Friday, June 27, 2008

What Ever Happened to Q Lazzarus? Q Who?

We played last night in San Diego w/ The Hectors. Near the end of their set, they played a great cover of the Q Lazzarus song "Goodbye Horses". Apparently they had been playing Grand Theft Auto 4 and "Goodbye Horses" is part of the soundtrack. Hearing the song led me to look up its history and some info on the the one-hit-wonder known as Q Lazzarus.



Like many people, I first heard the song in the movie Silence of the Lambs. If you've seen the movie, you know that the song is played during a sort of disturbing scene when the serial killer, Buffalo Bill, is dancing in front of a mirror.

Before its placement in the movie, the song seems to have hardly made a dent in popular consciousness. It was released in 1988 and apparently was in the movie Married to the Mob, which, like Silence of the Lambs, was also directed by Johnathan Demme.

After it appeared in Silence of the Lambs, the song was used in a spoof scene in Clerks 2, which you can see below:



Finally, as The Hectors pointed out to me last night, the song has become part of the Grand Theft Auto 4 soundtrack. As far as the mysterious Q Lazzarus, it has been rumored that she was a NYC taxi cab driver before the song was recorded. There is also a MySpace Page that claims to be her personal page.

By the way, what does the song "Goodbye Horses" mean anyway? According to a member of Q Lazzarus:

"In an Eastern philosophy "horses" are symbolic/representative of the 5 senses - the things that keep us tied to the physical/material plane of existence. When you can transcend the limitations of these senses and achieve a higher level of consciousness, you are leaving the "horses" behind - "flying over them." The song is about someone who was so affected by (A loss? A breakup?) they decide to give up the things that keep them tied to this world by emotion."

1 comment:

Michael C. Hsiung said...

I was very much infatuated with this song and when I danced to it I felt weird a bit. That scene in Silence of the Lambs is etched into my psyche. Now, I'm obsessed with Joe Conti.