Starting off with the sombulistic Sax and the sound of the rain, The Leningrad Cowboy's tune Thru the Wire is a crime drama more in line of the down and out damned than anything involving cops and crooks. It drips with a midnight of fear and a need to escape, building slowly from that initial shimmer of radiance before dipping into a world of bitter black coffee and cheap smokes.
Thru the wire
Funny how things always look the same
Holes in the shoes collar turned up
up against the rain
Another cheep hotel
Some girl she’s on the floor
Once more hopin gonna make it
Singing hopin singing
Chorus
Thru the wire
It’s been a long time honey
And your dreams they get so old
Oh yeah
This might not be the greatest story ever told
Just one more heart
Just one more heart coming in from the cold
clock in the mark square
It’s chiming 12 o’clock
Slow across the border
Another car gets stopped
Uniforms asking questions papers getting read
I’m feeling half dead
Thru the wire
Chorus
The word gonna out tonight
Why the spinning stops
My body’s feeling broken
And I want to turn it off
But I just keep rockin and ????? and singing
Chorus
The Leningrad Cowboys were introduced to the world with the film Leningrad Cowboys Go America, and it's soundtrack. It was when I took in a viewing of the film at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis that I first saw the video for the song Thru The Wire. Several music videos were shown along with the film and, even though I really wanted to avoid including videos in this series I would be remiss if I did not at least link it it; (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaEQgUaq5gk)-- so go check it out for your self. I am not aware of any covers of this song out there, but I think someone like Gaslight Anthem or Social Distortion could do it justice, of course I wonder what Johnny Cash would have done with it. If I had to pick a band I would like to hear cover it, at this moment it has to been next months crime tune artist, Drivin'n'Cryin.
The Leningrad Cowboys were really the Finnish band The Sleepy Sleepers with singer Niki Tesco from the UK punk group The Members. I like a lot of their other recording, but it is only on this song that I delve into the darker more noir side of the pop spectrum. My friends in Finland seem to see them as a joke, but I enjoy them, and have their Go Space album in addition to the Go America soundtrack.
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