Siouxsie And The Banshees – Arabian Knights

Though not an instant classic on the level of Juju‘s other single, “Spellbound” — perhaps an unfair comparison since “Spellbound” may well be Siouxsie & the Banshees‘ finest four minutes — “Arabian Knights” is still a compelling, albeit disturbing, single. Although Budgie copped the drum intro from “Be My Baby” for the song’s atmospheric opening, John McGeoch‘s droning guitars, drenched in the echo and reverb that typify this era in Siouxsie & the Banshees‘ sound, and Steve Severin‘s propulsive bass pattern power the song. It’s all so dreamy and gothy that it takes several listens for Siouxsie Sioux‘s disturbing lyrics to fully sink in. Beginning with some abstract, poetic images and then moving into a scene of tacky desert tourism and “a monstrous oil tanker/its wound bleeding in seas,” the song drives its point home in an unsettling final verse that decries the lack of women’s rights in some parts of the Islamic world and goes on to accuse the song’s subjects of committing acts of pedophilia, bestiality, and random sacrificial violence. Siouxsie & the Banshees would continue to feature similar themes in later songs — 1988’s hit single “Peekaboo” is about the degradation of the sex industry — but there’s an unpleasantly sanctimonious, strawman vibe in the lyrics to “Arabian Knights.”