Hong Kong Garden (song)
| "Hong Kong Garden" | ||||||||
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| Single by Siouxsie and the Banshees | ||||||||
| B-side | "Voices (On the Air)" | |||||||
| Released | 18 August 1978 | |||||||
| Format | 7" | |||||||
| Recorded | 1978, Olympic Studios (London) |
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| Genre | Post-punk | |||||||
| Length | 2:52 | |||||||
| Label | Polydor | |||||||
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| Siouxsie and the Banshees singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Hong Kong Garden" is a song by the English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released as the debut non-album single by the band in 1978 by Polydor Records. The single quickly hit number 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
The song is now widely acknowledged as a classic. In March 2005, Q placed it in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever" and British writer Colin Larkin qualified it as "sublime".
The instrumental first version, called "People Phobia", was composed by guitarist John McKay in 1977. The first time the band heard it, they were on a tour bus.
The song was named after the Hong Kong Garden Chinese take-away in Chislehurst High Street. Siouxsie was quoted as explaining the lyrics with reference to the racist activities of skinheads visiting the take-away:
I'll never forget, there was a Chinese restaurant in Chislehurst called the 'Hong Kong Garden'. Me and my friend were really upset that we used to go there and like, occasionally when the skinheads would turn up it would really turn really ugly. These gits would just go in en masse and just terrorise these Chinese people who were working there. We'd try and say 'Leave them alone', you know. It was a kind of tribute.
Siouxsie put all her anger and frustration into the words:
I remember wishing that I could be like Emma Peel from The Avengers and kick all the skinheads' heads in, because they used to mercilessly torment these people for being foreigners. It made me feel so helpless, hopeless and ill.
The band's label Polydor Records booked the Olympic Studios in London in July 1978 to record the song with the help of American producer Bruce Albertine, who was more into soul music. The result wasn't convincing; the band hated it. Their manager Nils Stevenson quickly decided to call another sound engineer who had a musical approach closer to theirs. Lillywhite was in London at that time recording with Johnny Thunders.
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Wikipedia