It's quite possible that
Peter Murphy didn't think this one through: submitting his version of John Lennon's "Instant Karma" to be used in a Chase Bank television ad. Just ponder that for a second.]
Media Center
Related Topics
Related Stories
One of the great iconoclasts of the postwar generation writes a song that professes a simple but defiant truth: Be good to each other, and we'll all be OK.
Yet 35 years later, somebody deemed the song appropriate to use in an ad campaign for a financial institution that is fending off accusations of predatory lending.
Of course, Murphy is not completely to blame for this. Yoko Ono approved.
And while Peter Murphy is no stranger to playing other people's songs, he usually he gets it right. Of course, he's new to the commercial game.
"Instant Karma" is the first in a series of four cover songs Murphy is releasing as digital singles this summer, — a new one every few weeks. He'll bring his band to the Chameleon Club in downtown Lancaster on Wednesday, July 8. A new full-length album is due later this year.
With virtually no musical experience, Murphy in 1978 became singer and chief lyricist for Bauhaus, indisputably one of England's most important post-punk bands.
With their charging, angular rhythms, electronic atmospherics and slashing guitars, combined with the alienation of a generation of Britons raised under a three-day week and a trendy androgyny, Bauhaus originated what became known as goth rock.
Over the next 25 years, millions of self-absorbed teenagers draped in black with bad complexions would follow.
As original as it was, the sound did not come out of thin air. And Bauhaus was one of the few bands at the time that proudly recognized, even celebrated, its influences.
Amongst the band's first run of singles was an icy version of T. Rex's "Telegram Sam." Sessions for the BBC included songs by Brian Eno and the Strangeloves. Two years later, it was David Bowie's tale of rock 'n' roll narcissism, "Ziggy Stardust," that gave the group its biggest hit and its most recognizable video.
In his years as a solo artist, Murphy's talent for reinterpreting alternative rock standards has not diminished. If anything, it's led him to some of his most fruitful work.
On solo tours, Murphy has performed the Doors' "Riders on the Storm," Joy Division's "Transmission," Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" and Bowie's "Be My Wife," among many others.
Murphy's not doing glam-rock oldies; he's doing alternative-rock standards. Better than droning on about one's influences, a well-placed cover can serve as a touchstone for artist and audience alike, even if, as becomes the case with each passing year, the song is one that fewer average concertgoers remember or know anything about.
As much as Bauhaus built upon the work of Bowie, Eno, Marc Bolan and the like, an entire generation of industrial and goth-inspired rock acts have followed from Murphy's originality — Jane's Addiction, Type O Negative, Placebo, Interpol, Dead Can Dance, Depeche Mode and KMFDM among them.
Then, of course, there's Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails. As much as Reznor is a student of Murphy, the admiration goes both ways. As recently as this spring, Murphy was performing Reznor's "Hurt." (It's too bad for Murphy that Johnny Cash owns that song forever now.)
When Murphy, with and without Bauhaus, has toured with Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, the mixed sets and collaborations have been hard to keep track of.
In a series of intimate radio sessions held backstage before concerts, they would tackle, in addition to each other's material, Iggy Pop's "Nightclubbing" and Daniel Miller's "Warm Leatherette," both of which, coincidentally or not, were title tracks for albums by Grace Jones.
Onstage, Reznor and members of TV on the Radio joined Murphy to perform Bauhaus' riveting 1983 psych-industrial epic "Bela Lugosi's Dead."
And on and on it goes. The second cover in Murphy's summer quartet, released early last week, is yet another Bowie classic, "Space Oddity." Might make a good ad for a fuel-efficient car or something. I'm sure General Motors will be in touch.
(940)
