Playground Twist

"Playground Twist" is a song by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1979 as the sole single from the band's second album, Join Hands (1979).

"Playground Twist"
Single by Siouxsie and the Banshees
from the album Join Hands
B-side"Pulled to Bits"
Released29 June 1979
Recorded1978
GenrePost-punk
Length3:00
LabelPolydor
Songwriter(s)Susan Ballion, Kenny Morris, John McKay and Steven Severin
Producer(s)Nils Stevenson, Mike Stavrou
Siouxsie and the Banshees singles chronology
"The Staircase (Mystery)"
(1979)		 "Playground Twist"
(1979)		 "Mittageisen"
(1979)

Production

The track was produced by the band's manager Nils Stevenson and Mike Stavrou, a recording engineer on T. Rex's final album, Dandy in the Underworld (1977)

Critical reception

NME's Roy Carr hailed the single and wrote: "If Ingmar Bergman produced records, they might sound like this. The listener is immediately engulfed in a maelstrom of whirling sound punctuated by the ominous tolling of church bells, phased guitars, thundering percussion, a surreal alto sax and the wail of Siouxsie's voice. It demands to be played repeatedly at the threshold-of-pain volume to elicit its full nightmarish quality".[1]

Music video

The music video for "Playground Twist" shows the band performing on an indoor climbing frame with several children running from one end to another, climbing on the surrounding equipment, and even a few of them mimicking the saxophone solo with plastic toy instruments. At the end of the video, the children run toward Siouxsie and playfully pull her to the floor as she lip syncs the final word "drown", and the final shot shows them laughing and carrying on with her.

Release

Released on 24 June 1979, the single became Siouxsie and the Banshees' third top 40 hit, entering into the UK Singles Chart at No.47 on 1 July 1979,[2] and peaking at No. 28 on 15 July in the UK Singles Chart.[3] The band performed the song live on Top of the Pops.[4]

The B-side, "Pulled to Bits", was released as part of the Downside Up compilation. A live version was included on the 1983 Nocturne live album and DVD.

gollark: Why would god send humans and not just write "HEY, I AM GOD" in giant letters of fire in the sky?
gollark: Why would god care about humans so much?
gollark: What? That adds more complexity for no gain. It's a worse model.
gollark: It is entirely valid to say "we don't know". It's not valid to say "we don't know, so let's just postulate yet ANOTHER step in this process with no evidence".
gollark: A god of some sort *could* exist, but there isn't good evidence for them.

References
  1. Carr, Roy (30 June 1979), "Playground twist Singles review", NME
  2. "UK Singles Chart - 1 July 1979". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  3. "UK Singles Chart - 15 July 1979". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  4. AT The BBC - Siouxsie and the Banshees [boxset], Universal, 2009
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