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Friday, April 17, 2009

Friday Morning Videos: "Tainted Love"

Sorry I missed a week there. But now I'm back...and what do I have for you? Ah yes, Soft Cell's cover of "Tainted Love." As my friend Nick put it: "Emphasis on the synth, poppish beats and infectious hook, soft punk vocals, heartbreak lyrics, homo-erotic video--truly, the choice of an emo generation."

2 comments:

The Modesto Kid said...

This was a fun song -- I seem to remember being 12 or 13 when it was on the charts -- did not realize until someone pointed it out a couple of months ago, that it was a cover of an older song.

My band covered this in 1987 and it was great; the drummer had gotten an electronic synth pad that he could use for the high-pitched double beat that is the heart of the song.

Russell Arben Fox said...

Modesto, it wasn't until I found this and posted it that I realized it was a cover tune. I'd known that some of the great, early synthpop tunes weren't original, I suppose because covering an old song with synthesizers was a pretty good way of marking it as your own at the time--I'm thinking of Naked Eyes's cover of "Always Something There to Remind Me," in particular here--but I'd always thought this one was an original. Live and learn.