There are two kinds of goths, those who dance to the beat and those who dance to the melody. My friend and I came to this conclusion years ago while dancing to this song inside one of those red-lit haunts of ours.

Virgin Prunes "Baby Turns Blue" (Extended Mix)
(song removed)

Melody Goths moved to this number, a club standard at the time, in drawn-out snake patterns matching the equally drawn-out lyric "Oh, what to do." These are the type of people who actually think "Bela Lugosi's Dead," in its un-remixed form, is perfectly suitable for a dancefloor. Beat Goths, who tended to have rivethead (um, that's industrial for the uninitiated) leanings, danced to this like one would dance to any other dance song, albeit with far more arm gestures. These are the folks who think, How the hell am I supposed to dance to "Bela Lugosi's Dead." My friend and I fell into the latter category. I don't know what his reasoning was, but, my thoughts were always that after spending my childhood with 8-counts drilled into my head as we learned new jazz dance routines to "Blue Monday," I was already programmed to move kick-snare-kick-snare. No amount of boo-spookiness could change that.

This song was actually one of the reasons that I started clubbing. Back in high school, one of my friends had scored a mixed tape of all the goth club hits and played it for me. "Baby Turns Blue" became my new favorite song. Despite everyone rambling about post-punk (i.e. everything that you heard at a goth club in 1995, when all of the hipsters were going apeshit over Sebadoh and busy making fun of the goth kids), Virgin Prunes are still overlooked. Perhaps it is because singer Gavin Friday unknowingly created a monster when he dubbed his childhood friend Paul Hewson "Bono." (Really, the campaign for canonization must be stopped, but don't hold that against Friday and the rest of the Prunes.) Perhaps it is because the band is still considered too strange, too "goth" for most hip tastebuds. I really have no idea.

This is the extended version of "Baby Turns Blue," which stems from the 12" single. The non-extended version is from the album If I Die, I Die, which you can find here.