Zombie Love | Morticia

We can live for eternity
We can live for eternity tonight

Dress of black, face of white
Lips of red, what a frightening sight
Are you ready to try zombie love?
Zombie love

Back in the peak of my 80s “goth” phase, there was an admission I was willing to make — should anyone ask or care to enquire. It was no grand secret:

I did not think that the subculture should be taken too terribly serious.

This was perhaps because I was put “beyond the palings” of the local goth scene. A little on the youngish side compared to the emergent goth scene; not independently wealthy enough to have custom lace, velvet and ruffled clothing; failed to see how black hair made someone a ”true goth” (dishwater blond in more of an Echo styling than in a Siouxsie styling, and yes… I was outright dismissed for that reason, as in “Get out of here, poseur. Goths aren’t blond.”); & etc.

I wore eye makeup, eventually did a Bob Smith rat’s nest, cobbled together something that didn’t require a fortune to procure for clothing — but by that time, I got so I could care less what the “real goths” had to say about me.

That probably explained much of my sensibilities about the matter at the time. I had tired of having such things being gated to me by superficial elements, so I leaned towards irreverence.

And while I did have my serious streak (Joy Division, The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds through Pornography and beyond, Skinny Puppy and a few bands best left unnamed), I also treated the scene as a big old, absurd playground (drinking beverages spiked with food coloring to look the color of blood, for example). I embraced the campy side of the goth scene and laughed when I wasn’t too busy crying.

Morticia was one of those bands that borrowed more from Alice Cooper than from Sisters of Mercy and, oh my, they were a fun crowd to see live for that decision. Lead singer spitting fire while twirling his drumsticks before the drum solo where he would then set the drums on fire at the finale of the show. More B-type than Criterion Collection.

Yes, it was all theatrics and camp. As corny as some of the songs have gotten as they have aged, it was one of the bands that put into performance much of my attitude: y’all take yourselves way too seriously. Have you looked at yourselves? Really looked at yourselves? How can you not be amused?

Anyway, I know I’ve put these guys up in the past, but I had a sudden flashback to that time period and had to share again. Enjoy.