Monday, August 29, 2022

The Satanic Voices



Diamanda Galás - I Put a Spell On You


Were you a witness?
Were you a witness?
And on that holy day
And on that bloody day
Were you a witness?
Were you a witness?
And on that holy day
And on that bloody day
And on his dying bed he told me:
Tell all my friends I was fighting, too
But to all the cowards and voyeurs:
There are no more tickets to the funeral
There are no more tickets to the funeral
Were you a witness?
Were you a witness?
And on that holy day
And on that bloody day
There are no more tickets to the funeral
There are no more tickets to the funeral
The funeral is crowded!
Were you a witness?
Were you a witness?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you a witness? Were you a witness?
Were you there when they dragged him to the grave?
Were you there when they dragged him to the grave?
Sometimes it causes me to wonder, wonder, wonder
Were you there when they dragged him to the grave?
And on that holy day
And on that bloody day
Were you a witness?

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you a witness? Were you a witness?
SWING! SWING!
A band of Angels coming after me
Coming for to carry me home
Swing! Swing!
A band of Devils coming after me
For to drag me to the grave
Swing! Swing!
But I will not go
And I shall not go
I will wake up
And I shall walk from this room into the sun
Where the dirty angel doesn't run
Where the dirty angel cannot go
And brothers in this time of pestilence
Do know that we meet we hear another sick man sigh
Each time that we meet we hear another has died
And I see angels angels angels devils
Angels angels devils
Angels angels devils
Coming for to drag me to the grave
Angels!
Mr. Sandman makes a filthy bed for me
But I will not rest
And I shall not rest
As a man who has been blinded by the storm
And waits for angels by the road
While the devil waits for me at night
With knives and lies and smiles
And sings the "swing low sweet chariot"
Of death knells
One by one
Like a sentence of the damned
And one by one
Of my brothers die
Unloved, unsung, unwanted
Die, and faster please
We've got no money for extended visits
Says the sandman
But we who have gone before
Do not rest in peace
Remember me?
Unburied
I am screaming in the bloody furnaces of Hell
And only ask for you
To raise your weary eyes into the sun
Until the sun has set
For we who have gone before
Do not rest in peace
We who have died
Shall never rest in peace
There is no rest until the fighting's done
And I see Angels Angels
Devils
Angels Angels
Angels Angels Devils
Coming for to drag me to the grave
Angels!

Diamanda Galás
The Litanies of Satan/Judgement Day
1985/1992

01 intro
02 There Are No More Tickets to the Funeral (excerpt)
03 Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
04 Let My People Go
05 Judgement Day
06 spoken word
07 Artémis/Cris D'Aveugle (Blind Man's Cry)
08 Insane Asylum
09 Gloomy Sunday
10 I Put a Spell On You
11 Scream of Love (bonus track)
12 outro
13 The Litanies of Satan 

Total time: 1:04:44
Tracks 02-10: Cabaret Metro, Chicago IL USA 4.11.1992
Track 11: MEAT, New York City NY USA 8.15.1992; mixed by Aldo Hernandez
Track 13: I-Beam, San Francisco CA USA 7.29.1985
Tracks 01 & 12 are short vocal interludes of indeterminate origin, possibly created for this video, or extracts of existing pieces

Diamanda Galás - vocals, piano, percussion & electronics

256/48 (Tracks 01-12) & 224/48 (Track 13) audio from 2 digitized, out-of-print & never reissued or DVD'd VHS tapes
Tracks 01-12: "Judgement Day" (Mute Film, 1993)
Track 13: "The Litanies of Satan" (Target Video, 1986)
extracted, converted to 16/44 CD Audio, tracked, slightly denoised and minimally remastered by EN, August 2022
368 MB FLAC/direct link


Born this day in 1955, and The Shriek of the Week ever since, I'm closing out August with the undisputed and righteous queen of Hades, ladies.

That's right, Diamanda Galás -- all-around visionary and noted anti-AIDS crusader way before it was fashionable -- is 67 today, and there are a few tickets left to the birthday party, thanks to some outta print and never DVD'd VHS tapes I spent the week extractifying/fucking with. Scream on into September, I say!--J.