From The Mix — Digital Mixtape No. 632

The Cult — She Sells Sanctuary (Sundance Remix)

I had never heard of The Cult before a friend of the family who lived down the street changed that. She knew I was into alternative music and one day she stopped over and handed me a cassette copy of Love — the band's just released album. No buildup, no explanation. Just handed it over. That exact tape is the one pictured.

Before I even pressed play I was drawn in by the cover art. There was something about the imagery that told you immediately this wasn't going to sound like anything else I'd heard. It had a mood to it before the music even started.

When I pressed play and heard the first track — Nirvana — everything changed.

This was a whole new world. Gothic but also rock. Psychedelic but also new wave. Ian Astbury's voice was immediately unlike anything I had heard before. Distinct, powerful, completely commanding. And later I would discover his stage presence — giving everything he has every single time. One of the greats. No question.

By the time I got to Side B of that cassette and She Sells Sanctuary came on I was already part mesmerized by the artwork, the imagery and the liner notes. I was basically in Love with everything I was hearing. That riff hit and that was it. The Cult changed everything for me.

A few months later I was at Tower Records and found a VHS tape in the rental section — The Cult Live at The Lyceum. I had to have it. I begged the guy at the video counter until somehow he agreed to sell it to me rather than rent it. I still have that tape today.

It was through that tape that I discovered Love was actually their second album. There was a debut called Dreamtime — and a live album called Dreamtime Live at The Lyceum that me and my friend had never known about. And then I would discover something else — that The Cult had actually started as Death Cult. They released a single called Gods Zoo and a self-titled EP in 1983 before becoming The Cult. A whole chapter of the band's history I had missed.

Last year I finally got to experience those Death Cult tracks live for the first time at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. Gods Zoo, Brothers Grimm, Resurrection Joe — performed live in front of me after forty years of listening. That's what full circle actually feels like.

They went through a rock phase when they turned up the volume for Electric, Sonic Temple and Ceremony. Then back to alternative with their self-titled album. That back and forth between heavy and gothic continued through their 2000’s albums until they landed firmly back where they started with Under The Midnight Sun — their most recent album and a gothic rock masterpiece.

Forty one years later She Sells Sanctuary still sounds like nothing else.

The version on this week's mix is the Sundance Remix — and it's particularly badass. It beefs up the main riff, adds guitar textures throughout and gives Billy Duffy an extended solo that the original doesn't have. If you think you know this track listen again. The Sundance Remix reminds you why it's one of the best songs of the 80s. Tune In: