"English history has always fascinated me: Robin Hood, Cromwell...Jack the Ripper."
-Katherine Hepburn as Tracy Lord, The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The unofficial video for "She's Easy" produced by the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, aired 2/14/81.
It's an interesting consideration that when newlyweds Trevor and Shelley moved to London in 1979, the milieu seemed to almost immediately influence Trevor's songwriting. When I interviewed Trevor via phone in July, he related to me how the city produced the greatest cultural shock he'd ever experienced - coming from the oft-horrific cloistered social experiment which was South Africa - and although he was pressured to write songs which were au courant in regards to his new residence, as he was not a son of Albion he felt he couldn't relate to what was going on in the country at the time; from a political standpoint at the very least. But both Face To Face and Wolf came to be peppered with British references which reflected the ways in which he was trying to fit into his adopted home.
But my true focus in this essay is a tip of the (witches) hat to the moments in which Trevor took a walk on the spooky side back in the London era. The first is the song "The Ripper" on Face To Face, the lyrics of which appear to combine references of two true crime figures: Jack the Ripper and Peter Sutcliffe, who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper, in the final throes of his serial killer career around the time the song was composed and recorded (Sutcliffe would be finally apprehended in 1981). The lyrics were composed by Trevor's then-manager Pete Smith (who also wrote the lyrics for "The Wanderer"), and the music is rather a sprightly tune with a memorable piano motif which does not really invoke a sense of dread in the evocation of the story, but rather focuses on how such a figure can remain a mystery even after attaining infamy. But to my reckoning it - much like the reference to Yorkshire in "Candy's Bar" and the portrayal of London (though not specifically named) in "Now" - was a way of acknowledging Trevor was now planted in British soil, hoping to take root on his own terms.
But a more academic interpretation is offered in Chapter Two of Jane Caputi's feminist academic study The Age of Sex Crime (University of Wisconsin Press, 1987). In "The Ripper Repetitions," she notes the song as part of a tradition (even in rock n'roll) which recounts and mythologizes the acts of a now notorious murderer; and its chilling quality comes from the first-person narrative of the lyrics themselves:
Rats, they'll call me just The Ripper
and George would love to know my name.
Fast, but man you know I'm quicker
I'll rid the world of all that shame.
The "George" which the song refers to is West Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, nominally in charge of the Yorkshire Ripper investigation.
The second track which I will next expound upon is rather more dread-full, though according to Trevor it was actually written as a joke of sorts. And it appears on an album which does have a rather frightening cover by early-1980s standards:
Wolf, Chrysalis Records 1981
Taking the piss or no, the lyrics of "She's Easy" do reference a frightening figure of lore: that of the succubus. Because I believe this is not merely the tale of an nymphomaniac...but one who displays seemingly supernatural abilities.
Oooh yeah she goes down on you and she don't come up for air.
Oooh yeah she takes pride in love, it's a little much to bear.
In my estimation, this is a particularly telling couplet:
More than a woman, born out of a dream.
She takes you further than you've ever seen.
...because in various mythologies and literature the succubus is a malevolent force which may appear to men in their dreams for the purposes of sexual congress...which then leads to the male becoming sick or dying.
No resistance, you can do what you like
but you feel like a man, feels more like you died.
Think it's over, settle the score
then you turn your back, but she still wants some more.
Despite what can be construed as the cheesiness of the lyrics, the music is one of Trevor's strongest rock tracks: a great hook and chorus and a masterful long instrumental section, one of the standout guitar solos (along with "Heard You Cry Wolf" and "Looking For A Lady (Wolfman)") on the album. The riff itself is a bit dark, which in turn fits the somewhat menacing tone of the lyrics, although I believe they are purposely ambiguous in regards to the portrayal of the female in question. As the character who relates the allure of the subject, the emotional impact of Trevor's vocal comes across as more fearful than aroused.
The BBC2 musical variety television program The Old Grey Whistle Test chose "She's Easy" as a song to set to vintage film stock (as was their tradition with various new discoveries since the show's inception) and they used a short featuring puppets engaging in a romantic assignation (which turns into a comedy of errors when another man intrudes upon their interlude). I have wondered for many years if perhaps the use of a Hammer Horror like The Vampire Lovers wouldn't have been more appropriate, but probably difficult in regards to obtaining clearance. It was aired on their Valentine's Day broadcast in 1981, and is a rather twisted valentine at that when you consider what the song may truly be portraying.
Trevor would go on to score the horror film Exorcist: The Beginning (taking over for Christopher Young, who was the composer on the film when it was helmed by Paul Schrader) as well as various action thrillers like Deep Blue Sea and Snakes On A Plane, so Trevor's capacity for entertaining the eldritch continues to haunt him!
(This is where I would insert a creepy evil laugh, so let's just imagine I did. And now I bid you loyal readers adieu...be safe, sane and spooky, mwahahaha!)
