2 posts tagged “jack the ripper”
Continuing with my semi-regular Halloween entries, my theme today is that infamous Jack the Ripper.
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JACK THE RIPPER
I'm not morbid, or anything, but I was a bit fascinated with Jack
the Ripper when I bought my first issue of "From Hell", the comic book
by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. It's not so much the story of Jack
the Ripper that interested me - but the appendixes at the end of each
issue!
I would often read a few pages and then instantly flip to the appendix to see why the writer decide to portray certain things. Moore is simply a brilliant storyteller, drawing his own conclusions based on actual details.
Here's an example of the appendix:
CHAPTER FIVE, Pages 28&29
written by Alan Moore
(excerpt)
The details of Polly's murder are a fiction, although pieced together from certain facts. It is my belief that Polly Nicholls was killed by strangulation somewhere quite close to Buck's Row and then carried there physically before the body was mutilated. The fact that Polly was dead before the mutilations started would seem to be borne out of the lack of blood around the body, most of it having seeped into Polly's clothing. Arterial blood from a living body does not seep. It spurts, anything up to six or seven feet. Therefore, given the bruising upon Polly's neck and the sides of her face (see Jack the Ripper, A to Z by Begg, Skinner and Fido), I suggest that she was first killed by strangulation or by the more efficient method employed by [William] Gull here, that of squeezing shut the carotid artery. She was then taken to Buck's Row before the mutilations started, since there was no trail of blood leading into the street and I suggested the encounter with her killer and subsequent strangling could not have happened in Buck's Row without causing more noise....
Anyone interested in reading a fictional story based on factual reports on Jack the Ripper, I highly recommend "From Hell" (First Printing, November 1999). The paperback should set you back $35, but I'm sure you can find it used or new at a discounted price. I own all the original First Printing prestige formatted books as well as a collected version from Top Shelf Productions.
So here are some songs called "Jack the Ripper". I've previously mentioned about the Morrissey version, and in my research, I did find these new songs... one by this band called Casey Jones & The Governors. The the Jones song is actually very fun and I love it.
I found out that the song (as most "Jack the Ripper" songs) is actually originally by horror rocker Screaming Lord Sutch. He's very famous in England, but outside of the UK, he's virtually unknown. The weird thing is that in his live performances, he usually dress up as Jack the Ripper. The creepiest thing was that he committed suicide by hanging in 1999, apparently Lord Sutch suffered from clinical depression.
I got The White Stripes's "Jack the Ripper" Peel Session from devin306, I believe all the Peel Sessions were compiled in a bootleg.
The Horrors also covered "Jack the Ripper" as the intro song on their album Strange House (2007).
Other notable mentions:
- LL Cool J has a song called "Got You (Return of Jack The Ripper)", but unfortunately has nothing to do with the killer, so I've decided to not include the song here.
- Link Wray's 1963 "Jack the Ripper" is a surf-instrumental song. You can find out more information about the artist and song on www.linkwraylegend.com. Also, The Raybeats covered Link Wray's "Jack the Ripper", so essentially it sounds like the same song.
There are loads of Jack the Ripper band names, the most popular one is a from Paris, France.
PS, "From Hell" was eventually adapted for a major motion picture in 2001. The movie failed to capture what was interesting about Jack the Ripper (William Gull's character), but instead concentrated on Inspector Frederick George Abberline (played by Johnny Depp).
I wish the movie would've followed the book more closely, however I can understand that it is a movie and is very different from the book it's based on.
10/29/2007 08:05:34
vu
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wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper
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Audio
Tour 2007
Tour dates courtesy of Morrissey-solo Links
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Being a huge Morrissey/The Smiths fan, people often ask me: "What's your favorite Morrissey song?"
My absolute favorite song is "Jack the Ripper". Casual fans might not be hip to this song, as it's somewhat of a rare song.
So, it's time the tale was told on "Jack the Ripper"! The song originally appeared as a B-Side on his single, Certain People I Know (Dec 1992). Like numerous fans at the time, I was collecting all the formats, CD Single, 12" and 7" (sorry, I never bothered trying to get the cassingle!). I bought the single at a record store in Berkeley, California, called Mod Lang, but I think at the time they only had the CD version.
Obviously, I fell in love with the B-Side. The song is so haunting and I just love these lyrics:
Oh, you look so tired
Mouth, slack and wide
Ill-housed and ill-advised
Your face is as mean
as your life has beenCrash into my arms
I want you.
You don't agree
but you don't refuse
I know you.
So, despite having a massive fan approval of this song, it was very strange that shortly after the single's release (reaching the UK charts at #35), that the single was instantly recalled and deleted. It was taken out of circulation and instantly became a collector's item.
I'm not sure what its value is today, but when I attended a Smiths convention many years ago, there were people willing to pay $100 in cash for the single (I'm sure someone could've swindle more money out of the desperate fans).
Morrissey liked the song enough to release a live version of it as a promotional single, preceeding his Beethoven was Deaf (1993) album. This live version seems also appear in several other compilations and singles including: My Early Burglary Years (1998), Now My Heart Is Full (1994), and World of Morrissey (1995).
Although the live version sounds, er, very muscular, it is missing the last stanza of the studio version:
And no one knows a thing about my life
I can come and go as I please
If I want to I can stay
If I want to I can leave
Nobody knows me
Nobody knows me
It's come to my conclusion that Morrissey simply just hated the studio recording of "Jack the Ripper" and "You've Had Her" (the other b-side off Certain People).
Despite being such a rare song, here are some musicians who's covered this particular song:
AFI is a punk-turned-goth band from California. They were fairly underground before getting some massive mainstream success a few years ago when they changed their sound to more goth-punk. If you listen to their early releases, they don't really sound like anything recently. Although I can't recall off the top of my head, I think they've covered another Smiths song.
My Chemical Romance is kind of a hard-core rock band, based out of New Jersey. I don't really know much about them, as their sound isn't really my cup of tea. I just know that they look like they belong in a Tim Burton film.
Colin Meloy, singer/songewriter of The Decemberists recorded "Jack the Ripper" for his all-Morrissey cover EP (which was only sold on his tour in 2005). This version is acoustic and is the best version of the lot.
It breaks my heart, but I can't afford to see Morrissey on this 2007 tour.
September 2, 2007 1:22 PM
vu
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morrisseymusic.com
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