The Chicago band Secret Colours released a new song today, called “Faust.” It’s the lead track from a 5-song EP which Secret Colours will release on New Year’s Day. You can find “Faust” on MTV Hive here.
“Fall down/Get back up,” it intones. Later, “Original sin/Comes from within.” The music starts with a horse-trot beats, then builds into a swirling psychedelic tumult. For psych revivalists, Secret Colours are admirably controlled. The sounds are as suspenseful and dramatic as a “Faust” opus deserves.
Faust interpreters Secret Colours
New Haven Theater Jerk’s personal Faust fetish should be abundantly obvious to loyal readers. Here are ten other musical manifestations of the soul-selling classic. (There are many more, and there will doubtless be future opportunities to rock Faust further in NHTJ.)
- “Bedazzled,” Bedazzle original motion picture soundtrack. Those who strangely don’t believe that this is one of the funniest films ever made allege that its main fault is its wordiness. That just means that it would be a terrific stage play or musical, right? The title song was composed by Moore, who spreads variations on its melody throughout the film’s entire soundtrack. Cook performs it in the scene where Moore has been transformed into a pop star. The song has been covered by actual pop acts, Bauhaus among them.
- Mephistopheles. Faustus’ temptor got his own opera in 1868, thanks to Arrigo Boito. Hardly ever comes up, especially when compared with Gounod’s Faust.
- Georgia Carr, “You Got It Made.” The theme song from the film version of George Axelrod’s Faust comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a hard-to-find calypso number by Bobby Troup, who also wrote the title song for an earlier film by comedy auteur Frank Tashlin, “The Girl Can’t Help It.” Axelrod’s play has been altered beyond recognition, but Troup’s song is at least in the right exotic spirit.
- “Faust,” Phantom of the Paradise original motion picture soundtrack. Phantom of the Opera is the chief inspiration for Brian DePalma’s Phantom of the Paradise, yes, but the show-within-the-film is a purloined rock musical called Faust, and devilish deals are the main thrust of the plot. William Finley, who co-stars in the film as aggrieved composer Winslow Leach, entered experimental theater legend as the title character in Performance Group’s Dionysus in 69. “Faust” is heard in a heartwrenching solo version, then as gussied up for commercial success. Other numbers include “Never Thought I’d Get to Meet the Devil,” “Old Souls” and “The Hell of It.”
- Damn Yankees, “Goodbye Old Girl.” The song sung while armchair shlub Joe Boyd is transitioning into baseball sensation Joe Hardy. Saw Jerry Lewis as the devil in this musical three times.
- Doremidan, “The Faust.” I have no idea what this heavily made-up Japanese rock group is saying. I expect I’d have trouble even if I knew Japanese. Doremidan is of the “visual kei” genre, which means androgynous glam outfits and elaborate facepaint.
- “Sandman’s Coming,” Randy Newman’s Faust. One of Newman’s best albums. I regret not being able to see the regional try-outs of its stage version, which starred David Garrison in the Devil role assumed by Newman himself on his original concept album. The child-abandonment lament “Sandman’s Coming” later appeared on the debut episode of the much-maligned Steve Bochco musical TV drama Cop Rock.
- Gorillaz, “Faust.” “After a hard day/I need to wake up/After a hard dayAfter a hard day/It’s time to wake up/I need a make-up/After a hard day.”
- Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me.”
- The Fall, “Dktr Faustus.” I’ve noted this song on a NHTJ list before. It’s more genuinely respectful of Christopher Marlowe’s play than a lot of stage productions I’ve seen of it are.
