They Came From Next Door...

May 28, 2021

They Came From Next Door...

'...They came from next door' .....well, Bauhaus technically speaking came from Northampton actually😉

John Cale, Rose Garden Funeral of Sores. The song initially released as a B Side to the 7" single Mercenaries released on the Spy Records Ltd Label in 1980.

John Cale produced first albums for acts like The Stooges and Patti Smith, he was of course himself in The Velvet Underground.

The Bauhaus version was also released on the B side of the single Telegram Sam, released also in 1980 on 4AD label.

It was also on the Press The Eject album which, according to My Ghetto Blogspot was "named after the member of the sound crew demanding a bootlegger handed over their recording". Ah! The joys of smuggling recording devices to concerts. I always remember from my misspent youth places like Camden Market flogging iffy bootleg concert tapes.

Lyrically it is really quite strange, dark and brooding, like the stuff of nightmares or paranoia, but I like it nonetheless. The original has the distorted vocals, but both have the same rhythmic beat and bass line punctuated by guitar riff. The Bauhaus version having Daniel Ash's awesome guitar feedback, David J's cool bass line, steady pounding on the drums by Kevin Haskins and not forgetting Peter Murphy's maniacal 80 cigarettes a day raddled cackle part way through.

On the original it was also the first time John Cale had used a drum machine on a single!

I was first introduced to it by a friend, sadly no longer with us, who was an avid Bauhaus fan. He had album and single versions, think if I remember rightly his whole bedroom was painted black except for a large Bauhaus logo. In memory of him...and his goth stylee student boudoir decor.