"Mittageisen" | ||||
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Single by Siouxsie and the Banshees | ||||
B-side | "Love in a Void" | |||
Released | September 1979 | |||
Format | 7" vinyl | |||
Recorded | 1978 | |||
Genre | Post-punk | |||
Length | 3:00 | |||
Label | Polydor | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Nils Stevenson, Mike Stavrou | |||
Siouxsie and the Banshees singles chronology | ||||
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"Mittageisen" is a song by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Originally appearing on the band's 1978 debut album The Scream as "Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)", the track was re-recorded in 1979, this time with the lyrics sung in German, and released as a single in West Germany. Later in September of that year it was given a UK release by record label Polydor.
The title "Mittageisen" is a word play based on the German words "Mittagessen" (literally: "noon meal", i.e. lunch) and Eisen ("iron"). The title was inspired by John Heartfield's Hurrah, die Butter ist Alle! ("Hurray, the Butter is Finished!"), which was also used as the single's cover art.
Heartfield's photocollage was initially used on the front page of the Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (Workers Illustrated Journal), published on 19 December 1935. Heartfield (1891–1968) was an early member of Club Dada, which started in 1916 as Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich. The picture with the title 'Hurrah, die Butter ist Alle! / Hurray, the butter is finished!' shows a family who eats various pieces of metal. The trigger for it was the following quote from Hermann Göring: "Iron always made a nation strong, butter and lard only made the people fat".
"Mittageisen" was composed by Siouxsie Sioux, John McKay, Kenny Morris and Steven Severin; the lyrics were translated into German by their manager Dave Woods and a woman named Renate. The single was dedicated to John Heartfield.
The B-side, "Love in a Void", was composed by Siouxsie and short-lived former Banshees guitarist Peter Fenton. The track was an early live favourite; it was also the first song of their first John Peel session, recorded in late November 1977. "Love in a Void" had not been recorded for Polydor until this release.