When “Tainted Love” hit the U.S. charts in 1982, the moody production sounded shockingly new. But the song? It’d waited patiently in the wings for over 15 years. Here's how it all went down.
This post brought me back to my basement in Milwaukee when my brother started to attach “new wave” to my name, Dave at age 12. (It stuck). This was one of the songs that opened the aperture to bigger weirder world…. The whole Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. I’m realizing now that what attracted me was literally the electricity. The new world of the analog synths. I wanted to plug myself into that current…feelings that were just coming online and were being flamboyantly named (Frustration) That and the taboo of songs like Sex Dwarf and Seedy Films. But Tainted Love always felt formed from different, bolder stuff. Thank you for sharing.
If you are planning a series…i guess it wouldn’t be news to people that (I can’t get no) Satisfaction wasn’t penned by DEVO, right?
I agree! It's just that apparently, no one told them that making both sides of the record cover versions meant they earned no royalties on one of the biggest hits, well, ever!
I grew up in the 80s and only realized how avant guarde a lot of the pop music was much later. This is one of those songs that makes me think where did this come from? It was like aliens dropped down to earth and landed on synthesizers.
Right?!? I'm not even a synth person (I'm sometimes described as "synthetic," but I think they mean something else) but everything about it is just so arresting and spare.
Have to tell you I had fun blasting this and dancing around the house in high drama mode after I read this. I was also in DC those years you wrote about, but I was definitely not punk, though I did once go to a Fugazi show in a church basement where I pinned myself to the wall in frozen horror!
This post brought me back to my basement in Milwaukee when my brother started to attach “new wave” to my name, Dave at age 12. (It stuck). This was one of the songs that opened the aperture to bigger weirder world…. The whole Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. I’m realizing now that what attracted me was literally the electricity. The new world of the analog synths. I wanted to plug myself into that current…feelings that were just coming online and were being flamboyantly named (Frustration) That and the taboo of songs like Sex Dwarf and Seedy Films. But Tainted Love always felt formed from different, bolder stuff. Thank you for sharing.
If you are planning a series…i guess it wouldn’t be news to people that (I can’t get no) Satisfaction wasn’t penned by DEVO, right?
Thank you, New Wave Dave! Yes, you can't really separate the sound from the content, can you? Or does the sound BECOME the content?
On the Devo front: https://www.covermesongs.com/2018/07/the-best-rolling-stones-covers-ever.html/6#:~:text=1.%20Devo%20%E2%80%93%20Satisfaction
Great stuff -- thanks for sharing!
Right back at you Jim—thanks for reading!
Bought my first 12" vinyl of "Tainted Love" at Vinyl Fetish on Melrose in 82.
I still have my 12” of it bought at Vinyl Fetish on Melrose.
Great read. I was always shocked the B side was a synth cover of where did our love go
Sadly, so were they. “Biggest mistake of our careers,” according to one source.
Really? It’s a bizarre cover but I think it’s sorta cool
I agree! It's just that apparently, no one told them that making both sides of the record cover versions meant they earned no royalties on one of the biggest hits, well, ever!
I grew up in the 80s and only realized how avant guarde a lot of the pop music was much later. This is one of those songs that makes me think where did this come from? It was like aliens dropped down to earth and landed on synthesizers.
Right?!? I'm not even a synth person (I'm sometimes described as "synthetic," but I think they mean something else) but everything about it is just so arresting and spare.
Have to tell you I had fun blasting this and dancing around the house in high drama mode after I read this. I was also in DC those years you wrote about, but I was definitely not punk, though I did once go to a Fugazi show in a church basement where I pinned myself to the wall in frozen horror!
HA! I know that basement, and can still smell it all these years later....
My possum stance froze all my senses, so unfortunately ( or fortunately!) I don't share the smell of that memory!