Siouxsie and the Banshees’ reluctant Bob Dylan cover
Though they were post-punk pioneers in their own right, many of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ most successful tracks were written by other artists, ranging from Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’ to The Beatles’ ‘Dear Prudence’; the band mastered the art of the cover.
In 1987, they demonstrated their proficiency in a full-length studio album of covers. Through the Looking Glass featured Siouxsie and the Banshee’s takes on songs by Sparks, Kraftwerk, The Doors, Roxy Music, The Modern Lovers and more. Rather than simply capitalising on the songwriting success of others, each cover was infused with Siouxsie and the Banshees’ unique gothic sound.
Iggy Pop himself even praised their cover of ‘The Passenger’, which formed the second single from the album. He stated: “She sings it well and she threw a little note in when she sings it that I wish I had thought of, it’s kind of improved it… The horn thing is good.”
Amidst their takes on beloved songs by admired artists, there was one cover Siouxsie Sioux herself was reluctant to do – ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’ by Bob Dylan. Though the cover eventually formed the lead single for the record, the band’s iconic frontwoman had doubts about the song.
Rather than forming an ode to Dylan, Sioux had initially intended for the track to pay homage to Julie Driscoll, who popularised the track in 1968. “Dylan’s ‘Wheels On Fire’ was me giving my bow to Julie Driscoll who did this wonderful version of it,” the vocalist explained in Rock World in 1992. Amidst the “cute little-doll-like pop girlies” who dominated the landscape, Sioux admired Driscoll for being a “strong and proud cool woman.”
She further praised her take on ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’, alongside her unconventional look in an interview with Melody Maker, stating, “I had the hots for Julie Driscoll!”.
“I can’t remember when this originally came out, but I’d have been about 11, and I was besotted by her, by the way she looked, by her voice,” she continued.
Driscoll introduced Sioux to a different kind of star, “very different to watching Lulu on Top Of The Pops, this woman with a shaven head and huge black eyes”. The Banshees leader found beauty in her “spiky and strong and tough” look, which differed from the pervading femininity of women in music. She also loved the song: “It conjured up all sorts of fantastic stories for me.”
After discovering the track through Driscoll’s version, she intended to pay homage to the singer with their cover. It was only when Siouxsie and the Banshees co-founder and bassist Steven Severin found it in his record collection that they realised it was actually a track penned by Dylan, an artist Sioux clearly didn’t admire quite as much as Driscoll. “We nearly didn’t do it when I found out it was a Bob Dylan song,” Sioux stated, “I sulked for ages.”
Nonetheless, the track made it onto the album’s final cut and was put out as the first single. Revisit Siouxsie and the Banshees’ reluctant cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’ below.
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