OCD Chronicles: Siouxsie and the Banshees-"Song From The Edge Of The World"

I hate peer-to-peer file sharing.

Not for the reasons you might imagine and not for any solidarity with the record industry.

I hate peer-to-peer file sharing because I get overwhelmed.

Somebody recently wrote a rather long winded piece on how you can find virtually anything online nowadays, and the article was met with a smug “No shit, Sherlock.” response from readers, including one music site who sarcastically exclaimed that the reviewer just discovered Napster.

My Napster days were filled with shitty bit rates and dial-up internet, neither one conducive to filling out my catalog. Additionally, I didn’t have the awesome IPod to trot around with me, so I used Napster for primarily a listening station for newer music.

But now, thanks in large part to Apple’s invention (that I came to later in the product’s lifespan) I’ve been filling in my catalog with titles that weren’t in my collection or in some cases, sold back to the record store during that time when people did such things to fund their aluminum endeavors.

I’ve also been going through some of my vinyl collection, seeking out gems that I’d long forgotten. Most of it I’ve been able to find, including the additional rarity that side-tracks my searches.

One of these gems-Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Song From The Edge Of The World”-planted a seed deep within my cranium, like that bug they let tunnel into Checkov’s ear in that Star Trek movie. I have the original 12” single and began to question whether it was eventually released on a proper full length.

A quick search of the internets brought a lot of answers and even a few questions regarding the elusive track.

Foremost, that said elusiveness was a direct result of the band themselves, who felt that there wasn’t something “right” about the mix of the song. That confounded me as “Song From The Edge Of The World” was probably my favorite song from the band. Sure, I’ve got strong ties to the album Hyena and there are a lot of other tracks that raise the hair on the back of my neck, but I absolutely adore this cut.

To me, it’s the perfect balance of their goth weirdness with the more commercial direction that they were just beginning to examine in the last half of the 80’s.

Right around the time I was in college.

Siouxsie is positively haunting when she belts “We’ll dance away…When the day…is…done” letting bassist Steven Severin battle out the propulsion of this up-tempo track with drummer Budgie.
Since there is plenty of compilations in the band’s catalog which hold the various singles and popular cuts of their lengthy career, I assumed that “Song From The Edge Of The World” could be found somewhere.

Evidently, that’s not the case.

While there are a few compilations that hold the cut, none of them seem to have the single version that’s been nibbling inside. I learned that my 12” single is worth a pretty penny among Siouxsiephiles and that a passion for this song is shared by many others.

So I sought it out amongst the file sharing community and in no time it was floating through the wires and into my external hard drive.

And to make matters even more interesting, my mp3 copy has the noticeable sounds of vinyl when it plays, making my find sound the same way as it does at home.