#bela lugosi is dead

[hauntedbystorytelling]

A Gothic visual dialogue · 1926-1979

Film still from The Sorrows of Satan (D.W. Griffith, 1926), starring Adolphe Menjou, Carol Dempster, Ricardo Cortez and Lya de PuttiThe screenplay was based on the Victorian gothic novel by Marie Corelli (1895)

Watch the film on YouTube ~ link to this scene : here [...]

Read the novel on Project Gutenberg : The Sorrows of Satan or, The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire, A Romance : eBook view & read more on wordPress

Cover design for Bela Lugosi's Dead, the first single by the English post-punk band Bauhaus, released on 6 August 1979

Listen to «Bela Lugosi's Dead» on Bauhaus Official YouTube channel

#bela lugosi is dead #the sorrows of satan #album cover #D.W. Griffith #faust #film still #gothic rock #horror film #marie corelli #1970s #1920s #post punk #punk rock #ricardo cortez #satan #David Wark Griffith #visual dialogue #women artists #bauhaus punk band #women writers #bauhaus rock band

[calimarikid]

#bauhaus #peter murphy #goth punk #music #bela lugosi is dead

[utilitymuffin]

#bela lugosi is dead

[raffaellosanziodaurbino]

Lugosi is dead

Lugosi is dead

Lugosi is dead~~

He looks like he's dead

#meh #the humans are dead #bela lugosi is dead #flight of the conchords #bauhaus #bela lugosi

[drzito]

Desde Perdonen que no me levante les deseamos una feliz navidad.

#bela lugosi is dead

[retrotunes]

Bauhaus performing "Bela Lugosi’s Dead" in The Hunger (1983)

#the hunger #bauhaus #bela lugosis dead #filmedit #horroredit #musicedit #musicdaily #popularcultures #musicsourcedaily #dailymusicians #blogmusicdaily #musicgifs #80sedit #80sdaily #throwbackblr #usermusic #chewieblog #gothic #my edit #80s #film

[firefly-foibles]

“The bats have left the bell tower. The victims have been bled” 

#bela lugosi is dead #bauhuas

[keeperofdarkness22]

Plan 9 from Outer Space | 1957

#horror #movies #horrormovies #kill #dead #monsters #50s horror #vampira #tor johnson #Edward D. Wood Jr. #bela lugosi

[dogsstew]

Special guest star requested Billy N Stu as goths.

As a fellow goth….. don’t mind if I DO !!!🗣️🗣️🗣️ made it a little too rocky horror but the girls that get it get it.

Extra Because he hates it

#hi crow hehe lalala #yea Stu listened to bela lugosis dead once #billy loomis #scream 1996 #stu macher #stuilly #request #goth #stupid losers do makeup

[possible-streetwear]

#bauhaus #trad goth #bela lugosi's dead #gothic music #gothic #goth aesthetic #goth music #gothique #goth #dark music #darkwave #new wave #newwave #80s music #1980s #80s #80's #80 #vintage music #vintage #yintage 80s

[violetbudd]

#bela lugosi's dead #bauhaus #goth rock #transparent #png #my edit #source is linked

[agathacoree]

#peter murphy #bauhaus #goth rock #gothique #goth #goth aesthetic #gothcore #alternative goth #goth music #goth bands #bela lugosi's dead #gaslight gatekeep girlblog #gothic metal #gothic

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Bela Lugosi made a live TV appearance on "You Asked for It" (July 27, 1953).

The real Bela materialized in a cloud of smoke seconds after this coffined Bela prop was revealed.

#Bela Lugosi #Dracula #vampire #coffin #spooky #horror #horror icon #Bela Lugosi's Dead #halloween #hammersmith horror #horror movies

[tiny-elf-of-doom]

Bela Lugosi’s Dead

#bauhaus #peter murphy #the hunger 1983 #undead #bela lugosi #Bela lugosi’s dead #david bowie #vampire #1980s goth #batcave #cage #dark wave #trad goth

[cosmonautroger]

Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead cassette

#Bauhaus #Bela Lugosi's Dead #Cassette

[jake-04]

I did some research on Bauhuas for a history of rock course. The information might not be 100% accurate but I’m kinda proud of how it came out. The performance I mentioned is the 2005 Coachella Performance.

In the 70s there was a specific subset of people, known as “bat cavers”. These people would dress up in messy hair known as the “bats nest” and wear black clothes with black on white makeup. These people were also seemingly obsessed with morbid and spooky topics. Today people like this are known as “goths” and the popularity of this subculture can be attributed to the release of 1979’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by post punk band, Bauhaus.

At the time of release post punk wasn’t related to goth people so much as it is today, so one can imagine the public’s shock after hearing this eerie 10 minute track about a dead actor. What made this song so special was the eerie tone of the guitar, strong drum backbeat, distortion, and the morbid theme of the lyrics. This song can be loosely placed into multiple genres, the most striking of these being the reggae genre. When compared to genres surrounding reggae, like 2-tone ska, it becomes more apparent.

This cemented what the post-punk genre would become over the next 40 years. Post release, the song was described as “gothic”, thus sparking the new genre and subset of music culture.

“Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, on the surface, is a ten minute song about a dead actor, specifically, the actor that played Count Dracula in the 1931 film “Dracula”. However, there are multiple ways to look at the lyrics. The most prominent being the description of Bela Lugosi’s burial. Apart from the repeated “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, there are three lines that outline this exactly. The first line is “the victims have been bled.” This can be seen as the preparation for the burial where the embalmer rids the body of fluids and unnecessary items. “Red velvet lines the black box” is a reference to how Bela’s coffin was lined with red velvet. “The virginal brides file past his tomb” is his visitors walking by his tomb.

However, if you know about goth culture and its origins, there is another meaning to these lyrics. “White on white translucent black capes, back on the rack” can be seen as the commercialization of this sub-culture of people, the same can be said for the line “the victims have been bled” where the victims are the bat cavers who’ve been bled of their culture. “The bats have left the bell tower” is referring to the closing of the old goth club “The Bell Tower” in London and also about the term “bat cavers” “leaving”, or being replaced by the term “goth”.

The performance that I have linked took place at Coachella in 2005. Bauhaus was on stage, shrouded in darkness, and started with the simple drum backbeat. The entire band is dressed in gothic black clothes and the stage is barely lit once the lights come on, adding to the eerienes of the band and its music. The lights come on at the first beat of the drum to reveal Peter Murphy, the vocalist, hanging upside down as if he was a bat. Right off the bat this performance is very gothically inspired. Everyone in the crowd is excited and screaming. At one point the bassist crosses his arms over his chest as if he was Dracula rising out of his coffin. Bauhaus is an excellent example of a post punk band that really took on the gothic themes of the genre.

Thanks for reading! 🖤

#goth aesthetic #bauhuas #bela lugosi #dracula #post punk #reggae #peter murphy #bat cat #bell tower #bela lugosi’s dead #goth #vampire aesthetic #goth music #gothgoth #trad goth #80s goth