Thursday, October 4, 2012

Peter Murphy - Cuts You Up

Regular readers of ERV may remember a post about Love and Rockets from July 2012, which mentioned that the band formed after a failed Bauhaus reunion (lead singer Peter Murphy did not show up).  Although Murphy did not attend the rehearsal, he remained active in the music industry, and carved out a solo career as an independent artist.

Curiously, in the aftermath of Love and Rockets big hit ("So Alive"), Peter Murphy has his biggest commercial success.  Perhaps it was karma, or possibly his record label made an extra effort to promote the single, knowing that his former bandmates had just scored a hit.  In any event, "Cuts You Up," from the 1989 album Deep became an unlikely hit -- reaching #1 on the U.S. Modern Rock charts and peaking at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.  [As a fun aside, Deep was released on December 19, 1989, making it one of the last albums of the eighties.]

Deep would go on to peak at #44 on the album charts.  While Murphy had other small successes, and released some critically acclaimed material, "Cuts You Up" was his only charting U.S. single.

In spite of the first failed reunion, Bauhaus would reform several times, starting in 1998, and they actually released a new album in 2008.  However, they do not appear to be together as of this writing.



Total non sequitur, but we have always thought of Peter Murphy as a modern, new wave version of David Bowie.

3 comments:

  1. Love Your Site
    Thanks For The Great Songs
    Post More Often
    -Sam

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  2. Thanks for the kind words, I will do my best on the posting front -- note that mid-October may be tough, but there are a bunch of All Hallow's Even videos coming.

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  3. The David Bowie influence is right on. Bauhaus did a great cover of "Ziggy Stardust." Deep is a fantastic album--start to finish.

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