" and released it as a single from the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack. It was released in 2001. It was later included on his following album The Golden Age of Grotesque as a bonus track. Released in the UK in May 2002, it is Manson's biggest hit to date in that country, reaching a position of #5 in the UK Top 75 charts. The video for Manson's cover shows Manson bringing several goth friends to a high school party. It features several characters from the film Not Another Teen Movie. It also features Joey Jordison, the drummer from Slipknot. ~
Side note: In 2008, American magazine OUT ranked Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell as number 66 on their list of "100 Greatest, Gayest Albums." ~ [Source: Wikipedia]
For David Gray visit MM Vol 1 #050, MM Vol 2 #119
For the Supremes see #716
For Marilyn Manson see #499
For T.Rex see #389
Surely, Rolling Stone have nothing to say? oh wait
To English popmusic fans, there is nothing like a good six-month fad. The punk explosion, the warmed-over mods, the ska craze and the psychedelic revival–don't look now, but you just missed the New Romantics–have come and gone (and in some cases, come again) with such confounding rapidity that it is hard to take most of them any more seriously than Hula Hoops or edible underwear. The Soft Cell twosome of Marc Almond and David Ball walks on a much wilder side, bringing the brainy bop of OMD down to a lurid red-light-district level on their debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. Their hit single, "Tainted Love" (included here), neatly captured Soft Cell's fetish for R&B camp; the twelve-inch single even segued into a heavy-breathing version of the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go." ~ [Source: Rolling Stone #RS 369]
For OMD see #511
Need more information on the song "Tainted Love"? Here are some SongFacts for you to ponder over! Click here > Fact Stuff

Official Website for Soft Cell @ This addy & for other Information/Biography click this link > Here ~ crowbarred [because power is knowledge]

Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '357th song of all Time' was "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix has appeared in The Definitive 1000 of All Time @ #718.
Other songs with reference to Soft Cell ~ #404, #767
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Please dont tease) and the Album ranked (Oh you hurt me so)
This song has a Definitive 1000 rating of 80.5 out of 108
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posted by Tez at 3:50 pm

1 Comments:

Blogger daniel john said...

It’s glad to see good information being convey. Its a very nice album, and i really like these songs. Thanks for the info.
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8:36 pm  

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