"Gary Gilmore's Eyes" is a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

by the punk rock band

the Adverts The Adverts were an English punk band who formed in 1976 and broke up in late 1979. They were one of the first punk bands to enjoy chart success in the United Kingdom, UK; their 1977 single "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" reached No. 18 in the UK Single ...

. The song reached No. 18 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in September 1977 and earned the band an appearance on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

''. It was originally intended to be included on the band's debut album, '' Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts'', but was dropped at the last minute. It has, however, been included in most subsequent reissues of the album.

Background

The song was written from the point of view of a patient who has just undergone an eye transplant and discovers that he has received the eyes of the executed double murderer

Gary Gilmore Gary Mark Gilmore (born Faye Robert Coffman; December 4, 1940 – January 17, 1977) was an American criminal who gained international attention for demanding the implementation of his death sentence for two murders he had admitted to committing ...

. Gilmore had requested that his eyes be donated to science after his execution as "they'd probably be the only body part usable". After Gilmore's execution, several of his body parts were removed for possible use as transplants or for study. His

cornea The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. Along with the anterior chamber and lens, the cornea refracts light, accounting for approximately two-thirds of the eye's total optical power ...

s were used for transplants.

Track listing

1977 release

#"Gary Gilmore's Eyes" #"Bored Teenagers"

1983 release

#"Gary Gilmore's Eyes" #"New Day Dawning" #"We Who Wait"

Reception

The song was called "

anthemic "Anthemic" is a song by live electronic music project Magnetic Man. It is the fourth single to be released from the debut album ''Magnetic Man'' and was released as a digital download on 22 July 2011. For its release, grime rapper P Money was adde ...

punk" by Matthew Gilbert of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' and a "forgotten gem" by David Browne of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

''. ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

'' described it as "the sickest and cleverest record to come out of the new wave: Single of the Week". It was later included at No. 12 in ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: *Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

s list of the best punk rock singles of all time. The song was used in the soundtrack for ''

Shot in the Heart ''Shot in the Heart'' is a memoir written by Mikal Gilmore, then a senior contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', about his tumultuous childhood in a dysfunctional family, and his brother Gary Gilmore's eventual execution by firing squad in 197 ...

'', an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

movie based on the memoir of the same name written by

's brother,

Mikal Gilmore Mikal Gilmore (born February 9, 1951 in Portland, Oregon) is an American writer and music journalist. Writing career In the 1970s Gilmore began writing music articles and criticism for ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. In 1999, his ''Night Beat: A Shado ...

, about his

dysfunctional family A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often child neglect or abuse and sometimes even all of the above on the part of individual parents occur continuously and regularly, leading other members to accommodate suc ...

and the eventual murder and execution.

Cover versions

"Gary Gilmore's Eyes" was covered, in cooperation with Adverts frontman

T. V. Smith Timothy "T. V." Smith (born 5 April 1956) is an English singer-songwriter who was part of punk rock, punk band The Adverts in the late 1970s. Since then he has fronted other bands, as well as pursuing a solo career. Biography Smith and Gaye Ad ...

, in 1991 by the German punk band

Die Toten Hosen Die Toten Hosen (literally "The Dead Trousers", figuratively "The Deadbeats") is a German punk rock band from Düsseldorf. History The current members of Die Toten Hosen are Campino (Andreas Frege), Kuddel (Andreas von Holst), Vom (Stephe ...

, appearing on their album ''

Learning English, Lesson One ''Learning English, Lesson One'' or ''Learning English, Lesson 1'' (other punctuation variations possible) is a cover album by the German punk band Die Toten Hosen. The album includes covers of mostly British bands, which were big influences on ...

''. Smith later recorded another version of the song, backed by Die Toten Hosen, for his 2001 album ''Useless: The Very Best of T.V. Smith''. Finnish band Punk Lurex OK also covered the song, recorded in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

under the title "Tappajan Silmät" ("The Eyes of the Murderer"), and released it as a single in 1994. In 2000, Smith collaborated with Punk Lurex OK, recording another version of the song which was included on their joint EP, ''The Future Used to Be Better''. Smith released a live version of "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" on the 2009 album ''Live at the N.V.A. Ludwigsfelde, Germany''. Finnish

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

band

the Valkyrians The Valkyrians is a Finnish rocksteady and ska band. In 2006 they released their debut album ''High and Mighty'', which was popular on the radio and charted at #24 on the national Finnish album chart. One of the album's singles, "Rankin Fulls ...

released a version of "Gary Gilmore's Eyes", with Smith guesting, on their 2011 album ''Punkrocksteady''.

References

External links

* * * {{authority control 1977 singles 1977 songs Anchor Records singles Songs about criminals The Adverts songs Songs based on real people