The Spirit Is Free Where The Wild Things Roam

Our favourite video model returns for this organ-powered cover of a banger from The Cult.

‘Electric Ocean’ appears on The Cult’s 1987 album ‘Electric.’ Like the rest of that record, it’s leathery and cocky and thrusty. But it wasn’t always like that. It was born in a cold Canadian studio that you know had to be lit by candles, and there was probably a scarf hanging from the mic stand.

The Cult recorded the followup to ‘Love’ at The Manor in England in 1986. By all accounts, things did not go well, and the label was not happy with the multi-multi-multi-tracked sound of the new songs. The band connected with rap producer Rick Rubin, who started off aiming to remix one track and ended up scrapping the whole thing, taking away Billy Duffy’s pedals and re-recording the tracks for ‘Electric,’ which was a worldwide hit and, along with AC/DC’s ‘Who Made Who,’ and Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria,’ re-ignited public interest in radio-friendly hard rock.

The final version of ‘Electric Ocean,’ like every other song on ‘Electric,’ borrows from AC/DC, Sabbath and Zeppelin. Simple riffs, crisp, clear beats and basic basslines under how-loud-can-I-go vocals. Decades later, it still sounds great on a car stereo on the open road.

‘Electric’ had a few songs re-recorded from The Manor Sessions: ‘Love Removal Machine,’ ‘Wild Flower,’ ‘Peace Dog,’ ‘Outlaw,’ ‘Bad Fun.’ Other songs, like ‘Conquistador’ and ‘Groove Co.’ were released as ‘Electric’ B-sides or as part of the 12-inch vinyl singles bands were doing at the time. Rubin added a few songs, including a really shitty cover of ‘Born To Be Wild,’ probably because he knew American rock kids had this image of the Cult as being kind of soft like the Smiths and the Cure and the Bunnymen and knew he had to crank things up.

‘Electric Ocean’ is an odd one. The version I first heard wasn’t from those sessions. The band first recorded it in 1985 at Le Studio in Quebec, an early home of Rush. That candle-lit take on the Astbury/Duffy song first showed up in the 1986 movie ‘Out Of Bounds‘ (starring action hero Anthony Michael Hall at his eightiest, with a cameo from Siouxsie and the Banshees).

I was working in a library at the time and ordered the soundtrack LP just so I could tape that song off it. That version sounded like a progression from ‘Love.’ Huge echoes, slithery guitars with an overload of effects, a cowbell leading the way, very lo-fi overall. ‘OK,’ I thought. ‘They’re going all-in on the psychedelia.’

I played that version of ‘Electric Ocean for years, adding it to my mixed tapes as I cobbled together the Manor sessions from those B-sides and the singles boxed set The Cult put out in the early 90s. My rocker friends hated it. They came around when ‘Electric’ came out and they saw Billy Duffy in the ‘Love Removal Machine’ video.

I was surprised when the full Manor sessions were part of the Rare Cult boxed set in 2001. The Manor version of ‘Electric Ocean’ was very different from both the Quebec and the New York recordings, falling somewhere in between. It had a hard-rock edge and much better production while maintaining some of the otherworldly effects of the original, which was likely just a demo meant to test out Le Studio’s sound while the band was on tour. The fact that it was not an album-ready track did not occur to me at the time because I assumed that any song on the soundtrack to an Anthony Michael Hall movie must be a big deal. NOTE: I was right, but not because of ‘Electric Ocean.’

The Cult wasn’t the only band to have a song appear exclusively on that album. The same thing happened to Night Ranger, and Bon Jovi wrote the movie’s title track, which wasn’t even used. If you’re interested in obscure ’80s rock trivia, scroll down to the ‘Soundtrack’ section on the ‘Out Of Bounds’ Wikipedia page. NOTE: I did eventually buy the LP, but at a clearance sale.

The Lost Machines have a Cult tribute album in the vault. It is not very good. We recorded a few covers over several years, some with our classic four-piece lineup, some with our three-bass attack squad and some during our electronic period. That’s where our take on ‘Electric Ocean’ — inspired by the ‘Electric’ and ‘Out Of Bounds’ versions — comes from, which is why it sounds more like a 12-inch dance remix than a single. And there are no vocals, because we never did find anyone who could do it like Ian Astbury.

Original song: Astbury/Duffy. Lyrics:

Oh yeah
Ah-ah
Oh yeah

Standin’ at the shore
A hurricane calls my name
Beyond all I dream
The electric ocean

Oh yeah
Ah-ah
Oh yeah

The spirit is free
Where the wild things roam
Next to the sea
The electric ocean

Ocean of love (ocean of love)
I’m thinkin’ of (I’m thinkin’ of)
The place to be (the place to be)
Electric sea

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Ocean of love (ocean of love)
I’m thinkin’ of (I’m thinkin’ of)
The place to be (the place to be)
Electric, electric sea, ow, yeah

Ocean of love
I’m thinkin’ of
The place to be
The electric sea

Ocean of love, yeah baby (ocean of love)
I’m thinkin’ of (I’m thinkin’ of)
The place to be (the place to be)
The electric, the electric sea

Source: Musixmatch