Watch Siouxsie Sioux and Suede cover Lou Reed’s ‘Caroline Says II’
During a fan club-only concert in July 1993, Suede frontman Brett Anderson took a break after inviting Siouxsie Sioux and Martin McCarrick of Siouxsie and the Banshees to join the rest of the band for a passionate cover of Lou Reed’s ‘Caroline Says II’.
The original version was released by Lou Reed on his 1973 album Berlin, which also houses the song’s first instalment, ‘Caroline Says I’. The track came as a rewrite of ‘Stephanie Says’, a song Reed recorded with The Velvet Underground in 1968 during the White Light/White Heat sessions. The mournful ballad joined a series of Reed’s “Says” song ideas, including ‘Lisa Says’, and ‘Candy Says’, the latter appearing on the 1969 album The Velvet Underground.
‘Caroline Says II’ follows the desperate story of the titular protagonist who suffers in an abusive, drug-fueled relationship with a man called Jim. The concept of Berlin continues over the album’s final three songs. In ‘The Kids’, Caroline’s crying children can be heard as they are taken from her by the authorities.
This beautifully bleak concept clearly struck a chord with Siouxsie Sioux, the ‘Goddess of Goth’ and Suede, who, despite their unwelcomed ties to the Britpop movement, also enjoyed a wallow in the darker side of life. Much of Suede’s breakthrough material of the early 1990s was fraught with unnerving realism. Remaining loyal to their luminaries of The Velvet Underground, topics like drug addiction, salacious activity and poverty were a regular feature.
Last week, Siouxsie Sioux announced that she would return to the stage following a ten-year hiatus in the summer of 2023. The 65-year-old punk icon will join the bill for a headline set at the forthcoming Latitude festival, marking her first performance since 2013, when she performed as part of Yoko Ono’s curated live event at London’s Royal Festival Hall, ‘Meltdown’.
At present, this is the only live date Siouxsie has announced. We hope to hear more announcements in the not-too-distant future, but for now, we can sit back and enjoy Siouxsie and Suede’s spellbinding cover of Lou Reed’s ‘Caroline Says II’.
