Description

Check the exclusive video of the 12″ for sale!

Check the exclusive video of the 12″ for sale!

 Buy the 2 Yperano Records LPs by Medieval Death and Mordicus : https://yperano.com/vid

Situation Two ‎– SIT 33 T
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: 1984
Genre: Rock, Indie Rock, Goth Rock
Tracklist :
A     Spiritwalker

B1     A Flower In The Desert
Producer – Dale Griffin. Written-By – Jepson*, Burroughs*, Qureshi*  This is a song that was written during the Southern Death Cult era

B2     Bone Bag

Phonographic Copyright (p) – Situation Two
Copyright (c) – Situation Two
Published By – Chappell Music Ltd.
Pressed By – Damont

Mastered By – JA*
Producer, Engineer – John Brand (tracks: A, B2)
Sleeve – David Fathers
Written-By – Duffy* (tracks: A, B2), Astbury*

Track B1 released by arrangement with BBC Records Ltd. Produced for the David Jensen Radio One Programme.
℗ & © 1984 Situation Two
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 1): SIT 33 T – A1 1 DAMONT
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 1): SIT 33 T – B2 JA 1 DAMONT
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 2): SIT 33 T – A1 1 DAMONT AG
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 2): SIT 33 T – B2 JA 1 DAMONT AG

Today I’m gonna have a look at the debut single from The Cult, who would go on to become a force within rock music later in the ’80’s. But they got their start in earnest in 1984 with this initial single.

There was initially a band that singer Ian Astbury was in called the Southern Death Cult. Astbury ended that band and then joined up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed Death Cult. The Southern Death Cult and Death Cult are two distinct bands, though as we’re about to find out at least one song migrated over from one to the other. Death Cult would eventually change their name to The Cult, and they are the ones as we know them today from that one song they play in every strip club across the country. The band were originally joined by bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Ray Mondo for their first album.

Spiritwalker was originally conceived in Astbury’s old Southern Death Cult. The band performed something called The War Song in 1981 with lyrics that would go on to be used in Spiritwalker. Then moving to Death Cult, the new band reworked everything and came up with Spiritwalker. The early version was much different musically, though finding any actual performances is very hard to do so I don’t have anything on hand to offer. While there was a Death Cult EP, it did not contain any version of this song.

So anyway, we now get to the name change to The Cult and plans for the first proper album. Spiritwalker as it is known today was released several months ahead of the album – the single was released in May of 1984, while the album Dreamtime came in August. Spiritwalker did not light the UK charts on fire, at least the mainstream chart – it only got to 77 there. But it did land on top of the Independent chart and got some early buzz going for the group ahead of their album release.

With all of that exposition, let’s talk about the actual goddamn song, huh? The first thing that comes off here is the guitar tone. Duffy’s tone is so bright here, it’s pretty unreal how he pulls off going that “high” in a relative sense yet also keeping it catchy. He goes unreal high in places where nothing else is going on, then rings it a bit in the background when vocals are up. Even when The Cult went more “mainstream rock” later in the ’80’s, Duffy kept his bright guitar tone through a fair few of the band’s signature songs. He was totally operating on his own plane of existence and has been through the band’s entire run.

I often in my reviews of stuff don’t talk about drums and bass much. Honestly I’m spoiled by a band like Van Halen who had one of the best rhythm sections in existence. But The Cult were not that far behind, both drums and bass accent exactly what the song needs here and add their own layer to the song without going virtuoso and detracting from the main show. Steward and Mondo deserve kudos for their performances, both on single and album, and The Cult would make full use of the rhythm section throughout their long and winding career.

Then there’s Ian Astbury. He gets lumped in a lot as a Jim Morrison clone, and also in the “Evil Elvis” category alongside Glenn Danzig. But here Ian goes both full-throated and a bit higher, mimicking Morrison far more than Elvis. His vocals in The Cult are often described as having a “shamanistic” quality, which I don’t know what that is supposed to mean but there are multiple spiritual aspects to Ian’s outlook and performance.

What this all adds up to is one hell of a song, and something in a bit of contrast to what we had in 1984. Pop was in a new wave era and rock went a bit lighter overall, though the seeds for something heavier were planted in the heavy metal realm. But The Cult were totally on their own path, this song being very loosely classified as “gothic rock” but truly being an entity that defied categorization, something the band would take pride in over the ensuing decades. This flies under the radar a bit in terms of the music of 1984, but The Cult did firmly put themselves on the rock map with Spiritwalker back then. And the future would give us a hell of a lot more of their twist on rock.