What is the best opening lyric Siouxsie Sioux ever wrote?
When we think of gothic new wave pioneers like Siouxsie Sioux, we usually focus on how the music mastered the art of tension.
Think of any of the usual suspects in gothic rock, and that’s usually one of its defining characteristics. So much so that it’s almost taken for granted, with little appreciation for the arrangements and dynamics that actually made it possible. Siouxsie and the Banshees pioneered the entire movement because of Sioux’s appearance and the theatricality of the music, which often toyed with the interplay of different notes and instruments to create an overarching sense of dissonance.
One of their career-defining hits, ‘Spellbound’, was a masterclass in everything they had to offer, borrowing from different rock styles while also doing something fairly unique. In fact, one of the things that other musicians noted about ‘Spellbound’ wasn’t its sense of foreboding, although it has that too. It was how the arrangements felt like something beyond the usual rock expectations. As Johnny Marr later said, “It’s so clever. [Guitarist John McGeoch has] got this really good picky thing going on, which is very un-rock’n’roll, and this actual tune he’s playing is really quite mysterious.”
The entirety of Juju was created with this eerie “mysterious” feeling, building a concept around a series of other materials and texts to formulate their own distinctly post-punk world. One thing that was revisited a lot, according to bassist Steven Severin, was The Rolling Stones’ image through their album Their Satanic Majesties Request, and the cover, which was seen as a witchy and whimsical take on another major classic, Sgt Pepper.
Drawing on “darker elements”, as Severin put it, they captured that “‘Stones or Small Faces go psych’ feel” they were after, crafting an aesthetic that became synonymous with goth and gothic rock. According to Sioux, however, it hinged more on creating tension, almost in an Alfred Hitchcock way, than anything that relied more on the actual imagery of what “gothic” actually meant.
“I’ve always thought that one of our greatest strengths was our ability to craft tension in music and subject matter,” Sioux later said, saying that that’s also where others, who wanted to imitate their style, went wrong. If they focused on “rock ‘n’ roll pantomime” without the tension, it just wasn’t going to land. That’s the main aspect of ‘Spellbound’ – its suspense, which Sioux also anchored in the lyrics.
The lyrics themselves speak to an ominous or sinister presence that you can’t escape, there at every turn and unavoidable because “you have no choice”. Borrowing from dream psychoanalysis, there’s a sense of discord about the song that plays on the illusions of fear. This is clear from the opening line, which is also incidentally the best opening line of any Sioux song: “From the cradle bars / Comes a beckoning voice / It sends you spinning / You have no choice.”
These words capture the overwhelming nature of an all-consuming force that appears and pulls you in without respite. It’s entirely evocative, anxiety-inducing almost, in a way that immediately sets the tone. That feeling of being trapped or lost to something hypnotic, executed with a powerful kind of tension, ultimately defined gothic new wave, putting Sioux at the forefront of the entire concept.
After all, it proved that it wasn’t about glossy or trivial imagery but pure feeling, and the different plays on overwhelming emotions like fear and anxiety, even nausea, sometimes. What’s more, it’s the kind of disorientation we often seek comfort in, like allowing ourselves to partake in the spin is what makes us human and what keeps us coming back to the dark depths of despair.
