Goodbye Horses
Encyclopedia
"Goodbye Horses" is a 1988 song sung by Q Lazzarus
. It was written and produced by William Garvey. There are three versions of the song, of lengths 3:12, 4:20, and the extended version at 6:28.
According to its writer, "the song is about transcendence over those who see the world as only earthly and finite. The horses represent the five senses from Hindu philosophy (The Bhagavad Gita) and the ability to lift one’s perception above these physical limitations and to see beyond this limited Earthly perspective."
"Buffalo Bill" applies make-up and dances in front of a video camera with his penis
tucked between his legs as to give the appearance of a female mons
. Originally in the film, Clarice Starling
discussed both sheep and horse
s during the ranch slaughter ordeal; the script was shortened to only include the lambs, but the song remained. The song is not featured on the Silence of the Lambs soundtrack, although it appears on the soundtrack
of the 1988 film Married to the Mob
, also directed by Jonathan Demme
. In 1991, Q Lazzarus released an extended version of Goodbye Horses to capitalize on the success of Silence of the Lambs (and the lack of the song on the motion picture soundtrack).
, the aforementioned Silence of the Lambs scene is parodied by Jay and Silent Bob
, when Jay, having bemoaned his boredom while milling around outside the Mooby's restaurant and trying to stay clean of drugs, begins dancing to the song almost exactly as Buffalo Bill did after Silent Bob plays it on their boom box, using chapstick in the same manner as Buffalo Bill's lipstick. Jay quotes Buffalo Bill by saying "Would you fuck me? ... I'd fuck me ... I'd fuck me hard..." When Dante's fiance pulls him out of Mooby's telling him she has a surprise for him, Jay holds his coat (borrowed from Silent Bob) open to reveal himself nude with his penis tucked back in the same manner Buffalo Bill did when he was dancing in front of the video camera. Then Dante says "Is this my surprise?", and his fiance answers "no" while Jay
sings "Goodbye Horses".
A deleted scene from Clerks II shows an extended version of the "tuck dance", without Goodbye Horses playing. A mock message is shown before the scene, saying that they could not afford the $18,000 needed to use "Goodbye Horses" in the scene, and that the audience should imagine "Goodbye Horses" being played. After the scene, the messages continue with other mock messages, suggesting that the reason for there being no money to license the song was because Jason Mewes
spent all of the licensing budget on transsexual prostitutes.
features the song during Marc Johnson
s part, an "in the know" homage to Buffalo Bill..
.
episode 13 Stew-Roids, with Chris parodying the Buffalo Bill scene from The Silence of the Lambs.
's cover version
of "Goodbye Horses" was released as the b-side to their single "You Ran Away". This recording became popular enough that the band decided to make an extended version and include it on their album Strange Romance at the end of the same year. When the trailer for Clerks 2 appeared promoting the movie, Psyche
entered the Top Ten downloads on iTunes
Electronic chart. The song is featured on two best of compilations, Misguided Angels (2000) and Legacy (2004), as well as a recent limited Australian tour CD collection entitled Club Salvation, and remains a staple in the band's live repertoire to this day.
Over the last decade the song has been covered by other performers including Gil Mantera's Party Dream
. In 2009, The Airborne Toxic Event
began performing a cover of the song in their live performances. The Whitest Boy Alive
covered the song during Lowlands '09. In October 2009, Brad Sucks
released a cover of "Goodbye Horses" on his website. At their NYE 2010/2011 show, Snowden
debuted a cover featuring Corinne on lead vocals. However, aside from the original, only Psyche's interpretation has maintained its popularity.
Electronic band Fan Death and garage-revival band Harlem
have also covered the song, and it is currently being performed at live shows by Liverpudlian band Lovecraft, recently signed to the Probe Plus
label.
In 2010, Island Def Jam artists The Airborne Toxic Event released a live CD/DVD containing a performance of this song, entitled All I've Ever Wanted.
In 2011, The Airborne Toxic Event released its second studio album, All At Once, containing a studio remake of this song.
, lead singer and rhythm guitarist
of acclaimed indie rock
band Bloc Party
, released a cover of "Goodbye Horses" on his EP The Hunter
. This cover of the song is 4 minutes and 12 seconds long. It was produced by Daniel Lindegren, with additional production by Fred Falke
.
A fan made video for the song was uploaded to YouTube
on March 25, 2011, many months before the release of the EP. Kele posted the video on his blog.
Q Lazzarus
Q Lazzarus is a female American singer, best known as a one hit wonder for the 1988 song "Goodbye Horses", which was featured in Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs , Clerks II, Lakai Footwear's Fully Flared, Rockstar's videogame Grand Theft Auto IV, EA's videogame Skate 3, and TV shows...
. It was written and produced by William Garvey. There are three versions of the song, of lengths 3:12, 4:20, and the extended version at 6:28.
According to its writer, "the song is about transcendence over those who see the world as only earthly and finite. The horses represent the five senses from Hindu philosophy (The Bhagavad Gita) and the ability to lift one’s perception above these physical limitations and to see beyond this limited Earthly perspective."
The Silence of the Lambs
The song is notably featured in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs during the scene in which serial killerSerial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
"Buffalo Bill" applies make-up and dances in front of a video camera with his penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
tucked between his legs as to give the appearance of a female mons
Mons pubis
In human anatomy or in mammals in general, the mons pubis , also known as the mons veneris or simply the mons, is the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone of adult females, anterior to the pubic symphysis...
. Originally in the film, Clarice Starling
Clarice Starling
Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character and the protagonist in the novels The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal by Thomas Harris....
discussed both sheep and horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s during the ranch slaughter ordeal; the script was shortened to only include the lambs, but the song remained. The song is not featured on the Silence of the Lambs soundtrack, although it appears on the soundtrack
Married to the Mob (soundtrack)
Married to the Mob is a soundtrack album for the 1988 film Married to the Mob. It features early songs by Sinéad O'Connor and Chris Isaak as well as a Brian Eno cover of William Bell's soul classic "You Don't Miss Your Water".- Track listing :...
of the 1988 film Married to the Mob
Married to the Mob
Married to the Mob is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine.Michelle Pfeiffer, in something of a departure from her previous roles, gave an acclaimed lead performance as a gangster's widow from Brooklyn, opposite Matthew Modine as the...
, also directed by Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme is an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. Best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director, he has also directed the acclaimed movies Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married, the Talking Heads concert movie Stop...
. In 1991, Q Lazzarus released an extended version of Goodbye Horses to capitalize on the success of Silence of the Lambs (and the lack of the song on the motion picture soundtrack).
Clerks II
During Clerks IIClerks II
Clerks II is a 2006 American comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, sequel to his 1994 film Clerks, and his sixth and latest feature film to be set in the View Askewniverse...
, the aforementioned Silence of the Lambs scene is parodied by Jay and Silent Bob
Jay and Silent Bob
Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively, in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, a fictional universe created and used in most films, comics and television by Smith, which began in Clerks....
, when Jay, having bemoaned his boredom while milling around outside the Mooby's restaurant and trying to stay clean of drugs, begins dancing to the song almost exactly as Buffalo Bill did after Silent Bob plays it on their boom box, using chapstick in the same manner as Buffalo Bill's lipstick. Jay quotes Buffalo Bill by saying "Would you fuck me? ... I'd fuck me ... I'd fuck me hard..." When Dante's fiance pulls him out of Mooby's telling him she has a surprise for him, Jay holds his coat (borrowed from Silent Bob) open to reveal himself nude with his penis tucked back in the same manner Buffalo Bill did when he was dancing in front of the video camera. Then Dante says "Is this my surprise?", and his fiance answers "no" while Jay
Jay and Silent Bob
Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively, in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, a fictional universe created and used in most films, comics and television by Smith, which began in Clerks....
sings "Goodbye Horses".
A deleted scene from Clerks II shows an extended version of the "tuck dance", without Goodbye Horses playing. A mock message is shown before the scene, saying that they could not afford the $18,000 needed to use "Goodbye Horses" in the scene, and that the audience should imagine "Goodbye Horses" being played. After the scene, the messages continue with other mock messages, suggesting that the reason for there being no money to license the song was because Jason Mewes
Jason Mewes
Jason Edward Mewes is an American television, film actor, and internet radio show host best known for playing Jay, the vocal half of the duo Jay and Silent Bob, in longtime friend Kevin Smith's films.-Early life:...
spent all of the licensing budget on transsexual prostitutes.
Fully Flared
A 2007 release of Lakai Limited Footwear's skateboard team video, titled Fully FlaredFully Flared
Fully Flared is a street skateboarding video by Lakai, directed by Ty Evans, Spike Jonze and Cory Weincheque. In 2007, it won "Best video of the Year" at the Transworld Skateboarding Awards, and Guy Mariano won both "Best Street" and "Best Video Part" at the same event.The video's release was...
features the song during Marc Johnson
Marc Johnson (skateboarder)
Marc Johnson is a professional skateboarder.-Biography:Marc Johnson is one of the pioneers of 1990's style "switch-stance" and "gnar-tech" street skateboarding and is known for his technical skill on a skateboard, including a "supernatural" level of ambidextrousness...
s part, an "in the know" homage to Buffalo Bill..
Grand Theft Auto IV
The underground hit song can be found on LRR 97.8 Liberty Rock Radio in the video game Grand Theft Auto IVGrand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...
.
Family Guy
The song is featured in the Season 7 Family GuyFamily Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
episode 13 Stew-Roids, with Chris parodying the Buffalo Bill scene from The Silence of the Lambs.
Nip/Tuck
The song is featured in a scene aired on Wed. Nov 25 2009 on FX entitled Alexis Stone II #6.7Covers
In 1996, PsychePsyche (band)
Psyche are a Canadian dark synthpop band, now based in Germany. They are centered on singer Darrin Huss, who has been the only constant member, with various line-ups including his brother Stephen Huss, later followed by David Kristian, Per-Anders Kurenbach, and Remi Szyszka, all recording albums...
's cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "Goodbye Horses" was released as the b-side to their single "You Ran Away". This recording became popular enough that the band decided to make an extended version and include it on their album Strange Romance at the end of the same year. When the trailer for Clerks 2 appeared promoting the movie, Psyche
Psyche (band)
Psyche are a Canadian dark synthpop band, now based in Germany. They are centered on singer Darrin Huss, who has been the only constant member, with various line-ups including his brother Stephen Huss, later followed by David Kristian, Per-Anders Kurenbach, and Remi Szyszka, all recording albums...
entered the Top Ten downloads on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
Electronic chart. The song is featured on two best of compilations, Misguided Angels (2000) and Legacy (2004), as well as a recent limited Australian tour CD collection entitled Club Salvation, and remains a staple in the band's live repertoire to this day.
Over the last decade the song has been covered by other performers including Gil Mantera's Party Dream
Gil Mantera's Party Dream
Gil Mantera's Party Dream was an electronic synthpop party band hailing originally from Youngstown, Ohio, with Gil Mantera living in Columbus, Ohio as well as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Donny has always lived in Youngstown...
. In 2009, The Airborne Toxic Event
The Airborne Toxic Event
The Airborne Toxic Event is an American indie rock band from Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California. It consists of Mikel Jollett , Steven Chen , Noah Harmon , Daren Taylor and Anna Bulbrook...
began performing a cover of the song in their live performances. The Whitest Boy Alive
The Whitest Boy Alive
The Whitest Boy Alive is a German-Norwegian musical group based in Berlin. The band comprises singer/guitarist Erlend Øye of Kings of Convenience, bassist Marcin Öz, drummer Sebastian Maschat, and Daniel Nentwig on Rhodes piano and Crumar.- History :...
covered the song during Lowlands '09. In October 2009, Brad Sucks
Brad Sucks
Brad Turcotte , not to be confused with Brad Turcotte performing under the name Brad Sucks, is a musician from Ottawa, Ontario. Turcotte released his albums under a copyleft license...
released a cover of "Goodbye Horses" on his website. At their NYE 2010/2011 show, Snowden
Snowden (band)
Snowden is the moniker of musician and songwriter Jordan Jeffares. The name is inspired by Snowden, a fictional character from the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.- History :...
debuted a cover featuring Corinne on lead vocals. However, aside from the original, only Psyche's interpretation has maintained its popularity.
Electronic band Fan Death and garage-revival band Harlem
Harlem (band)
Harlem is an American garage rock band comprising vocalist/guitarist/drummer Michael Coomers, vocalist/guitarist/drummer Curtis O'Mara and bassist Jose Boyer, formerly of Chapel Hill-based The Gondoliers and The Kashmir.-History:...
have also covered the song, and it is currently being performed at live shows by Liverpudlian band Lovecraft, recently signed to the Probe Plus
Probe plus
Probe Plus is a record label based in Liverpool, England. It was founded by Geoff Davies, an enthusiastic promoter of small, unsigned bands, who describes the label as "Music to drive you to drink"....
label.
In 2010, Island Def Jam artists The Airborne Toxic Event released a live CD/DVD containing a performance of this song, entitled All I've Ever Wanted.
In 2011, The Airborne Toxic Event released its second studio album, All At Once, containing a studio remake of this song.
Kele version
In 2011, Kele OkerekeKele Okereke
Kelechukwu "Kele" Rowland Okereke is a British musician, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Party.-Early life:...
, lead singer and rhythm guitarist
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
of acclaimed indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band Bloc Party
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are a British Indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke , Russell Lissack , Gordon Moakes , and Matt Tong...
, released a cover of "Goodbye Horses" on his EP The Hunter
The Hunter (Kele EP)
The Hunter is the first EP by Kele Okereke , lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the British rock band Bloc Party...
. This cover of the song is 4 minutes and 12 seconds long. It was produced by Daniel Lindegren, with additional production by Fred Falke
Fred Falke
Frédérick "Fred" Falke is a French based house producer and DJ of German origin.Falke started out as a bass player around 1995 before turning his hand to production work in the late 1990s...
.
A fan made video for the song was uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
on March 25, 2011, many months before the release of the EP. Kele posted the video on his blog.
External links
- William Garvey, Writer of Goodbye Horses - Garvey Music site
- William Garvey, Writer of Goodbye Horses - Garvey Media site
- Psyche's cover of Goodbye Horses
- Psyche performing Goodbye Horses - taken from the "Imaginary Life" DVD
- Carrier Flux's cover of Goodbye Horses (in MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format) - Ludwyg's adaptation of Goodbye Horses entitled "Horses in The Mirror"
- The Airborne Toxic Event's cover of Goodbye Horses Live Video
- Brad Sucks' cover of Goodbye Horses