Siouxsie & the Banshees – Peek-A-Boo (1988)
Yes, “Peek-A-Boo” (download) turns 20 this year. You are old, old, so very old. I am too, but I have the slight advantage — I guess — of not having 20 years of memories attached to the song, as I was completely ignorant of Siouxsie and/or her Banshees in ‘88. (On the other hand, I’m at the extreme disadvantage of having been on what was probably my 5,000th listen of Toto’s The Seventh One when this was released.)
You know what I’m going to say next, so I’ll just get it out there: I wasn’t even aware of this song until Beavis started screaming “PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK-a-boo!” in the early ’90s, and studiously avoided the Banshees’ albums for years. Matter of fact, not counting this cassingle’s B-side, “False Face” (download), “Peek-A-Boo” is probably the only Siouxsie song I’ve heard all the way through.
That being said, “Peek-A-Boo” is thoroughly awesome. As a kid, I remember thinking that there was supposed to be something subversive about Siouxsie Sioux — possibly even dangerous — and although I believe I can be forgiven for thinking this (she did, according to Wikipedia, make her stage debut in “a cupless bra, black vinyl stockings and a black armband with a swastika on it”), there’s nothing subversive and/or dangerous about this delicious little slice of pop music.
So let’s just turn it up, shall we? I’ll leave you with a couple of parting fun facts first, however:
1. “Peek-A-Boo” was the inaugural Number One single on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, in September 1988.
2. The entire instrumental bed was backmasked. Holy crap.
PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK-a-boo!
Tags: Jeff Giles, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cassingle Vault
