WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #51: Peter Murphy - All Night Long

Wellllcome!   This week we slouch slightly closer to the Halloween holiday …. 

Llast week I promised we would start to get our goth on….. and when anyone mentions spooky goth and 80s new wave in the same sentence I only think of one name …. and that’s Peter Murphy!

Peter Murphy was the lead singer of the granddaddies of goth, Bauhaus - they were to goth like Kraftwerk is to synthpop!  Bauhaus had many spooky goth songs worthy of a listen, but it was after Bauhaus broke up for the first time that Murphy did his best work IMO.  

For this week’s Awesome Song we go to 1988 and his first solo effort “Love Hysteria”, which gave us the wonderfully sung atmospheric tune “All Night Long”.  The song is a real showcase for Murphy’s distinct voice, and the melody is also unique, evoking an almost Eastern European (Transylvanian?) feel, complete with spooky voices and a video shot in black & white that pays homage to the original vampire movie, Nosferatu, from 1922.  Now that’s spooky!

But let’s not stop there!  A great companion piece to “All Night Long” came just a year later, on Murphy’s second solo album “Deep" - it’s the equally spooky and ethereal song “Cuts You Up” from 1989 … it features the skeletal and vampiric Murphy running through a threatening foggy forest in (what else?) his boots and a cape!   The song has a similar feel but this time the goth is much stronger within Pete… there’s all black clothing (including gloves), black leather pants, eye shadow and (of course) howling at a full moon! AOOOOOOWWWW!

In the event that this wasn't goth enough for you, remember to join us next week when we crank our Halloween goth meter up to 13 !   In the meantime, let’s all listen to our New Wave synthpop … All Night Long!