"Gods Zoo" 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 English

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

band

Death Cult The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's ...

(who later shortened their name to

the Cult The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's ...

), released on 23 October 1983 by

Situation Two Situation Two (a.k.a. Situation 2) was a British independent record label founded in 1981 by Peter Kent as an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. At the time, Beggars Banquet releases were often distributed by WEA; to appeal to the indie ...

. The song is often, erroneously, spelled "God's Zoo" (with an

apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

in the word "Gods", indicating

possessive case A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...

Picture sleeve

No credit is given to the design of the picture sleeve for the single. The front features the group's name centered between four stereoscopic printed

television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

s. Within each television is an image. Clockwise from top left the images are as follows: (1) the group's

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

"skull" logo; (2) a nude female drawing (artist unknown, but the image is often credited to singer

Ian Astbury Ian Robert Astbury (born 14 May 1962) is an English singer, best known as a founding member, lead vocalist and frontman of the rock band the Cult. During various hiatuses from the Cult, Astbury has fronted the short-lived Holy Barbarians in 1 ...

, even though this has never been confirmed); (3) a portion of a Tim Page photograph of

ARVN The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. It is estimated to have suffe ...

soldiers interrogating a

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

suspect (the group's first release, the eponymous ''Death Cult'' EP, also featured a Tim Page Vietnam photograph on its picture sleeve, and both

Astbury Astbury is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Andrew Astbury, English swimmer *Ian Astbury, English rock singer *Jill Astbury, Australian researcher into violence against women *William Astbury, English physicist and molecular bio ...

and guitarist

Billy Duffy William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of the band The Cult. Early life Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guit ...

have expressed an interest in the history of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, which was also apparently a trend in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

at the time); (4) a portion of a photograph of

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

(one of the group's influences).

B-side

The

is labeled

A SIDE The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

, and AA SIDE (for the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

), which is an extended and

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed version of the title track titled "Gods Zoo (These Times)".

History

"Gods Zoo" was released while the group was still recording and performing as Death Cult (they would not change their name to the Cult until 13 January 1984) and was intended to be the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

for Death Cult's first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

(tentatively titled ''A Flower in the Desert'').Monroe: 1992 A joint 4AD and

Beggars Banquet ''Beggars Banquet'' is the 7th British and 9th American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 6 December 1968 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and London Records in the United States. It was the first Ro ...

7" promotional EP, titled ''A Sampling Above the Rest'' (catalogue number VTO 1), featured "Gods Zoo (These Times)" as a promotional track with the following description: "taken from the forthcoming Death Cult cassette and album". A full-length Death Cult album never materialized. The group's developed material was eventually incorporated into what would become the ''

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology, Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Ja ...

'' album, which was released nearly a year later and under the group's new name. Conspicuously missing from the finalized album was "Gods Zoo", making it a stand-alone single.

Chart positions

Track listing

Release information pertains to the

release only.

7": Situation Two SIT 29

# "Gods Zoo" – 3:26 # "Gods Zoo (These Times)" – 5:09

12": Situation Two SIT 29T

# "Gods Zoo" – 3:26 # "Gods Zoo (These Times)" – 5:09

Australian release

"Gods Zoo", as a single, was released only in the UK and

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 ...

. The Australian version was only issued in the 7" format and was distributed by the

Powderworks Records Powderworks Records as Powderworks Records & Tapes Pty Limited was an Australian record label established in 1977, head-quartered in Brisbane. It was owned by members of Midnight Oil and their talent manager, Gary Morris. Aside from recording, i ...

label (catalogue number POW 0179). It was released in 1983, but the specific day and month of the release is unknown. The track listing was the same as the UK single.

Personnel

- vocals *

- guitars * Jamie Stewart - bass guitar *

Nigel Preston Nigel Preston (4 April 1963, Birmingham, England – 1 April 1992) was an English drummer. He was a founding member of the Cult. He also played and recorded with Theatre of Hate, Sex Gang Children, the Baby Snakes, the Gun Club and DeLuca. He ...

- drums Also credited: * Jeremy Green - producer and engineer "Gods Zoo" marked the debut of Death Cult's new drummer,

. Preston replaced the group's previous drummer,

Ray Mondo Raymond Taylor-Smith (birth date unknown, born in Sierra Leone) was a drummer for several notable British post-punk and gothic rock groups during the early 1980s. He is best known by his stage name, Ray Mondo. Ray Mondo first appeared on the Briti ...

, just prior to entering the studio to record the single.Frame: 1998 Preston had previously worked with Duffy in

Theatre of Hate Theatre of Hate are a British post-punk band formed in London, England, in 1980. Led by singer-songwriter Kirk Brandon (formerly of the Pack), the original group also consisted of bassist Stan Stammers (formerly of the Straps and the Epilept ...

. After his departure from Theatre of Hate, Preston joined

Sex Gang Children Sex Gang Children are an early gothic rock and post-punk band that formed in early 1982 in Brixton in London, England. Although the original group only released one official studio album, their singles and various other tracks have been pack ...

in September 1982.Frame: 1998 When Preston was recruited to join Death Cult in September 1983, he essentially "swapped" with Ray Mondo.Frame: 1998 Ray Mondo played his last gig with Death Cult on 19 September 1983 at the Brixton Ace in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Shortly afterwards, he filled the vacant drummer position with Sex Gang Children.Strong: 2003

''Death Cult EP''

Both tracks from the "Gods Zoo" single were collected, along with the contents of the earlier eponymous EP, on a single

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 ...

in 1988, simply titled ''Death Cult''. The same material was remastered and reissued (along with some radio session material) in 1996 as ''

Ghost Dance The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilso ...

''.

''A Historical Debt''

In 1991, the Cult donated the track "Gods Zoo", royalty free, for the

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

''A Historical Debt''. released by Beechwood Music Limited. The album's intent was to help independent groups and labels caught in the wake of the

Rough Trade Distribution Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pu ...

collapse.

Footnotes

References

* * *

External links

Death Cult
at ''Death Rock''
Death Cult
at ''Discogs'' {{The Cult The Cult songs