Watch Echo and the Bunnymen cover ‘Run Run Run’ by The Velvet Underground
Back in 1986, Echo and the Bunnymen were invited to perform on BBC 2’s music marathon, Rock Around The Clock, which comprised 15 hours of undiluted pop music programming. This included documentaries, filmed concerts, surprise guest interviews, music votes, competitions and studio performances from the hottest bands on the scene.
On September 20th, 1986, the Bunnymen joined the likes of a-ha, Stan Ridgeway, Dire Straits and The Housemartins, the latter of which featured Norman Cook, now known as Fatboy Slim, on bass. Of course, the main highlight was the Bunnymen, who used the performance to preview tracks like ‘The Game’, and ‘Lips Like Sugar,’ which wouldn’t be released until August 1987.
The band’s performance also saw Ian McCulloch and company welcome singer-songwriter Billy Bragg into the fold, with whom they’d toured North America in 1984. Together, they delivered a cover of ‘Run Run Run’ by The Velvet Underground and Nico. Released on the band’s 1967 debut album, the track was supposedly written on the back of an envelope by frontman Lou Reed while the Velvets were travelling to a gig at New York’s Cafe Bizarre.
Like all the best Velvet Underground songs, ‘Run Run Run’ seeks to evoke New York’s seedy underbelly through a mixture of geographical detail, religious imagery and character portrait. In the song, Reed references several characters living in New York at the time, including Teenage Mary, Beardless Harry, Seasick Sarah and Margarita Passion, the latter of whom sells her soul “to get a fix” of heroin, something Reed was rather familiar with by this time.
‘Run Run Run’ was a well-worn fixture of Echo and the Bunnymen’s set by 1986, featuring alongside other classic rock renditions like ‘People Are Strange’ by The Doors – later featured on the Lost Boys soundtrack ‘ – and The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’. The band’s Rock Around The Clock performance also saw them perform a goth rework of Frank Sinatra’s ‘One For My Baby’, though the rendition didn’t make it into the final cut.
The television appearance followed a period of upheaval for the band. During a period of rest and recovery, drummer Pete de Freitas relocated to America with a group of friends, colleagues and acquaintances known as the Sex Gods. With his mental health growing increasingly unstable and his reliance on drugs more pronounced, he soon quit the band, leading to the hasty recruitment of Blair Cunningham, formerly of Haircut One Hundred. Sadly, he was a bad fit and was quickly replaced by ABC’s drummer David Palmer. However, by July, Palmer had left the group and de Freitas was expressing interest in rejoining. They reluctantly allowed him to join as a hired musician and the re-formed lineup took to the BBC2 stage for Rock Around The Clock the following September.
Watch Echo and the Bunnymen cover the Velvet Underground song ‘Run, Run, Run’ below.
