One thing that’s always bugged me about Self Control is the “I live among the creatures of the night” line. It just doesn’t fit her. Laura Branigan seemed like she would be more at home in a sunshiney meadow cavorting with fluffy bunnies or something.
But yeah, great voice, great songs.
Hey, good point!
I wonder if she wrote her own songs…
One of my random, persistent memories is of Branigan performing “Gloria” on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In the video (to the extent it makes any sense at all), she seems to be enticed, and even victimized, by the world she finds herself in. If Branigan is the fluffy bunny type, it gives the song a sort of stranger-in-a-strange-land, can’t-help-herself vibe. It’s quite different than if Diamanda Galás had done it, but no less valid.
“Gloria” and “Self Control” and some of her other best songs were actually written (and first performed) by Italian men, including Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi. The original lyrics and original feel of the songs were sometimes quite different.
I didn’t know that Self Control had been performed by someone else, but in the case of Gloria, it’s actually the opposite : Tozzi’s original version is the one I’m familiar with. And, while I don’t speak Italian, the little that I understand is enough to realize that the lyrics are very different indeed.
Which explains why one of Laura Branigan’s songs had the Italian title “Ti Amo,” despite the lyrics otherwise being in English. This is another case where the English lyrics are very different from the original Italian.