Best Songs Ever: Bauhaus 'Crowds'
by Jess Grant
12/18/12
When punk and everything that it stood for dissipated like a fart to the wind at the end of the 1970s, navel-gazers everywhere needed a new, dangerous tribe to cling on to. Step in Bauhaus -- who found home in that peculiar period when punk was pedestrian, new wave was, well, new and goth was yet to even exist (but, oh, soon would). And while we don't have the space to spiel the brilliance of Bauhaus, there is no doubt about it, this band are ragingly underrated in comparison to their contemporaries (hey, The Cure!).
In December 1980 -- fresh from the release of their debut album, In the Flat Field -- Bauhaus released a cover of T. Rex's “Telegram Sam” that Marc Bolan's bestie, David Bowie, would have been proud to call his own. The B-side to this single was “Crowds,” a tender dagger directed towards an immoral ex, which contains the oh-so-delicious couplet: “You worthless bitch/You fickle shit.” Go get your angst on:
Bauhaus never performed this song live, so instead enjoy footage of the band performing (arguably the first goth song ever written) “Bela Lugosi's Dead” at Coachella in 2005. Peter Murphy sings it UPSIDE DOWN, for goodness sake...:
Lyrics:
What do you want of me?
What do you long from me?
A slim Pixie, thin and forlorn
A count, white and drawn
What do you make of me?
What can you take from me?
Pallid landscapes off my frown
Let me rip you up and down
For you I came to forsake
Lay wide despise and hate
I sing of you in my demented songs
For you and your stimulations
Take what you can of me
Rip what you can off me
And this I'll say to you
And hope that it gets through
You worthless bitch
You fickle shit
You would spit on me
You would make me spit
And when the Judas hour arrives
And like the Jesus Jews you epitomize
I'll still be here as strong as you
And I'll walk away in spite of you
And I'll walk away
Walk away
Like, Follow or Talk Shit About us here: