“From the cradle bars / Comes a beckoning voice / It sends you spinning / you have no choice …” Yes! Light a black candle (or at least don a black T-shirt), grab the hair crimpers and can of Aqua Net! In a magnificently uncanny coincidence, today (22 May) is World Goth Day AND represents the 45th anniversary of the song “Spellbound” by British punk royalty Siouxsie and the Banshees (released 22 May 1981). The first single from Juju, the Banshees’ awe-inspiring fourth album, “Spellbound” is an unassailable classic goth anthem. In fact, in her 2021 Rolling Stone article “The 50 Best Goth Songs of All Time”, Andi Harriman lists “Spellbound” at number two. (Perhaps inevitably, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus is number one). “If there ever was a soundtrack for Halloween, Juju would be it — heck, there’s even a song titled “Halloween” on the 1981 album by Siouxsie and the Banshees,” Harriman writes. “But the lead single, “Spellbound,” takes the red-velvet cake, with the swirling, maniacal guitar work of newly joined member John McGeoch, Budgie’s thunderous drumming, and Siouxsie Sioux singing about laughter cracking through the walls and spinning entranced in a rag-doll dance. “I’ve always thought that one of our greatest strengths was our ability to craft tension in music and subject matter,” said Siouxsie Sioux. “Many goth bands have imitated Juju, but they simply ended up diluting it.” Spooky, but never over the top, “Spellbound” is the witchiest of them all.” Now sing along with me: “And don't forget / when your elders forget / to say their prayers / take them by the legs / and throw them down the stairs …”
