"Dead Eyes Opened" is a song by the

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n group

Severed Heads Severed Heads were an Australian electronic music group founded in 1979 as Mr and Mrs No Smoking Sign. The original members were Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright, who were soon joined by Tom Ellard. Fielding and Wright had both left the band b ...

, originally released on their 1983 album '' Since the Accident''. Upon its initial release as a 12-inch record single in 1984, the track received critical success. A remixed version released in October 1994 achieved commercial success in Australia, peaking at #16 on the

ARIA Charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

. In 2015, the song was listed at number 16 in In the Mix's '100 Greatest Australian Dance Tracks of All Time'.

Background

Initially, ''Since the Accident'' was a cassette tape recorded between 1982 and 1983, and "Dead Eyes Opened" was only left on said tape to help fill up the blank space. The song includes a spoken word sample, which was credited by

Tom Ellard Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in '' Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

in 2006 to be Edgar Lustgarten in the television series '' Scales of Justice.'' Lustgarten is the narrator, but the sample is from the episode ''Death on the Crumbles'' from the earlier BBC radio series of the same name. The show was based on the 1924 murder of Emily Kaye.

Release and reception

The track was released as a 12-inch

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

single in early 1984 to help promote ''Since the Accident'', to which it received favorable reviews from critics. ''Sounds'' magazine critic Dave Henderson described the track as ''"gutsy, emotional, and melodic sound"'' and, along with nine other singles released that same week, gave the track "Single of the Week" status. AllMusic critic Sean Carruthers gave the single 4 and a half stars out of a possible five, stating that it's ''"...a great introduction for the band for North American audiences"''.

, frontman of Severed Heads, has expressed his distaste for the track many times throughout the years, even calling it "insipid" in one interview; and introducing the track during one live performance by stating "Here's a song we've all come to hate over the years." The single received a commercial release in Australia in June 1984. Since its initial release in 1984, the single has been reissued a few times, each "version" includes a completely new track listing from the original.

Nettwerk Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk Management, and Nettwerk One Publishing. Established in 1984, the Vancouver-based company was created by Nettwerk principals Terry McBride and Mark Jowett as a record ...

reissued the single as a 12-inch

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

in 1986, complete with new tracks, in order to help promote the then-newly released '' Come Visit The Big Bigot''. Similarly,

Volition Records Volition Records was a Sydney, Australia-based record label specialising in electronic music styles such as house, techno, synthpop and trance. It was founded by Andrew Penhallow in the late 1980s, but folded in the late 1990s. Amongst the ...

, in partnership with

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

, released another version of the single in 1994, now set with new remixes of the track, to help promote '' Gigapus''. The entire 1986

single was also included on the

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

version of ''Come Visit The Big Bigot'', which was titled as ''Come Visit The Big Bigot With Dead Eyes Opened'', while the entire 1994 Volition single was included as a bonus second disc on some versions of ''Gigapus''.

Track listing

Original Ink Records 1984 12"

Nettwerk 1986 12"

Volition Records 1994 CD

Chart history

References

External links

*
Bandcamp page (1994 Version)
{{authority control 1984 debut singles 1984 songs