Sarah McLachlan has a cover of a Killing Joke song. Wait–what?
My favourite Killing Joke song of all time is “Love Like Blood” from 1985. Long before she struck it big as a solo artist, Sarah McLachlan performed the song with a band that would later go on to help her record the Touch album and the tours that followed. (Unfortunately for them, they were all fired just before the Solace record.)
This recording was made at the Railway Club in Vancouver on March 17, 1989. According to the description, it’s 21-year-old Sarah on vocals with Jeff Sawatzky on bass, Sherri Leigh Iwaschuk on drums and Darren Phillips on keyboards. The band had one album and needed to fill out their set with some covers.
I wonder how long this will stay up before someone demands a takedown. Word is there are lots of these sorts of demos and boots out there.
(Via Larry)
No offence to Ms. McLachlan, but the best part of that recording is the band – in particular the rhythm section. A) who was responsible for firing them? And B) did they resurface under a different name? The drummer in particular had serious chops. Wow.
Hey Tim…I”m the bassist. Sherri Leigh Iwaschuk was the drummer. We had played together in several bands in Edmonton (Voice with Dwayne Goettel) before moving to Vancouver to play with Sarah. That’s why we were so tight. Nettwerk and Sarah were responsible for ‘letting us go’. No explanations…she just moved on. Sherri and I played with Bolero Lava for a while and then we went our separate ways.
My favourite Killing Joke song, too. This cover is kind of meh (some of the high notes at the end really go awry), but probably would have been fun to see in person. I saw Sarah play twice in 1989, each time as the opening act for the Grapes of Wrath. Nettwerk double bill.
I am not a fan of Sarah McLachlan although, admittedly, I’ve sampled very little of her music but the whole etheral thing doesn’t suit me. I like my female vocalists to have power and preferably wail quite a bit like Siouxsie or Sinead or even the Chrissy or Pat’s of the music world. This makes me respect her a bit but not enough to try her music out. I am curious about the band name though.