Episode 70: Shakespears Sister’s “Hormonally Yours” (1992)

Summary

Accelerated Culture Podcast: Episode 70 Summary Title: Shakespeare's Sister’s “Hormonally Yours” (1992)
Release Date: July 19, 2025
Hosts: Lori & Scott Free
Podcast Description: As a 2024 Webby Honoree for Best Indie Podcast, Accelerated Culture delves into the often-overlooked facets of music history. This episode explores the seminal album "Hormonally Yours" by Shakespeare's Sister, examining its creation, impact, and the intricate dynamics between its creators.

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1. Introduction

Lori welcomes listeners to Accelerated Culture, setting the stage for a deep dive into Shakespeare's Sister's 1992 album, "Hormonally Yours." Scott shares recent concert experiences, providing a personal touch before transitioning to the episode's main focus.

2. Background of Shakespeare's Sister

[05:33] Lori:
Lori introduces the album "Hormonally Yours" as one of her favorites from 1992, emphasizing its personal significance and the feminist undertones embedded within the music.

[07:00] Scott Free:
Reflecting on past comments, Scott admits that although he didn't expect to be familiar with the band, some songs on the album sounded familiar upon deeper listening.

3. Formation and Evolution of the Band

[09:58] Scott Free:
Scott elaborates on the backgrounds of the band members, highlighting Siobhan Fahey's transition from the pop trio Bananarama to forming Shakespeare's Sister with Marcella Detroit. He discusses Marcella's extensive musical history, including her collaborations with Eric Clapton and Bob Seger.

[10:25] Lori:
Lori shares insights from Dave Stewart's memoir, "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This," detailing the personal lives of band members and their creative collaboration.

4. Creation of "Hormonally Yours"

[16:53] Lori:
The name "Shakespeare's Sister" is dissected, revealing its origins from a Smiths song inspired by Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own." The band’s visual aesthetics and the dichotomy between Siobhan's contralto and Marcella's soprano are discussed, emphasizing their complementary vocal dynamics.

[27:48] Scott Free:
Scott recounts the unique production process, including recording at George Harrison's home, Friar Park, underscoring the band's connections within the music industry.

5. Track-by-Track Analysis

a. Goodbye Cruel World

[36:37] Lori:
The episode delves into the opening track, "Goodbye Cruel World," analyzing its lyrical content and the music video inspired by classic Hollywood films like Sunset Boulevard.
Notable Quote:
"Goodbye, Mr. A." [40:36] – Lori interprets this as possibly referencing a personal relationship, adding depth to the song's narrative.

b. I Don't Care

[46:27] Scott Free:
Scott shares the behind-the-scenes story of writing "I Don't Care," inspired by Edith Sitwell’s poetry, highlighting the song's quirky and upbeat nature despite its darker themes.

c. Are We in Love Yet?

[62:13] Lori:
This track is examined for its funky tribute to 70s funk, with attention to Marcella's exceptional guitar work.
Notable Insight:
Lori relates the song to her personal experience of realizing her vocal range, finding empowerment through the album.

d. Emotional Thing

[66:57] C:
The lyrics and musical composition are explored, noting the contrast between the verses and the chorus, and the song's influence from artists like Eric Clapton.
Notable Quote:
"I don't have to tell you where I'm coming from if I leave my catsuit on." [70:03]

e. Stay

[71:27]
"Stay" is highlighted as the album’s standout single, analyzing its production by Chris Thomas and its success on the UK and US charts. The corresponding music video’s metaphysical themes are discussed.
Notable Quote:
"If this world is wearing and you're thinking of escape I'll go anywhere with you." [71:40]

f. Black Sky

[79:50] C:
Scott and Lori dissect "Black Sky," drawing parallels to the Madchester scene and Marcella's standout guitar performance.
Notable Quote:
"Come on, tune into the night." [81:13]

g. Trouble With Andre

[82:38] C:
The lyrical narrative is explored, interpreting it as a personal roast against a friend named Andre.
Notable Quote:
"The trouble with Andre is he's a liar." [84:18]

h. Moonchild

[85:32] C:
"Moonchild" is analyzed for its ethereal composition and references to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, emphasizing the album's conceptual ties to Catwomen of the Moon.
Notable Quote:
"I looked at the world from another star." [86:18]

i. Catwoman

[90:33] C:
The titular track is dissected for its thematic connection to the B-movie inspiration, with an emphasis on its campy yet profound lyrical content.
Notable Quote:
"Peace for the wicked, no rest for the good." [81:37]

j. Let Me Entertain You

[93:51] C:
Although identified as one of Lori's least favorite tracks due to its lyrical simplicity, the song's musical echoes to artists like Depeche Mode are acknowledged.
Notable Quote:
"Flowers of faith and hope, I stand." [94:22]

k. Hello?

[96:35] C:
The closing track is praised for its haunting and beautiful composition, contrasting with its single version's bombastic production.
Notable Quote:
"Life is a strange thing, just when you think you've learned how to use it, it's gone." [99:29]

6. Band Dynamics and Hiatus

[102:21] Lori:
The conversation shifts to the tensions that arose following the disproportionate success of "Stay." Lori cites an interview from Classic Pop where Marcella Detroit discusses feeling sidelined, leading to communication breakdowns.

[105:56] Scott Free:
Details emerge about the public fallout during the 1993 Ivor Novello Awards, where Siobhan Fahey delivered a contentious acceptance speech, exacerbating the rift between her and Marcella.

[106:14] Lori:
The episode recounts how personal struggles, including Siobhan’s battle with depression, culminated in the band’s hiatus shortly after their peak success.

7. Reunion and Legacy

[108:20]
Lori and Scott discuss the eventual reconciliation between Fahey and Detroit after 26 years, leading to their 2019 reunion tour and the release of a comprehensive box set in 2020.

[109:59] Scott Free:
The hosts highlight Shakespeare's Sister's enduring influence on contemporary artists like Grimes, Sky Ferreira, and Charli XCX, emphasizing the band's pioneering role for female duos in the music industry.

Notable Quote:
"There weren't many other female duos doing the sort of things they were doing." [109:59]

8. Conclusion

Lori and Scott reflect on the emotional and musical journey of "Hormonally Yours," underscoring its personal impact and lasting significance. They tease the next episode, which will explore Stereo MC's album "Connected," promising another rich analysis.

[110:31] Scott Free:
Scott commends the episode's exploration, noting it was uncharted territory but thoroughly enjoyed it.

[111:08] Lori:
Lori expresses gratitude to listeners and encourages them to stay tuned for future episodes.

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Selected Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• [05:59] Scott Free:
  "You know, this is all kind of new to me."

• [13:04] Lori:
  "They really fell for each other."

• [15:25] Lori:
  "I knew I didn't want to be a solo artist."

• [27:48] Lori:
  "It's Shakespeare's sister; it's not the Smith song."

• [33:33] Scott Free:
  "Hormonally yours just made me see that I can sing."

• [42:02] Scott Free:
  "But make no mistake, this was Siobhan and Marcella's band."

• [45:34] Lori:
  "This track feels like a sisterhood of another kind."

• [70:34] Lori:
  "The beauty of this song is haunting."

• [76:08] Scott Free:
  "The band's dynamics started to unravel creatively."

• [102:21] Lori:
  "Having my own manager caused communication problems."

• [105:44] Lori:
  "That shit was not cool at all."

• [110:23] Lori:
  "They were pioneers for female duos in the music industry."

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Final Thoughts

Episode 70 of Accelerated Culture offers an exhaustive exploration of Shakespeare's Sister's "Hormonally Yours," blending historical context, personal anecdotes, and detailed musical analysis. Through Lori and Scott's dynamic hosting and insightful commentary, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the album's creation, its cultural impact, and the personal struggles that shaped the band's trajectory. This episode not only honors the legacy of Shakespeare's Sister but also underscores the enduring influence of their music on subsequent generations of artists.

Transcript

[Scott Free]

Foreign.

[Lori]

Welcome to the Accelerated Culture Podcast. A sonic journey through the vibrant and revolutionary sounds of the 1980s and 1990s. And now 2024 Webby Honoree for best Indie Podcast. I'm Lori, along with my co host, Scott Free. And in this podcast, we explore how new waves stormed the airwaves in the early 80s and gave way for the rise of alternative music in the 90s. Find us on the [e-mail] hello, Accelerated Culture Vultures. Welcome back to the Accelerated Culture Podcast. I'm Lori.

[Scott Free]

I am Scott Free. Accelerated Culture Vultures. I like that.

[Lori]

Oh, thank you. Thank you. I. So, Scott, the last time I talked to you, you were getting ready to go to a few shows.

[Scott Free]

Oh, man.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

I have seen so many things.

[Lori]

Hopefully good things.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah. I mean, but summer in Chicago and so many shows and. Yeah, okay, so what? What do I know? What have I seen? I have seen Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark. Oh, man, that show was so good.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

I've always been a fan since I was a, you know, adolescent. I was expecting maybe hoping for more of the early minimal synth pop that's heavier on synth and lighter on the pop, but I didn't get as much of that as I wanted because, man, you don't realize how many big singles OMD actually had, and they were obligated to play them all. And the crowd was wildly into it. Great show. The very next night, Weird Al at Ravinia. A big outdoor half park, half amphitheater situation with Puddles Pity party as the opener. The sad, tragic clown singing covers beautifully and hilariously. But during the end of Puddles set, the rain began. Oh, it was a hot summer day. The rain was refreshing and Weird Ale comes on. And the rain gets harder and as it goes on, it gets harder and harder till the rain is coming down horizontal and the lightning is striking. And Ravinia is a rain or shine venue. Even the people inside the band shell were getting rained on because the wind was that strong. It was a nightmare.

[Lori]

It sounds like it.

[Scott Free]

Weird Al, great did get to see the last couple tracks of his main set and his encore, which was largely Star wars theme, which tickled me and pleased me on a very fundamental level. But, yeah, that show was a nightmare.

[Lori]

Yeah, I had some friends that had gone, too, and I heard that from a lot of them, and a lot of them brought small toddlers, small children.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Terrible idea.

[Lori]

Yeah. So, well, I mean, you know, Chicago weather.

[Scott Free]

Yep. And since then, have also seen a small local Chicago band in a small local Chicago park, but a Band by the name of Danzer. They're kind of a riot girl thing and boy, they were really working. Great show. Tiny, tiny show, but great. And then most recently at a small electronic dance music festival in a single venue, outdoors all day I Dream was the name of the festival. Lee Buridge, who if you do not know, Lee Burridge. Definitely worth checking out some of his sets. In particular, I would recommend some of the robot heart sets from Burning man, but it was a fun day. And that concludes my concert going experiences. So since last we spoke.

[Lori]

All right, well, what have you been up to? Not that. No, I, I have not seen anything of note. I've just been buried in work stuff and yeah, that, that's, that's a story for another time. But fair enough. I do have a shout out for this episode.

[Scott Free]

Oh yeah? Who you got?

[Lori]

Well, one of my colleagues at the college, my buddy Jeff. Jeff, please pull over the car so that you don't crash like last time when you almost crashed when you heard your name. He likes to listen in the car. So Jeff wrote me yesterday, I love the two podcasts on the Beastie Boys. Yeah, so much information. I didn't know. I loved it. Thank you. And by the way, Ring around the Collar is a real thing and I get it. And I still can't get it cleaned off. Lol. Because they don't sell whisk anymore. Haha.

[Scott Free]

I have concerns for Jeff. Is it?

[Lori]

Yes.

[Scott Free]

And if Jeff cannot drive and listen at the same time, we're all in danger out there. People. Stay off the streets of Chicago. If Jeff has left the house, I.

[Lori]

I, I hope he takes that in the spirit that it was intended. All in good fun. Well, so Scott.

[Scott Free]

Yes?

[Lori]

Since you picked the topic of the past two episodes, we're in 1992, remember?

[Scott Free]

I do remember.

[Lori]

So this week I chose one of my favorite albums from 1992, Shakespeare's Sister. And the name of the album is Hormonally Yours. Now, if I'm not mistaken, where we last left it, you didn't think that you'd ever heard them before, is that correct?

[Scott Free]

I believe that is the case. You will recall I said I remember there being a Trip Shakespeare, I remember there being a Shakespeare's Sister, and that I would be hard pressed to tell you the difference between the two.

[Lori]

Yes.

[Scott Free]

In researching this episode and listening to the album front to back multiple times, I think a couple of the songs sound familiar.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

But having found out who this band is made of. Oh, I'm familiar with their other work, Pre Shakespeare's sister. But yeah, this is all kind of new to me.

[Lori]

Oh, okay. Well, I was fairly certain that when you and I shared an office back in like 2003, 2004, 2005, I was fairly certain that I had played this a number of times, but it probably would have just been in the background, so it might not have been something that you would have, you know, actively picked up on.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, and as I love to say, Daddy drinks. I didn't usually drink at the school, to be clear. No, I think the statute of limitations has pretty well passed on all of that, though. And what can they do? Fire me? That school don't exist no more.

[Lori]

So before I get into a little bit of the history of Shakespeare's Sister and the history of this album, I want to cite some sources. One of the main sources that I'm relying on is Dave Stewart's memoir. You remember Dave Stewart from the Arrhythmics?

[Scott Free]

How could we forget?

[Lori]

How could we forget? So his memoir from 2017, Sweet Dreams Are Made of this, A Life in Music. Very, very interesting book. Very accessible. If you're a fan of Dave Stewart or the Eurythmics, I totally recommend you check it out.

[Scott Free]

When people think of the Eurythmics, you think Annie Lennox, because that voice and that look and you know, she was the front man, front woman, as it were. She was the front person of the band. But Dave Stewart oft overlooked but shouldn't be, like, crafted that sound and a hell of a guitar player and producer. And yeah, he'll come up further in this episode because, yeah, instrumental, pardon the pun.

[Lori]

Ah, I see what you did there.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

Another source is an article called Hormonal the Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Shakespeare's Sister by Imran Khan. This is from April of 2017 in Pop Matters. A third source, Shakespeare's Sister interview by author John Earls in classic pop magazine 2019. And I believe you also had a source from Classic Pop magazine, did you not?

[Scott Free]

Indeed. I will on numerous occasions reference Classic Pop magazine's article from classicpop mag.com Shakespeare's sister history in the making from April 13th of this year, authored just by Classic Pop. There's another article or two, plus the obligatory Wikipedias, but, you know, that's where a lot of my stuff's coming from.

[Lori]

And I do have a number of other sources as well that I will allude to throughout the episode, but those are the big three that I'm really leaning very heavily on. So Shakespeare's Sister really starts with an Irish singer named Siobhan Fahey. Most people know Siobhan Fahey is part of the female pop trio Banana Rama.

[Scott Free]

Of Cruel Summer and Robert De Niro's Waiting and Venus, of course. And Beep Beep. I heard a rumor like, yeah, this was a massive girl pop band of the 80s with an emphasis on the pop. And this album, I was blown away by how little this with that Banana Rama sound.

[Lori]

And interestingly, not just Siobhan, but the other two gals in Banana Rama as well. All three of them really came from a punk background.

[Scott Free]

A bit of a mind blower there, because weren't nothing punk about that sound.

[Lori]

Well, in Dave Stewart's memoir, he mentioned that Siobhan used to sing backup vocals for a punk band called the T Set. And as I was reading that, I'm like, wait a second, I'm friends with a guy that used to be in that band. Yeah. So right before you came Aboard, Scott, episodes 34 and 35, from early 2024, I did a two part interview with Nick Egan. Now, he is known for primarily album cover design, directing music videos. He directed Alanis Morissette. He directed some Duran Duran videos, He directed some INXS videos. So that's the closest I think I can come to rubbing elbows with celebrities is Nick. But it was the middle of the night when I read this and I texted Nick and I'm like, oh, my gosh, is this accurate? Was Siobhan Fahey singing backup for your band? And he wrote me back and said, yes, she sang backup with the other members of Bananarama for the Tea Set, backing up for Iggy Pop. So, hey, there we go, you know, two degrees of separation, right?

[Scott Free]

Pretty cool.

[Lori]

Yeah. Speaking of 80s pop music, here's a fun nugget of trivia that I did not know. Yes, Siobhan's younger sister May. What?

[Scott Free]

I. I know where you're going with this. Please.

[Lori]

Okay. All right. So she played Eileen in the Dixie's Midnight Runner music video. Come On, Eileen in 1982, right? Yeah. The cutie with the overalls.

[Scott Free]

There's a fetching young lass in filthy overalls.

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I thought that was interesting. Anyway, Dave Stewart met Siobhan once because I guess Banana Rama appeared in the music video for the Eurythmic song who's that Girl? He didn't really think much about it, but they reconnected at Bob Geldof's and Paula Yates's wedding. Bob Geldoff is primarily known for organizing Live Aid. He's a knight now.

[Scott Free]

He's Sir Bob, I think of him as the lead singer, songwriter from the Boontown Rats, who went on to organize Live Aid after Band Aid. Do they Know It's Christmas?

[Lori]

And Paula Yates was a British personality, talk show host kind of thing. So once they reconnected at this wedding, they really fell for each other.

[Scott Free]

Dave Stewart and Siobhan.

[Lori]

Dave Stewart and Siobhan, Correct.

[Scott Free]

Yes. Not Bob Geldo.

[Lori]

They fell hard, according to what I read in Dave's memoir. So Siobhan ended up joining the Eurythmics on their tour of Japan. So this would have been late 86, early 87. Dave Stewart wrote, it was a weird time for Siobhan and for us as a couple, as we were just getting to know each other. While in Japan, she discovered she was pregnant and we decided we should get married and stick together.

[Scott Free]

Wow.

[Lori]

Yeah, Parallels to my own life there, but that's another story. So she was about six months pregnant with their son Samuel when they got married in 1987. And also around this time, Siobhan was really becoming discontent with Banana Rama, specifically the pop direction that the producers stock. Aitken Waterman were taking them and stuck.

[Scott Free]

Aiken Waterman was a hit factory who we have talked about a little bit in a couple previous episodes. But, like, this is a pop music factory. And if you are a. Maybe not so young anymore, but young punk, and you want to make music that has any kind of edge to it, this is the place where edges are smoothed over and made glossy and released as a shiny, happy product.

[Lori]

They're best known, I think, for their work with Rick Astley and Kylie Minogue.

[Scott Free]

Yep, that all sounds right.

[Lori]

Yeah. So Siobhan was getting very frustrated. She wanted to get back to her punk roots. As she told John Earls in Classic pop magazine in 2019, I knew I didn't want to be a solo artist. Maybe that was a confidence thing. I really enjoy working as part of a team, but I didn't know what I wanted it to be. I just knew I wanted to call it Shakespeare's Sister.

[Scott Free]

Worth noting several things about that name. First of all, Shakespeare's Sister is the name of a Smith's tune. And at this point in her career, she not only wanted to get punk, she was somewhat melancholy and she was listening to a lot of the Smiths and. And so that's part of where that inspiration came from. Notable also, though, that Shakespeare's Sister, the Smith song, which is sort of this really rousing, upbeat, Western feeling stomp of a song, is actually spelled with William Shakespeare's name. The apostrophe s correct. Whereas you will note in the title of this episode, Accelerated Culture Vultures out there. Um, it's not correctly and I'm making air quotes here spelled apparently when they had a graphic designer designing the logo for the band, it was Shakespeare R E apostrophe S Shakespeare's sister. And the designer messed it up, had no E, had no apostrophe. And Siobhan was like, yeah, that actually makes that our own. So it's not the Smith song. And so she went with it. I feel like that's really flimsy rationalization after the fact, but it works. It's a good name.

[Lori]

Well and then speaking of that Smith's song, the name of the Smiths song was actually taken from A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, Virginia Wolf essay.

[Lori]

Uh huh. About the cultural space denied to womankind. And that's a theme that's going to come up periodically as we get into the track by track. So again she wanted to kind of branch off on her own, but with a partner. She didn't want to do it completely solo. And so her husband Dave suggested that she start working with producer Richard Feldman on her own material.

[Scott Free]

Right.

[Lori]

And Richard Feldman introduced Siobhan to his ex girlfriend, a singer named Marcy Levy. According to Imran Khan in Pop Matters, mainly at first as a background singer and a co writer of songs. After a number of writing and recording sessions, Fahey finally had an album's worth of material. And that material would become the first Shakespeare sister album called Single Sacred Heart. Now you have some information about Marcy Levy.

[Scott Free]

Marcy Levy, this is interesting. She is a little bit older than Siobhan Fahey. Siobhan Fahey was born in 1958. So at the time of the formation of the band, which is I want to say in 1988, at that time Siobhan coming out of Bananarama was 30 years old. Marcella Detroit, six years older, born in 1952, which, you know, that's a big six years and I, I feel like that age difference is particularly highlighted by their musical careers. Pre Shakespeare's sister, as we said, Siobhan from Banana Rama. Marcella Levy is actually pretty well known for her work from the late 1970s. The one that you always hear cited about her is Eric Clapton's Lay Down Sally. The female voice in that one is Marcy Levy. She also co wrote the song. Now I take issue with the fact that that is the song that you always hear cited about Marcy Levy's earlier career. Because Also on that 1977 Eric Clapton album that Lay Down Sally appears Slow Hand is another song called the Core. And the Core is like an 8 and a half minute long jam and Marcy Levy co wrote it and sings throughout it. It's a duet between Clapton and Marcy Levy and it is, for my money, definitely the superior song there. So check that one out. You should. Another Eric Clapton song that Marcy Levy figures prominently into is Wonderful Tonight. So basically, Marcy Detroit of Shakespeare's sister fame in her Marcy Levy of Eric Clapton fame era, basically has performed at like a third of the weddings since 1977. It's like the most popular wedding song ever.

[Lori]

All right. No accounting for taste.

[Scott Free]

And even before that, in the early 70s, Marcy Levy sang with Bob Seeger. She was a backup singer on his 1972 album. And yeah, I bring this up because I am from Detroit and we are legally obligated to expound a little bit on Bob Seeger anytime he is mentioned. So I have done civic duty as a former Detroiter.

[Lori]

You've done Detroit proud.

[Scott Free]

Try to.

[Lori]

Yes, yes. Marcella has such a distinctive voice. I mean, when I mentioned to you Lay Down Sally, you knew immediately who I was talking about.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah. She is a full on soprano and can sing incredibly high notes like a whistle register high. The same kind of notes, maybe not quite as high as your Whitney Houstons and Mariah Carey's can hit where it's so high, it's like, is that a human voice or is that a whistle? Yeah, that is the type of thing that Marcy Levy could pull off.

[Lori]

In contrast, Siobhan is a contralto. She sings in the lower registers.

[Scott Free]

Although in Banana Rama they were all singing kind of in this youthful higher register. But she made a choice when she was going solo to that she was going to take it down, sing lower, go darker. And that's really part of the heart of the Shakespeare sister concept.

[Lori]

And we're going to see a lot of that contrast as we kind of go into this album. The Light in the Dark, the High and the Low, you know, the. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

Oh, the way the voices play off each other in some call and response stuff and particularly in the harmonies is amazing stuff.

[Lori]

Yes. Yeah. Well, good. I'm glad you liked it. So as I mentioned, first album by Shakespeare's sister, Sacred Heart, it was essentially a Siobhan Fahey solo project with Marcella Detroit singing backup vocals and co writing some of the songs. By the time they're ready to record the second album, Marcella was elevated to an equal partner, even though it was Siobhan's name on the record deal, not Marcella's. That's important to note. So it was Siobhan's idea to have Marcy rebrand herself as Marcella Detroit, because she is from Detroit, and to kind of, you know, separate herself from her previous work.

[Scott Free]

And yeah, stepping out of being a backup singer who could write and becoming a partner, a 50% partner in this new venture.

[Lori]

Yes. As a matter of fact, originally the plan was it was just going to be the two of them without musicians, because Marcela can play just about every instrument, as we're going to see when we get to that part. However, they did end up bringing in some other musicians to perform on this. According to Iman Khan in Pop Matters. In true rock and roll fashion, Detroit and Fahey played their respective roles in the band up to the hilt. Each woman embodying a dressed up, glitzed over soubrette of vociferous demeanor. Hormonally yours presented Detroit as a sleek, coiffed art nouveau mistress awakened from her post mortem sleep and Feihi as an unruly and and still dead gothic scapegrace with coiled black tresses and pancaked white makeup, her eyes raccooned with the black of Victorian death. Like their name suggested, it was high Shakespearean drama, a strange detour into a pop music hinterland that owed as much to dramaturgy as it did punk rock. So gone were Siobhan's funky spiked blonde locks. Now she grew it out. Jet black, uber goth. Freaking love it.

[Scott Free]

Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. It's a strikingly different look. And whether I saw this band on MTV back in 1992 or not, I can't say. If I did, there is no way I would have made the connection that Siobhan was the same Siobhan from Banana Rama. Because she was the cute one in Banana Rama, the short one with the short hair and the. She was just adorable. And here she's still cute, but in a gothy, corpsey sort of way and comes off as a kind of unhinged Ophelia character in a lot of the videos. Right.

[Lori]

I like that. Yeah. So I have another quotation and I'm not going to be like overly relying on quotes, but these two authors, Kahn and then the guy I'm about to quote here, just had such a beautiful way of phrasing things. So according to David Bennon of TheQuietus.com In 2022, here was a formidable Sisterhood of another kind. A duo whose entire shtick was was witchery and bitchery, us against each other. They were their own drag impersonators, wickedly histrionic Fahey, the bubblegum Susie Sue. And that is intended as no small compliment. The literal young punk who co founded, then Departed, the premier UK girl group of the 1980s Banana Rama Detroit. The one time Marcy Levy, musical savant, ritzy side woman to Eric Clapton, reinvented as a severe, somber variation on a 1920s star of expressionist cinema. One of those perfectly imperfect yin and yang pairings, each component of which filled the space the other could not, generating endless tension and friction along the border where they rubbed together.

[Scott Free]

I think the bubblegum pop Suzy sue is a really apt way of describing Siobhan's Persona and look in this band. 1920s German expressionist actress for Marcello Detroit. It occurred to me in several of the videos that with the haircut and the cheekbones and the makeup, that heavy, heavy makeup, she looked remarkably like Philip Oakley, the lead male singer of the Human League, who was sporting so much makeup in an androgynous look that. That's not to say that she necessarily looked particularly butch, although a little. But that he looked a little femme. And they kind of meet in that androgynous zone in the middle. That was the early 80s new wave look. And it really works on her.

[Lori]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. With that really kind of severe bob haircut.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Lori]

All right, so then that brings us to the album we're talking about today. Hormonally yours. This album was originally conceived as a concept album based on a 1953 3D sci fi film called Catwomen of the Moon.

[Scott Free]

I mean, that is just a bonkers concept for a concept album, particularly a kind of goth pop album. Like, okay, find your inspiration where you find your inspiration, but damn, that is from left field.

[Lori]

Well, according to Dave Stewart, the idea was to change it into a musical, but replacing certain dialogue with lyrics. Once I secured the rights to the film, Siobhan and Marcy were going to shoot extra vignettes with satirical songs about male female relationships that would be edited seamlessly into the movie. Siobhan was really into this idea, but alas, her record label was not. Not to mention how much money it would have cost them to license the film. At least six of the songs on the album were written with this movie in mind, this Catwomen of the Moon. And according to David Bennen, again, Marcella Detroit said they were bold, they were daring, unapologetic, about who they were, meaning the Catwomen. So I can see why this, this would have appealed. So the album was recorded in George Harrison's home, Friar park in Henley on Thames, England. They actually did a house swap with George Harrison. They stayed at Friar park while George stayed at Dave and Siobhan's home in Encino.

[Scott Free]

Unbelievable. Yes. It pays to be a big time rock star.

[Lori]

Right? Well, if you look at the liner notes, Scott, it says, shakespeare's sister would like to thank George, Olivia, Donnie and Rachel for putting up with us for a month. That's George Harrison and his family.

[Scott Free]

So from the classic pop article that I will be referencing from time to time, for production, the pair turned to Alan Mulder, then best known for his work with Shoegazing Doyens, Ride and My Bloody Valentine. He was a good friend, says Siobhan. I wanted to work with someone who would be sonically great, but who'd be supportive of my ideas. I also loved that he loved to experiment. He'd move microphones into all sorts of different places, down toilet bowls, you name it. He was a great fit, confirms Marcela. He was fantastic at creating rock and roll sounds and great at guitar sounds. He'd have all these off the wall ideas that somehow worked, like making up tiny amps and making them huge. So neat that they got not just a straight pop producer, but somebody who is willing to get weird with it.

[Lori]

Yes. He produced all but two tracks on the album. There were two tracks that were produced by somebody else that I'm going to mention.

[Scott Free]

I can't imagine who it will be.

[Lori]

It's a surprise. In looking at the liner notes, you can see who the personnel are on the album. Siobhan Fahey on vocals.

[Scott Free]

Yep.

[Lori]

Marcella Detroit on harmonica, vocals, guitar and programming. Jennifer Maidman on bass and additional keyboards. Now, Jennifer was credited as Ian Maidman.

[Scott Free]

Okay.

[Lori]

But Ian is now Jennifer.

[Scott Free]

Do your thing, Jennifer.

[Lori]

Yes. And Steve Ferreira on drums and additional keyboards. Ed Shamer on keyboards and Jonathan Perkins on additional keyboards. And. And then there's one other track where we have another guitarist and I'll mention that when we get there in the liner notes. It also says, finally, Shakespeare's sister would like to welcome Maxwell and Django, without whom this album would have no title.

[Scott Free]

Ah, okay. Yes. I will tell you, you introduced the album to me hormonally yours. I don't know if it's just the adolescent boy in health class in junior high or what, but that album title just made me go, ew, I don't love that. So why would you name the album that? And as it turns out, there's a pretty good reason.

[Lori]

Yes, this is from an article and the title will kind of give it away. An article from Entertainment Weekly magazine, September 25, 1992. Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey each conceive while recording Hormonally Yours. That's the headline by Melissa W. Rollins. So she explained that about halfway through recording of the album, Marcella Detroit announced that she was pregnant. That inspired Siobhan. Siobhan decided that then the time was right for her and Dave Stewart to have another child. And so then that was their second child, Django. Back to that, John Earl's article in Classic Pop magazine. And I'm going to quote this one directly. The album's title reflects Detroit's discovery of a pregnancy created hormone called Relaxin. Quote that does what it says. So I found I was able to take in more of life with less of a problem. I wish they bottled it so I could take it every day. Now I do not remember at any point in my pregnancy feeling anything that you would call relaxin. It was absolutely the opposite experience. But apparently that's what inspired them to name the album Hormonally Yours.

[Scott Free]

Huh. I gotta go get me pregnant.

[Lori]

Okay, report back and let us know how that goes.

[Scott Free]

We'll let you know.

[Lori]

So the album cover was designed by Lawrence Dunmore, and the album's photography was done by a French fashion photographer named Jean Baptiste Modino, who's perhaps best well known for directing the Don Henley video Boys of Summer, which won Video of the Year, Best Direction, Best Art Direction and Best cinematography at the 1985 MTV Music Video Awards.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, that makes some kind of sense. Both really striking black and white images.

[Lori]

Well, he also directed a number of Madonna's videos. The one that comes to mind immediately is Open youn Heart.

[Scott Free]

That checks out.

[Lori]

Yeah. So that's primarily what he's known for. The album was released by London Records on February 17, 1992. It's their best selling album to date. It peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 103 on the UK Albums Chart. The album spawned five singles, three of which reached the UK top 20.

[Scott Free]

Not to quibble, but when you say this is Shakespeare Sisters best selling album to date, that is. Out of how many albums?

[Lori]

Four. Four studio albums and a few compilations.

[Scott Free]

Really? When did the fourth one come out? Interesting.

[Lori]

All right, so this album is a really, really important album to me. It came into my life at such an important time. Early 92. I had moved out, was living on my own, trying to find myself, trying to find a new career path and an identity for myself as 18 year olds often do. And there was so much in this album that just spoke to me on such a personal level. It's. You could argue that it's feminist, but not in the way that we usually think of feminism. It's empowering, but not in the way that we usually think of female empowerment.

[Scott Free]

No, it's hardly dogmatic, but it does embrace feminine. But it is not overtly political most of the time.

[Lori]

Exactly. So, I mean, this album is another album that has never left my rotation. I still find myself listening to it every few months, all these years later. It was really, for me, very formative. And I'll talk about that too, when we get to some of the songs.

[Scott Free]

I mean, this album came to me also at a very important time in my life, which is right at the end of the last episode of this podcast.

[Lori]

Well, you introduced me to the Beastie Boys and so I'm returning the favor. So, Scott, I guess that brings us to the track by track.

[Scott Free]

Let's do this thing.

[Lori]

All right, so track one heck of an opener for the album. This is called Goodbye Cruel World.

[C]

She can see all the house lights fading and the ground beneath her feet is shaking. She's singing by by A. Never going to see my face again. You left me outside in the rain. So bye bye Mr. A.

[Lori]

So bye bye Mr. A. I hear.

[Scott Free]

That one and I'm just racking my brain. What song does that? What does that remind me of? It's like so much some like something, but it's just tugging at my brain and I can't make the connection.

[Lori]

Yeah, I got nothing.

[Scott Free]

I don't know either. But your point about goodbye Mr. A. Yeah. So we talked a little bit in the intro and the about this album, how the album was initially a concept album, an homage to Catwoman of the Moon, and that a lot of the tracks on the album are specifically referencing that weird B movie.

[Lori]

Right.

[Scott Free]

This one, the opener, Goodbye Cruel World is one of them. It explicitly is not. I have a quote from the classic pop article that I will continue to reference mercilessly that I think does a good job introducing this. This is Marcela Detroit talking that was also inspired by the movies, but classic Hollywood films like Sunset Boulevard and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Siobhan came up with the lyric. I think some of it was her angst that she was having with the label at the time. The chorus goes Bye bye Mr. A. And that was the head of the label at the time who was, you know, actually always very supportive. But, you know, as artists, we sometimes take it upon ourselves to use our music to tell people how we're feeling.

[Lori]

You know, one of the things that I absolutely love is Marcella's and Siobhan's voices play so beautifully off of each other. This is such a great opening track because this really gives you an idea of what you're in for. The lyrics of the chorus, she's singing, bye bye, my old friend. You're never going to see my face again. You left me outside in the rain. So bye bye, Mr. A. So, you know, I'm thinking, whoever this guy was, maybe it's somebody that she had a relationship with and he ditched her, right. Left me outside in the rain. Maybe they were supposed to meet up and he never showed up. And I've been there. But then the very last verse. I guess it's not the last verse. I guess it's the next to last verse. Anyway, just when you think she's wearing thin, she's walking out with the biggest man that you've ever seen. And then a little later in the song, what a diamond boy looks like you missed must have left you feeling so sick and twisted. So she's moved on. She's going out with this super tall guy. She's got a big diamond on her finger and she is happy. And Mr. A, you up.

[Scott Free]

The title is Goodbye Cruel World.

[Lori]

I don't know, maybe that's the whole goth thing. I mean, if you called it Goodbye Mr. A, I don't know, probably wouldn't have the same appeal. Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Free]

Impact. Yeah. It's also, yeah, this is a great introduction to both their voices and in particularly Siobhan's voice. You know, it's got elements of Susie, but like the song is boppier than that. Right. And it's got darkness, but through a cheery smile, if that makes any sense.

[Lori]

Yes.

[Scott Free]

The music video for Goodbye Cruel World really explicitly references Sunset Boulevard and whatever happened to Baby Jane. Like, they are great singers, maybe not the best actresses, but they were also going for over the top and campy. So who. Who can say yes?

[Lori]

And the video that you're mentioning was directed by Sophie Muller.

[Scott Free]

I'll say that's true.

[Lori]

Okay, anyway, anyway, so the song was co written by Siobhan Fahey, Steve Ferreira, who I mentioned is the drummer, and somebody named Jean Guillot. And I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know until recently who Jean Guillot was. And I know, you know, I have a feeling. Yeah, yeah. Jean Guillot is a pseudonym that Dave Stewart uses when he writes songs with other people.

[Scott Free]

Right. And I think it is so tempting for the music press, especially when they see well known male artist slash producer involved in a project like this, to try to say that he had a stronger hand on the tiller than he actually did. Yeah. He gets a co writing credit. But make no mistake, this was Siobhan and Marcella's band. And he was, you know, he was a helping hand, he was an influence, but he wasn't like a major songwriting force.

[Lori]

Right, right. You're absolutely correct. I don't want to leave our listeners with the impression that this is a Dave Stewart joint with, you know, Marcella and Siobhan kind of being the front women.

[Scott Free]

But that's why he took that pseudonym that has no relation to his actual name. And, you know, a little later in the album, there will be one track where it's like, oh, you can. You can see Dave Stewart's fingerprints on this one, but it ain't this one.

[Lori]

Yeah. You know, again, that's a really important point. And I think Dave Stewart was great in that he encouraged Siobhan to explore her own interests, to go off on her own, find her own sound. And I think that, you know, he had some influence as far as the original idea with Catwomen of the Moon.

[Scott Free]

But I took that concept and ran with it.

[Lori]

Right, right, right.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

Incidentally, this song has Michael Cozy on guitar. It's the only track on the album that he played on. And this is one of two singles on the album that was produced by Chris Thomas. Now, Chris Thomas is really, really well known in the music world.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Incredibly deep rock production experience.

[Lori]

Yes. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking In Excess, because he did a lot of work with In Excess, but his catalog is so much more detailed than that, I would say, rather than me listing off all the bands he's worked with. Go look him up on Wikipedia, you guys. Chris Thomas, look him up.

[Scott Free]

You can do your homework. Culture vultures the hell out of him.

[Lori]

Okay. All right. So this was the lead single off of the album. It was released a little before the album itself. September 23rd of 91, like five months.

[Scott Free]

Ahead of the LP. Like, that's a good lead time.

[Lori]

Initially, the song didn't have much commercial impact. It only reached number 59 on the UK singles chart. It didn't chart here. Once the album became successful in 92, they remixed it slightly and released it again as a single in July of 92. And. And that time it reached number 32 on the UK singles chart.

[Scott Free]

The first. You don't succeed.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

Last bit on that video. As I said, the video definitely inspired by Sunset Boulevard, including an. Okay, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up moment. And the two of them, this is like my first introduction to them visually and personality wise. And I was definitely getting Wendy and Lisa vibes.

[Lori]

Yeah, I could totally see it.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

You know, and I guess that brings us to something that I was going to mention at some point. I wasn't sure when. This album is really what I would consider queer friendly.

[Scott Free]

Sure.

[Lori]

And Wendy and Lisa obviously, you know.

[Scott Free]

Were very queer friendly.

[Lori]

Yes, yes. So, yeah, I totally pick up on that vibe, too. And I think maybe that's one of the reasons why this album appealed to me so much.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Again, like, Marcella's got this androgyny. There's a feminist, but there's also a butchiness to it that, you know, she's like the tall, statuesque, stern one. And Siobhan's got this girly, chaotic thing to her. It's. It's a fun vibe, but there also is a what is the nature of their relationship thing that I think they very intentionally play with.

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah. And I love it. I love it.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, it's great.

[Lori]

All right, well, what's next?

[Scott Free]

What is next is the second track, I don't Care.

[C]

Something they won't let me repeat. We hurt the ones we love the most. It's a subtle form of compliment. I don't care if you talk about.

[Lori]

Me all right, so how's that for empowerment? Whenever I fall I land on my feet this was my anthem in 92.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Scott Free]

It's such a strange track, especially coming out of that first track. Like, just the style of the music itself. It's that super upbeat, kind of swinging, peppy beat thing. It's got. They got going. And it came from, as I was reading, an unexpected source. I mean, it makes sense, but it's. Check this out again from classic pop. The most immediate track on the album was I Don't Care, which was the duo's take on the Cures over I Cannot Speak French as always, so we're just gonna go with it. Of slinky alt pop, Joan says it was inspired by tracks of theirs like the Love Cats. The verse and chorus both came very quickly, but then we were stuck for a middle eight in the studio. I picked up this book of poetry which just happened to be lying around. I saw the words to this poem, Edith Stillwell's hornpipe, and just started wrapping them, and it fit just perfectly. Everyone just said, yes, that's brilliant. It was. What do you call it? Kismet. Like, she's getting very into the Cure. Right. But of all the Cure tracks, where you're like, we're going to represent the Cure in this is to go with the Love Cats, which is such an outlier in their catalog. Like, yeah, it's a strange take. It's fun again, peppy and bouncy and swinging. But none of those are words you think of when you say the Cure. Another track from just a few years earlier that it really reminded me of is the. Thus the Beaten Generation. Oh, right. You can kind of feel that I.

[Lori]

Never would have made that connection.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, of course I would say that, because I am wearing a. The shirt as we speak.

[Lori]

Just for the occasion. Right.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Anyhow, go on. What do you got?

[Lori]

Okay, well, I'm going to come back to the Dame Edith Sitwell poem in a second, please. But what we were talking about just a few minutes ago, about being queer, friendly and maybe this kind of ambiguous sexuality or androgyny.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

Right after the snippet of the song I played. So this wasn't in the snippet. Mark the spot you hate with an X and shoot your bow and arrow do your worst, get it all off your chest I'll hold my breath and swallow Tell me that that's not kind of. It's got a double meaning. Don't you think? Don't you think?

[Scott Free]

No, no, no. And I. I think double is maybe even being generous. Like a buddy of mine likes to say, I am the king of the single.

[Lori]

Okay, but. Yeah, so that spoken word part at the end, I'm going to read the part of the poem. But like a little bit of a warning here, since this is from 1922, there is a word that is offensive to 2025 sensibilities. Queen Victoria, sitting shocked upon a rocking horse of a wave, said to the laureate, this mix, of course, is sharp as any link's and blacker deeper than the drinks, and quite as hot as any Hottentot without remorse for the minx, said she. And the drinks, you can see, are hot as any Hottentot and not the goods for me. And so apparently the poem attempts to capture the flow of an old sailor's jig.

[Scott Free]

What was the objectionable word?

[Lori]

Hottentot. Hell, I. Hottentot is it's considered a racist term now. It's referring to a tribe of South African natives called the Khoikhoi.

[Scott Free]

Oh, interesting.

[Lori]

Yeah. So you know that scene in Mary Poppins where the chimney sweeps, they're all covered in chimney coal dust. And the captains. Oh, it's the Hottentots.

[Scott Free]

There comes a point when your racist terminology gets so hyper specific that it's not even offensive anymore because no one knows what the hell you're talking about.

[Lori]

So this single was released on May 4, 1992. It was actually the third single from the album. It charted in the US Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at number 55. It also reached number seven on the UK singles chart. Like several of Shakespeare Sisters previous singles, it was heavily remixed for its release as a single, including re recorded vocals and added instrumentals.

[Scott Free]

So as I Don't Care was a single. The third single, as you mentioned, it also had a music video. Actually, a lot of songs on this album have music videos. And this one is a particularly fun one where the two ladies are kind of going at each other's throats. When you say, you know, the relationship between them is intentionally ambiguous or changes. Yeah. This particular track, they are kind of going at each other's throats. They're brandishing knives, slipping poison into one another over dinner. It's campy, fun, and with these really. It's beautifully shot, really rich colors. Like, the video is a lot of fun and like there's this Horton section that comes in which I did not see coming. But like. Yeah, it is a rousing version of the song that is different than the album version, but it's. It's a blast.

[Lori]

And the video was directed again by Sophie Muller and we mentioned she directed the previous track.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

You know what the video reminds me of? And I realize this is really kind of reaching back into the past. Do you remember the music video for. Or the Flame by Arcadia?

[Scott Free]

Of course. Adia, the Grand Ran side project.

[Lori]

Right, right. With Nick Rhodes. It's like it's not really clear. Is he trying to kill Simon or is he trying to help Simon and somebody else was trying to kill him where there's all these. All these situations where, you know, somebody's shooting poison darts at him and that. That's what that reminded me of. I don't know.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

So, yeah. And then as you mentioned, the video version, the single version, the ending is very different. Those horns that you mentioned are not on the LP version. And actually the LP version, I swear, and I could not verify this, but I swear the very last line where it's kind of a little garbled, a little bit buried below the mix. I know we're going to see you there in the graveyard. I swear that's what it sounds like they're singing.

[Scott Free]

I'm willing to believe you because I'm willing to bet that you did a lot of headphone listening to this album.

[Lori]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So, listeners, if I'm wrong, feel free to write in and correct me.

[Scott Free]

Well, if you turn out to be wrong, perhaps you. You will have to issue some sort of apology.

[Lori]

In fact, my. That was good. In fact, my 16th apology, factoring.

[C]

I don't know where I get it from. It must run in my family. Do I have to go down on my name? This is my 16th apology to you with friends like me.

[Scott Free]

Okay, so first reactions from the new to this guy. Siobhan's voice, deep and a little bit growly at times. And Marcella's soprano warble like, this is the Shakespeare's sister formula. Like, this is the quintessential Shakespeare's sister song, at least vocally. Right?

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

That said, this is like a straight up pop song. If Siobhan was going for a project that embraced her in inner darkness musically, I mean, this one's kind of sunny, but the darkness comes in the lyrics, right?

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah. Now, is that a vibraphone that I'm hearing?

[Scott Free]

Well, I think that is just a straight up xylophone.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

It's the wooden bars on the malleted instrument. On the note of this being of a straight up pop song and you mentioning the xylophone, I'm going to go ahead and say that years later, Kylie Minogue, or maybe Kylie Minogue's producer, heard and really dug this track because there's this.

[Lori]

La, la, la.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah, right. And then the xylophone, like, that's really similar to what will happen years later with can't get you out of my head. Right?

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah. And I like that song.

[Scott Free]

Oh, I'm so good. And the video's amazing. But we're not talking about that right now. We're talking about this.

[Lori]

Again. So relatable, especially for me, because I feel like I'm always messing up really bad. Right. Things were going pretty well till I died on that sunny afternoon when you broke down before my eyes I got a streak of meanness A clumsy way of speaking and I don't know where I get it from. It must run in my family. And, Scott, you've known me long enough. And we fought. We have fought. And so you know that, that, that's me, right? I mean, when I fuck up, I fuck up bad.

[Scott Free]

Really go for it.

[Lori]

Yeah, I really, really do. I mean, we're talking like scorched earth, right?

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I, I have, I have not been on the seething end of that, but I've seen it and it's nothing you want.

[Lori]

Well, I. Then you're not Remembering one or two conflicts we had about 20 years ago, but that's okay, I don't need to remind you of those.

[Scott Free]

But Mary's going to knock them out.

[Lori]

Yeah, but they were that traumatic. I could see it. The second verse though, again, little 18 year old baby Lori. I got a river inside the size of my rage which is really something else when you think of my tender age. Oh my God, I love that. I love those lines. That was so relatable to me. And then, you know, the outro. Didn't your mother ever tell you, to err is human, to forgive is divine. Oh, well, I'll see you in the next life. And I've actually used that line, not realizing, you know, that you're quoting. Yeah, well, a certain former co host. Yeah, I think that was one of the last things I said is I'll see you in the next life.

[Scott Free]

Wow.

[Lori]

So going back to that quote that I did earlier in the episode from David bennon of the quietest.com, where he said, here was a formidable sisterhood of another kind, a duo whose entire shtick was witchery and bitchery, us against each other. And in these two songs that we've just heard, I Don't Care, followed by my 16th apology, there really is that kind of conflict, that tension between the two women. And that for me was something that was very refreshing because, you know, I was always taught, oh, well, you know, ladies don't speak up, they don't rock the boat, they don't fight with each other. And the fact of the matter is we do.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, you were taught that because I was going to say maybe you were told that, but I don't know that you learned that.

[Lori]

Or maybe I unlearned it. I don't know.

[Scott Free]

All right, fair enough.

[Lori]

You're probably right. This song was released as the fifth and final single off the album on February 15th of 93. Now, it did not go very far because there really wasn't any promotion at that point. The girls were on hiatus, which we'll talk about when we get to the end of the episode.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, they were on hiatus and they were not making appearances to promote the single.

[Lori]

I do I love this song, though. It's a, it's a good one. Anything else?

[Scott Free]

Yeah, soft and sunny as far as music goes with the darker lyrics. But again, this is alternative in name only, I think. But just it fits into the album. I, I, I'm not making a point. Forget it. Ignore me. Okay. All right, that brings us to the fourth track. Are we in love yet?

[Lori]

Get it?

[C]

It's just another day in this crazy place well, don't you ever feel like you're losing the vacancy? Don't you know.

[Scott Free]

So yeah. The ladies bringing the funk, right?

[Lori]

Oh, yeah. Straight up funk song.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. From what I've read, they were trying to channel Sly and the Family Stone in this one. And just a tribute to 70s funk in general. And I can definitely hear that, like in the arrangement, obviously, that Wawa rhythm guitar and the sort of tubular, screaming lead guitar and the keyboards, that, you know, funky keyboard line for sure. But it's like Sly in the Family Stone by way of prints. And I'm feeling like Alphabet street specifically.

[Lori]

You know, I'm sure there was a lot of cross pollination there. It's Marcella Detroit on the guitar, by the way. I love her guitar work on this one. Freaking fantastic. And, you know, I'm not really entirely sure what they're singing about, but. Are we in love yet? Don't you know that that's what it's all about? Again, that's something I just find so relatable because I went through a phase where I think I was more in love with the idea of being in love. You know what I mean? Yeah. Rather than like the actual person. I don't know if that makes any sense or not.

[Scott Free]

Been there.

[Lori]

Yeah, I like it, you know, it's, it's fun. Then, you know, the other thing that I will mention, because we don't have a whole lot on this song, I don't think. One of the other reasons that this album, I think, is so important to me is I like to sing. I am a karaoke addict. I love singing. But for a long time I had teachers who tried to tell me I was tone deaf sounds. Well, whenever we were in music class in school and stuff like that, they always had us singing in this really high soprano range.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah.

[Lori]

It wasn't until I heard Siobhan's voice on some of these songs like this one, and realized that's the problem, that I was being forced to sing way out of my vocal range. I can do a contralto. I can do most of the notes now. There's one song that she gets even lower that I can't do. But I can hit those notes that she hit. So this was the album that really kind of helped me see that I can sing maybe, maybe not fantastically, but you know that I'm definitely not tone deaf. And I have very fond memories of the best friend that I mentioned that she was really into Blur.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

And we used to drive around listening to Blur. Well, this was the other album that we listened to all the time. And she had the most gorgeous soprano voice. So we would literally be driving around. She would do Marcella's parts, I would do Siobhan's parts. And it just. It felt right, you know, brilliant.

[Scott Free]

The point about being forced to sing outside of your range, very relatable. I was in musical theater in high school and the couple different productions junior and senior year in which I was given a solo part. One of them definitely made for a tenor. And my voice is deeper than that. It can't hit those high notes, but there I am up on stage in front of a crowd of hundreds, being forced to attempt to hit those notes. Brutal. Painful.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

And yeah, nowadays, lead singer of a couple bands, as I've mentioned. Oh, I can just do a crappy falsetto. And that's rock and roll, baby. But it doesn't fly in musical theater. Anyway, this is another track that they produced a music video for. This is four for four. Four of the first four songs on the album have music videos. Although I will say that this one feels a little bit phoned in. It is the two ladies miming in front of a pretty simple photo backdrop with a static camera. It's very simple, but, you know, fun to see them having fun with it.

[Lori]

You know, it's funny because I wasn't even aware there was a music video for this one. So as you were speaking, I actually pulled it up. Yeah, I've never seen this video before.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I don't imagine it went real far on the music video channels because the production values little lower than they tended to go for at the time.

[Lori]

Well, and this also wasn't a single.

[Scott Free]

Well, there you go.

[Lori]

Yeah. So, okay. Well, Scott, that brings us to track five. Another one of my favorites. This one is called Emotional Thing.

[C]

I seen the world from a first class seat. I've read the bitch and you love scenes. I've tried religion and philosophy. I walked upon the sea now the air is getting thin? You make my senses start to spin? It's just a suicide But I can resist an emotional thing. An emotional thing Emotional thing.

[Lori]

So you can see why I like that one.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. You know, it opens with these pizzicato strings. I'm pretty sure they're synths, but, you know, string sounds. And I dig the bells that are in the drum rhythm track. And then like a harmonica comes in.

[Lori]

Yeah, that's. That's Marcella.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, that's Marcella, all right. And their harmonies, even in the semi speak singing part. Again, these harmonies are why this band exists. The interplay of these two very different voices works so well. But, like the overall sound, this driving beat, that harmonica, a little bit of a rocker. And it reminds me of another pop song from previous decade. And it sounds quite a bit fit, like Missionary man by the Arithmics. And who was half of Eurythmics?

[Lori]

Yeah, Dave Stewart. That's another one I do at karaoke.

[Scott Free]

Nice. He is not credited as a songwriter on this one, but he was around. His influence was there, perhaps. I feel like, you know, they're doing their own thing, but I'm going to say influence seeps in.

[Lori]

Okay. I feel like it now. The thing I find fascinating about this one is the way the tone shifts when they get to the chorus. Emotional thing and emotional thing. It suddenly becomes like this kind of banging up tempo. I mean, I guess the tempo doesn't really change, but it. The. The tone shifts, it's brighter, it's. Whereas the. The verses, I think, are kind of atmospheric and a little darker.

[Scott Free]

I could see that.

[Lori]

Okay, so there's a line. I don't have to tell you where I'm coming from if I leave my catsuit on. You know, I mentioned my best friend and I driving around singing this and listening to this. We had actually, right before this album came out, we had gone shopping and we were shopping at Contempo Casuals, which was like the cool place. And we had both just bought black catsuits. So when we saw that, we're like, yeah, I don't have to tell you where I'm coming from if I leave my catsuit on.

[Scott Free]

Hilarious.

[Lori]

Yeah. Yeah. I was a weird, weird teenager. We notice here at the end of this song. And this is not in the part that I played for the listeners, but similar to the end of I Don't Care, the end of this one has Siobhan reciting. I'm going to call it poetry. I could not actually find where this is from. So this might actually be something that she and Marcela wrote.

[Scott Free]

All right.

[Lori]

But it's interesting. And the sky sucked me up into its geography and it smelled Sweet. Over and over we rolled down the Matterhorn of Excess into the daffodils by the Black Swan in that ugly dress I was dreaming of you and you were dreaming of success Again, I have absolutely no idea if that's from something, but the visual that. That invokes. You know what I mean?

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

Down the Matterhorn of excess into the daffodils by the Black Swan in that ugly dress Love it, love it, love it, love it.

[Scott Free]

Well, the next song is a big one. It is track six, Stay.

[C]

If this world is wearing and you're thinking of escape I'll go anywhere with.

[Lori]

You.

[C]

Just wrap me up in chains but if you try to go all alone don't think I'll understand Stay with.

[Lori]

Me.

[Scott Free]

Oh, man. You cut it off before the drop.

[Lori]

I know, but I can only do so many seconds of the song. There's no way. Oh, I got it. Yeah, but, oh, my gosh.

[Scott Free]

This was the second single from Hormonal Yours. It was released on January 13th of 1992. So again, full months before the actual album came out. But I said, this is a big one. This is a monster hit on this album by anyone's standards. It was a number one UK single on the UK singles chart for a whopping eight weeks. It made it to number four on the US Hot 100 chart, also on Canada's equivalent chart. This was a big track. I had to have heard this. Whatever you gonna do, I've heard it now and it is a great song.

[Lori]

I still remember the first time I heard this. This was the first time I'd ever heard of Shakespeare's sister switching channels one night at like 2 in the morning and I came across this video. I'm just like, oh, my gosh. What was. What is this? I was is completely entranced. It was another video directed by Sophie Muller. The concept of the video was primarily inspired by that film Catwoman of the Moon. We are the videos. Marcella, Detroit and Siobhan fighting over a man who I guess is in a coma.

[Scott Free]

A lifeless man.

[Lori]

Yeah, right, right. Like they're fighting over his soul. I guess I took from it that Siobhan wants to take him into the afterlife.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. It opens with Myrcela, sweet and sad, singing her sweet soprano to this lifeless lover who she's holding in her arms as he's lying on a slab. And then with the bridge, all hell breaks loose. Kind of literally at the bridge with. When Siobhan, dressed in this slinky black, sparkly sequiny dress, who you kind of get is not necessarily of this world. Angel of Death type figure comes down to try to tear him out of Myrcella's arms. And, yeah, it's. It's a fight and it's a. It's a metaphysical fight. But, yeah, a really sexy metaphysical fight it is.

[Lori]

And it's. Oh, even just thinking about it right now gives me goosebumps. Siobhan actually described that look of hers as unhinged Victorian heroine meets Suzi Quatro meets Labelle.

[Scott Free]

Perfect.

[Lori]

The part where Siobhan comes down the stairs was apparently inspired by a film called A Matter of Life and death from 1946. All right, now, this is pretty much their biggest hit. People who know Shakespeare's Sister, if you mention Shakespeare's Sister, that's the first song that comes to mind. And it's the only Shakespeare's Sister song where Marcella Detroit is singing lead.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, it's the weird song for this band in that it's the only one Marcella sings lead on. And that it became the monster hit for them. Eclipsing all the others introduced an element of tension into the band that would have repercussions.

[Lori]

Yes. And Siobhan was against releasing this song as a single, not because of Marcella doing the lead vocal, but because she felt it wasn't representative of the band's sound.

[Scott Free]

Right.

[Lori]

That, you know, it would be misleading, I guess. According to Dave Stewart. He says the song was conceived in 10 minutes.

[Scott Free]

This one's actually just from the Wikipedia. No shame in using the Wikipedia once in a while. So Stuart conceived of the idea of the cat women singing about an earthling that they had fallen in love with. And the ladies took that concept and ran with it. As you said, they banged out the song in mere minutes. They went. The ladies went by themselves and recorded a simple eight track demo of it. And they took it to Stuart and Fahey's house where producer Chris Thomas was, as he had been working with Stuart there. And he listened to the track and his response to it was number one smash. To which the girls were like, really? And, yeah, as it turns out, really, it was a monster hit.

[Lori]

Yeah. So Dave Stewart wrote in his memoir of what you just said, Chris Thomas was staying at our house. And when he heard the demo of Stay, he thought it was great and agreed to produce it. That was actually really crucial. The song was produced by both Alan Mulder and Chris Thomas. They brought Chris Thomas in to produce the final remix because they felt the song wasn't working. There's also a synth arrangement that's really noticeable in the chorus by Jennifer Maidman, who I mentioned earlier. That's pretty much it. I can tell you. I've put this song on a number of mixtapes. I had one of my closest friends, Tim, was leaving to move to, I want to say, Massachusetts, to start a theater company, and I didn't want him to go. He was at the time one of my closest friends. And I remember putting this song on a mixtape for him and went with him to see him off at Union Station. He was taking the Amtrak. And I remember I talked to him a couple weeks later once he was all settled, and he said, yeah, that song. He said that was you. He said that was you singing to me, asking me to stay. And I think he felt bad that he had to leave.

[Scott Free]

But, you know, it's hard not to feel things with this one. The lyrics, yes. But also you hear it a little bit in the intro clip that you played. But yeah, it's got this big gospel feel to it at times and this sort of interplay between the sweet ballad that Marcela is singing and this very different, darker direction it takes with Siobhan. Yeah, it's again, one of those tracks that really highlights why this band works so well together. And it's because of how radically different they are, but how good they sound together.

[Lori]

Absolutely. And so listeners, again, I couldn't play the part that Scott's talking about because I only have, you know, a certain portion that I'm allowed to play. But please seek out the song, maybe even the video.

[Scott Free]

Watch the video.

[Lori]

Yeah, know, Siobhan's acting is a little over the top, but it's. It's good. It's very enjoyable.

[Scott Free]

It's fun. It. It's intentionally campy.

[Lori]

Okay, so the next song, track seven, is called Black SK.

[C]

Come on, tune in to the Light.

[Lori]

New world.

[Scott Free]

Okay, so just straight up Manchester song then.

[Lori]

Yeah. Actually, did you recognize the drum beat?

[Scott Free]

I mean, that's the same shuffle from Fool's Gold. I'm pretty sure.

[Lori]

Yes. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Uhhuh. Good ears.

[Scott Free]

Between that shuffle beat, the chucka chucka wawa guitars, it's Fool's Gold Part 2, and I am so in for it. I mean, the vocals come in and shatter that illusion, but still it. I'm in like a good Manchester track. And this is feeling like a sequel to arguably the best of the Manchester tracks.

[Lori]

Okay, that's fair.

[Scott Free]

And whoever's playing bass is really going for it.

[Lori]

Yeah. Jennifer. Jennifer Maidman.

[Scott Free]

Killing it.

[Lori]

I love the lyrics again, you know, Come on, tune into the night. Black sky, blue world green eyes no.

[Scott Free]

Peace for the wicked no rest for the good no use in pretending that love is in your blood. Ouch.

[Lori]

But this is definitely another one that was inspired by Catwomen of the Moon. Yeah, yeah, it definitely was. I mean, you know, you'll come running to the dark side of the moon and then. Green eyes. Well, duh, that's a cat, right?

[Scott Free]

I'll buy it. Yeah.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

Really gotta see this weirdo movie.

[Lori]

Yeah, right? I mean, maybe. Maybe that'll be viewing for us for the weekend.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, movie night.

[Lori]

Yeah, I used to always play this one when I was hosting RPGs. Vampire the Masquerade.

[Scott Free]

Of course you were.

[Lori]

Yeah. Yeah, you made fun of me the last time I said that too. But. But no, I mean, this song just always was good for setting the mood for the game, you know?

[Scott Free]

Yeah, for sure.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

And this is one where it's like, damn, Marcella can really song Verdit, right?

[Lori]

Oh, hell yes. Yeah. And her guitar too. That.

[Scott Free]

Oh, that's her. Yeah. Makes.

[Lori]

That's her.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Multi T record.

[Lori]

Yeah. She's amazing. Yeah. You know, that's really all I have on that one.

[Scott Free]

That brings us to track eight, the Trouble With Andre.

[C]

He remembers a time when even going home was sweet now he CL the ground under his feet and she said Trouble with Andrew.

[Scott Free]

Okay, so right from the opening gate, musically, this one leapt out at me like. There's these opening strains of pulsey synths and bass and these big reverby pianos and this synth voice chorus. This feels, at least at the beginning, like music for the masses era Depeche Mode. And I'm totally here for it. Yeah, it's got this then rich echoey guitar. And supposedly this was written about a friend of Siobhan's.

[Lori]

Oh, okay. That I didn't know.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Like you. You see a title like the Trouble With Andrew, that is very specific. Who's Andre? Can you imagine being called out this hard in a pop song? If you are Andre, like, cool. I'm immortalized by a pretty great song. But the trouble with Andre is he's a liar. Like, damn.

[Lori]

Was the guy's name actually Andre, though?

[Scott Free]

I mean, it doesn't matter.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

If you're a friend of Siobhan's and you hear this song, you know that you're Andre.

[Lori]

The only thing I have in my notes is. Reminds me of a guy I used to game with.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah?

[Lori]

Yeah. That's all I'd say about that.

[Scott Free]

Would like to Read a little bit more on the lyrics just because this is a roast. The trouble with Andre is he's a liar and you know the trouble with Andre is he thinks he fools everyone But I know the trouble with Andre is his disguise and we know the trouble with Andre is he thinks he hides everything and I know the trouble with Andre is he's a liar and, you know it's in his eyes like Andre. You are getting absolutely roasted.

[Lori]

I love it, though. This is. This is a really good song.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah. Very compelling.

[Lori]

Okay, I guess we are moving on now to. It's funny how the second half of the album always goes quicker. Track nine, Moonchild.

[C]

Mr. Jones said, hey, young girl, don't feel sorry for yourself the world's eyes.

[Scott Free]

Well, obviously, Moonchild figures into the whole catwomen of the moon recurring motif on this album on account the moon thing.

[Lori]

Absolutely. It is one of the six original songs that were inspired by Catwoman of the Moon. Earlier, you mentioned, Scott, that Marcella, with her soprano voice. What was the word you used? Like, whistling.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, the whistle register, where it's so high that it is not straight vocal. It has this secondary, higher thing that goes.

[Lori]

Yeah. There's this point in the song where Marcella's like, I can't even. I. I can't. I won't even try to do it. But it's like a. A couple of notes that are like, yeah, I'm not even gonna try to do it. But there's a point where that's really, really noticeable in this song, and I think it's really cool.

[Scott Free]

That's a good drink.

[Lori]

Yeah. Now, you know what? I didn't realize until actually today when I was putting together my notes. Here's a sample at the very beginning of this song. The very first lines where Siobhan sings birds can fly and fish can swim. And it's a beautiful kind of light, ethereal instrumental. So apparently that's from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde prelude to Act 1, that instrumental, and it just loops throughout the song. It's just kind of there in the background, just creating this gorgeous atmosphere.

[Scott Free]

I'm no slouch at the spot, the sample game. But, yeah, that's not one that I'm just gonna catch on my own.

[Lori]

Oh, I wouldn't have either. Thanks to WhoSampled.com for saving my neck on that one.

[Scott Free]

Love them. You know, and to the point about that sort of ethereal opening, like, when I was first hearing this one, and you hear those opening strains, it kind of reminded me of the opener to Massive Attack, Blue Lines, which we covered on this very show, Safe From Harm, was the track. And it's got sort of that feel. And at other points I'm like, well, this could actually be late Roxy Music or Brian Ferry solo track. Particularly the way those drum and drum machine sounds work and those synths. And then Marcella's super high voice. Like that really reminded me of the actual title track from Roxy Music's Avalon. The way her voice is doing those very notes that you were saying, where it's way up there.

[Lori]

Oh, I love that song, too. And, of course, you know, again, little baby Laurie, you know, trying to find her place in the world. Of course, I really found these lyrics to be relatable. But on this planet, where do I fit in? I could be in trouble or just imagining. Sometimes I feel like an alien. Then the second verse, I looked at the world from another star. That's when you discover where you really are. So if you think you'd like the taste, you know, there's not much time to waste. So take off into outer space. I'll see you there. So, yes, on one level, this is alluding to that Catwoman of the Moon. But for me, it was also this kind of encouragement to, you know, spread my wings and fly and see what's out there. Because, I mean, it was a scary time for me.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. Yeah. It would be weird if you had to have watched or been familiar with Catwoman of the Moon to understand this album. And it makes a lot of sense without it. And it would have to be relatable because almost no one has seen that movie and can relate to it. Oh, that brings us to track 10, Catwoman.

[C]

Looking for something and the sky came up to meet with me Magnetic forces greeted me I wasn't looking for something I looking for something I'm a superhuman sweetie baby A Hollywood brainchild to drive me crazy and I'm coming your way real soon I'm the cat woman.

[Lori]

I.

[Scott Free]

So we've been talking on and off about this album being an homage to the 50s B film, Catwomen of the Moon.

[Lori]

Yes.

[Scott Free]

I have a theory about this song, track 10, Catwoman. It may be related to that, especially.

[Lori]

The part of a superhuman 3D baby. Because it was 3D. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

I mean, yes. But what tiffed me off was in the chorus where they both say, I'm a Catwoman from the moon. So that's what really made me come up with this idea. And, you know, I put that together and I'm feeling pretty good about It.

[Lori]

You may be onto something here, Scott. Yeah, Actually, this song has one of my favorite lyrics, not just of Shakespeare's sister, but of any song. The second verse, Peace and love like a willow tree hung their heads and wept for me. That's just so beautiful.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

I love everything about this song. And I will say that in a parallel universe where I explored a career as a burlesque performer, this was the song that I would have chosen.

[Scott Free]

Ooh, solid hit.

[Lori]

So right on. So this song was written by Siobhan and Marcella, and as you so astutely picked up on it, was one of the original six songs inspired by Catwoman of the Moon.

[Scott Free]

Yes, I am quite perceptive. And, you know, it's just a straight up rocker, like. Yeah, swinging rocker. It's good stuff.

[Lori]

Yeah. Again, Marcela's guitar is just freaking fantastic.

[Scott Free]

Yes. And if you want to see Marcela playing that guitar, this one does have a music video. And it is a live performance video, not just miming, like, it's a live recording. And they are a pretty tight band live. And damn, Siobhan is having a blast up there.

[Lori]

And that's interesting because as we're going to see in a few minutes, they really didn't perform live that often.

[Scott Free]

Oh, interesting.

[Lori]

So, yeah. All right. Anything else on Catwoman?

[Scott Free]

I think that's plenty. The song speaks for itself.

[Lori]

Okay, well, the next track, the penultimate track, track 11. Let me entertain you Here among the.

[C]

Flowers of faith and hope I stand While you are buried in the mess of Ouija so by hand you're looking for a savior A queen from TV but if you want to trust someone well, how about me? Let's let me entertain you Is your.

[Scott Free]

Sou for higher.

[C]

Let me entertain you have you got the time?

[Lori]

What are your thoughts on that one, Scott?

[Scott Free]

This is one of those where musically it evokes earlier songs and it's like, wow, that there's echoes of the art of noises, paranoia. But, like, that's just the guitar and the kicks. And there's also like, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but really that's mostly just the right.

[Lori]

Okay.

[Scott Free]

But, you know, not really. It becomes its own thing pretty soon thereafter. Otherwise. I know I've said it before, but their harmonies are really where it's at. Even more so Marcella's soprano vamping.

[Lori]

This is possibly my least favorite song on the album.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

And it's that. That.

[C]

Huh?

[Lori]

You know, I mean, to me, it sounds like a guy trying to do an imitation of a dog barking. It just. It totally takes me out of the mood, you know?

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I. I guess I got used to it from the hundreds of times I listened to Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Welcome to the pleas, though.

[Lori]

I was actually looking to see if that was a sample from something, but it didn't look like it.

[Scott Free]

I'll agree. This is not my favorite of theirs, by any means.

[Lori]

Okay. I mean, that's really all I got on this one. Although it does. Okay. So I did. Did say in my notes my least favorite song on the album, but Marcella's guitar rocks.

[Scott Free]

Yeah, I will agree with that.

[Lori]

Well, Scott, what's next?

[Scott Free]

What's Next is the final track on the album. Hello? Turn your radio on Now, Scott, if.

[Lori]

You'Ve only heard the video version, this is going to be very jarring for you because this is very different than what's in the video.

[Scott Free]

Go for it.

[C]

Until my me have you read about the latest freak? We're bingo numbers and our names are obsolete why do I feel bitter When I should be feeling sweet? Hello, hello Turn your radio on Is there anybody out there? Help me sing my, my song Life is a strange thing Just when you think you learn how to use it, it's gone.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. That is different than the version of it that I was familiar with.

[Lori]

Yeah. There's no percussion.

[Scott Free]

Yeah.

[Lori]

And I would argue that the LP version is far superior to the single version. Explain the addition of the percussion and the mixing that they did on the single. To me, it loses its soul. The thing about this song, especially the first time I heard it, is it's haunting, and it loses that in the single version. I just. Yeah. I can't. This was one of the six original songs inspired by Catwoman of the Moon, which you probably picked up on from that line. Woke up this morning and the streets were full of cars all bright and shiny like they just arrived from Mars I love everything about this song, except there's one place in the song that I think they got lazy with the lyrics.

[Scott Free]

What do you got?

[Lori]

And if I taste the honey Is it really sweet? And do I eat it with my hands or with my feet? Dumb, dumb line in an otherwise fantastic song. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

I mean, but if they're cats, their hands are their feet. I got nothing.

[Lori]

Okay, that could be. That could be.

[Scott Free]

That is admittedly a terrible line, but there is the great line which is gonna have to reach my friends to find out how I feel.

[Lori]

Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. You know the very last line of the song. Life is a strange thing. Just when you think you learned how to use It. It's gone. And it's really kind of a somber note to end the album on. You know, in the LP version, there's that last line sung by Siobhan and then there's the. What is that like, off the air?

[Scott Free]

Yeah, yeah.

[Lori]

This one always gives me the chills. It is so, so beautiful.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. I mean, so as I did not have the album and I did see the single version, which was the video version, you know, as an album closer, it's big even, I'd say without the percussion. It's going for anthemic. Yeah. Even if it's less bombastic on the album version that is, than it is in the single version. It's going for the cheap seats. Feeling wise. Right. There's a sweetness to it, but it's also big feelings. Does that appear to you?

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah, that feels right. So this one was co written with Dave Stewart. He shares a writing credit with Siobhan and Marcella. It was released as the fourth single from this album on October 29th of 1992.

[Scott Free]

But unlike the first three singles, as we've alluded to, did not receive much promotion, particularly from the ladies in the band. Right.

[Lori]

And yet it did peak at number 14 in the UK and spent six weeks on the UK singles chart.

[Scott Free]

Dang.

[Lori]

Yeah.

[Scott Free]

Without even trying.

[Lori]

Yeah. If at all possible, I really recommend going back and listening to the LP versions. Now. I understand that they did a remaster re release for like. I think it was for like the 35th anniversary or something like that. For this. Is that right? 35th 30th anniversary version 2023. And I have not heard the re release. I was reading a lot of reviews, though, that there were some compression issues with some of the songs. There were some remastering issues with some of the songs. So maybe it's a good thing that I didn't have that version. I mean, I just was reading a lot of disappointing reviews. Not a very good quality release from what I've read. So. So what is your favorite track on the album?

[Scott Free]

Boy, like my temptation is to say track seven, Black Sky. It almost feels disrespectful because it's the Madchester track and it sounds so much like another track that maybe that's what I'm responding to. But if I'm going to disqualify that one for that reasons, then I'm probably going to go with the mega single Stay, which is beautiful and big and just great track.

[Lori]

Both good choices. Yeah. I'm going to go with hello, turn your radio on. But Again, the LP version, not the crap they released, is a single.

[Scott Free]

Not willing to even call that crap, but all right, all right, fair enough.

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Scott Free]

What happened next and where are they now?

[Lori]

Well, as we kind of alluded to, starting around the time where the record company insisted on releasing Stay as a single, it caused some tensions. Siobhan said, I was a bit gutted because I felt it didn't sound like the rest of the album. I wanted us to have a few hits before releasing Stay, but the record company were saying, no, this is a hit. It caused tensions, and I thought, where are we going creatively here? Then Marcella added, but Stay was part of the album's hope whole ethos. At that point, they hadn't even played live together. Not yet. There were some misunderstandings. Let's say a lot of this comes from that article on classic pop. Shakespeare's Sister interview with John Earls. From what I gathered, Marcella was kind of feeling like the odd one out. I mean, Siobhan was living with Dave, and Siobhan and Dave also shared the same manager. Marcella was feeling left out. And actually in this interview, Siobhan says to Marcella that all created a situation that was easy to misread. Continuing with the article, Marcella recalls her hotel bills not being paid for, so she soon hired her own manager. Looking back, having my own manager caused communication problems. She said there was divisiveness from both parties, and asked how she felt at the height of Shakespeare's Sister's success, Marcella admits, I thought, damn, this is supposed to be a happy, wonderful time. And instead I felt sad at the tension between us. So they had largely stopped speaking to each other at this point, even as they played at Glastonbury 1992 on June 27th. And then the following day, June 28th, they opened for Prince at Glasgow's Celtic Park. So imagine playing in front of these big audiences, but you're not speaking to each other. Admittedly, Siobhan was suffering from depression. She was actually hospitalized for depression. And they ended up having to cancel what would have been their biggest show at the Royal Albert Hall Hall. With Siobhan being temporarily hospitalized, they decided to put Shakespeare's Sister on a hiatus, and Marcella began working on a solo album. This all came to a head at the 1993 Ivor Novello Awards ceremony. Hormonal Years won Best Contemporary Collection of Songs. Now Siobhan was not even there. Marcella Detroit was in the audience. Siobhan's representative came up to accept the award on behalf of Shakespeare's sister and read an acceptance speech written by Siobhan that contained a message wishing Marcella, who was in audience, who's in the audience wishing her all the best for the future. All's well that ends well.

[Scott Free]

Dropped a bomb on her man publicly.

[Lori]

Yes, absolutely. I mean, I can't even imagine that was like, I mean, I'm a fan of Siobhan, but that shit was not cool at all.

[Scott Free]

That is some junior high shit right there.

[Lori]

And after that, they did not speak for something like 27, 28 years. Not for lack of trying. Marcella told John Earls of Classic Pop that she'd emailed Siobhan a couple of times in the early 2000s. She said, quote, all I wanted to do was have that conversation that had not been had for 26 years. I wanted to see if we could learn and understand each other, clear up any misconceptions we had about each other and hopefully walk away as friends. But no, at least for a decade or so, she never got a response. Siobhan would go on to record two more studio albums as Shakespeare's Sister. Now remember, the recording contract specified Siobhan, it did not specify Marcella. So she continued to use the Shakespeare Sister name. She released an album called Number Three Three in 2004, aptly named Right. Because it was her third album. And Songs from the Red Room in 2009. So those are the third and fourth studio albums. Yeah.

[Scott Free]

Yes, but okay, Shakespeare Sister fans generally regard those as more Siobhan Fahey solo albums. They use the name. So, yes, I mean, technically speaking, those third and fourth albums are under the Shakespeare Sister name, but they are more or less and regarded by many fans as Siobhan Fahey solo albums. And for that matter, In I believe 2020, a Shakespeare sister box set was released. An 11 disc box set, but made of Sacred Heart, Hormonally yours, a remastered three CD set of Sacred Heart Again, a three CD set of Hormonally Yours, DVD, the Ride Again EP, and you made me come to this 10 inch vinyl and not the third and fourth albums. So, like, it seems to be that when they're a duo, that's Shakespeare's sister and the record company can consider the third and fourth album Shakespeare Sister albums. But are they really.

[Lori]

I got what you're saying. I get it.

[Scott Free]

I would put it more like the latest Pixies album.

[Lori]

Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Free]

That ain't a Pixie album as far as I'm concerned.

[Lori]

Without Kim Deal. Yeah, yeah. So eventually, Finally, May of 2018, Siobhan and Marcella both happened to be living in the Los Angeles area. So they agreed to meet up at a coffee shop. And they talked for hours. They finally buried the hatchet. They hashed it out. They said all of the things that they should have said back in 92, 93. And a year later, in May of 2019, they reunited for the Shakespeare's Sister Ride Again Tour in the UK. And then you mentioned the box set in 2020, so at least we're ending on a happy note. Shakespeare's Sister are notable, I think, because, well, according to the Guardian, the British publication. The Guardian notes that Fahey's work with Shakespeare's Sister helped pave the way for a generation of quote, witchy muso types. I love that. Specifically Grimes, Sky Ferreira, Lord Charlie xcx and I don't know if it's Zola Jesus or Zola Jesus. I'm sorry, I don't know that last one. But I know all the other ones and they've all been cited as being influenced by Shakespeare's Sisters early 1990s sound.

[Scott Free]

Yeah. There's one last quote I would throw in from the classic pop article I've been citing. There weren't many other female duos doing the sort of things we were. In fact, there weren't many female duos, full stop. There still aren't.

[Lori]

No.

[Scott Free]

Right. Not none, but definitely not many.

[Lori]

Well, Scott, thank you for taking this journey back to 1992 with me. This album just brings back so many memories.

[Scott Free]

A whole new territory for me, but I dug it.

[Lori]

All right, that's cool. I think this is why we balance each other out so well. So you get to pick the topic for our next episode. We're still in 1992. Have you decided on an album?

[Scott Free]

I have.

[Lori]

Oh.

[Scott Free]

It's an album that I dig quite a lot. You probably know a couple singles for it, but the whole album really has something. It is the stereo MC's connected.

[Lori]

Ooh. I actually have that one, so I don't have to seek that one out. Yeah, no, there's some good stuff on that album.

[Scott Free]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Lori]

Oh, well, awesome. So we will do that in two weeks then. That'll be coming out August 2nd. So stay tuned, listeners, and thank you for exploring hormonally yours with us. I appreciate everybody listening. It's a goodbye from me Lori and.

[Scott Free]

From me Scott free. We'll see you back here in just a couple weeks. Hello, it is Ryan. And we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps. You know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free, anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So sign up now@chumbac casino.com that's chumbacasino.com no purchase necessary. VGW Group void where prohibited by law 21 + terms and conditions apply.