Behind the Songs: Susan's Strange

A few quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on the song "Susan's Strange."

Interviewer: "After The Psychedelic Furs came out in the UK, you did a couple of tracks ["Susan's Strange" and "Soap Commercial"] with Martin Hannett."

Richard Butler: "We tried out Martin Hannett because I really liked the way that the John Cooper Clarke album sounded."

Interviewer: "Rather than Joy Division."

Richard Butler: "I liked Joy Division, but it was more to do with John Cooper Clarke – another obvious Bob Dylan wannabe! So we tried Martin Hannett out but we didn't like it. It was too murky."

Interviewer: "Was there any personal conflict there?"

Richard Butler: "No, not at all. We just didn't like the sound of it." (iJamming! 2001)

John Ashton: "We got to work with Martin Hannett right around the Talk Talk Talk period when Steve [Lillywhite] wasn't around. We got to cut some tracks with Martin Hannett which ended up being on the domestic issue of the first album. I think it was 'Susan's Strange' and 'Soap Commercial.' These songs replaced 'Blacks/Chaos/Radio' and they were produced by Martin Hannett." (Everyone Loves Guitar podcast 2021)

Interviewer: "Martin Hannett also did some production work on that first album?"

Tim Butler: "Yeah, he produced 'Susan's Strange', and, what was the other one he produced? I've forgotten the other one, oh, 'Soap Commercial', which weren't on the English version of that album, because on the English version of that album we had a track called 'Blacks/Radio/Chaos', it was like a long jamming track, and CBS thought it sounded like it was racist but it wasn't. So on the US copy of that album, we put 'Susan's Strange' and 'Soap Commercial' on it." (The Collapse Board 2024)

Photo: Allan Tannenbaum