CLEOPATRA RECORDS: A Tribute to [insert band here]

Does anyone besides Ned and me remember these things?

These guys used to put out comp after comp after comp of terrible "tribute" albums to various artists, pimping their okay-to-actively-terrible roster of bands on material far above their pay grade, often with hilarious results.

For example, this happened: http://www.amazon.com/100-Tears-Tribute-Various-Artists/dp/B000001JKA

This version always stayed with me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auKh-597xBQ

there are about a bazillion of these things floating around

Razed In Black were always good for that sweet spot of lols and competence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEBC8vOP1bA

I wish I could find the Prince tribute on Youtube, because everyone needs to hear how Sigue Sigue Sputnik does "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man"

Sigue Sigue Sputnik does "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man"

even as a sss fan i've not heard this ..

[but then i never followed the cover version album thing that cleopatra/cherry red seemed to love for a few years]

seems that cleopatra had a certain niche groove going on for a while then ?

Oh dear, too many memories.

I invite the lurking ghost of mackro mackro to chime in...

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Songs-Of-Terror-A-Gothic-Tribute-To-Edgar-Allan-Poe/release/2201324

That "Disintegration" cover is cracking me up!! I've heard a handful of hilariously ridiculous & awful Razed in Black recordings, but I hadn't heard that one before.

re: discogs post : struggling to figure out which is the band and which is the track name ..

then again, not struggling that much ..

i love sputnik doing elvis, nin and revolting cocks doing olivia, ministry doing dylan, murderdolls doing idol, and various others,

but beyond that should i be more wary in my love of industrial styled cover versions of classics ?

The best/worst example of a Cleopatrization of a release was the V/A The Whip compilation from 1983. Here was the original... certainly goth, but in a subtle way, with sun/hippiness in the four quadrants. I like this album cover. Not a classic, but it's great. I can talk about it for a while.

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-525120-1283804140.jpeg

So, unsurprisingly, Cleopatra Records reissued this compilation in 1993. Besides adding bonus tracks that was brand new material, this is what the album cover became:

http://officialnosferatu.co.uk/thewhipalbumcoverlge.jpg

I kinda imagine the head of Cleopatra Records as this Gary Marshall type of guy, but always wearing the hip goth T-shirt of exactly 12 years ago. YOU GOTTA GIVE WHAT THOSE VAMPYAHZ CAME FOR, HERE!

Uh..
http://www.discogs.com/Various-A-Tribute-To-Van-Halen-Hot-For-Remixes/release/372065

Haha. I have a similarly terrible Led Zeppelin tribute album - REMIXED - that I think is called The Song Becomes Remixed or something. On my version it also says something like "METAL VS. ELECTRONICA" on the cover. Yeah.

oh yeah I believe I still have a few of those babies at home - the Sisters of M one comes to mind and of course that Whip compilation upthread. Those were the best of times

is this a goth thing

yes

I bought the Madonna one (ONE of the Madonna ones!) when I was obsessed w/Switchblade Symphony in high school and needed to catch all their traxxx in a pre-MP3 world of ease. They did a pretty bland cover of "Lucky Star." It's the kind of thing you should know is a waste of money going in and, thinking about it, maybe this is why I'm soured against completism today.

Like part of how my galpals and I dealt with being attracted to/embarrassed by gothy music & clothes & all was to treat it like "isn't this hilarious and stupid" and pretending to sing everything like Ofra Haza or the chick from Jack Off Jill because, I mean GOD, I mean, right? Part of that was just being a teenager whose preternatural state was "embarrassed." Part of it was some of that aesthetic was genuinely a little embarrassing, or maybe just overwrought. And some of it was just toooooo boring to even make fun of or be embarrassed by, which is what these compilations prove.

this one should be a perfect storm of awesome for Ned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmv4QgSvgck

Well well.

comes from here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017AQ880/ref=dm_sp_alb

Did Razed In Black appear on all of these things???? lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFTUS-2Bh3U

I mean.... why???

Because.

PTSD cant talk about it

then you have offshoots that mined the same territory but smacked the Cleopatra comps around, like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6xd4cpIbew&list=PLWGkQMsZKJBZp2IQW5owtZ1lPG8d0F22m

(offshoots of the idea, it should be noted; I am pretty certain this predates all of the Cleopatra comps)

Hahah without even clicking on that link I knew EXACTLY what you had to be talking about.

this comp is almost solely responsible for taking A Broken Frame from "despised artifact of wrongness" to "interesting failed experiment" in my eyes

so sad that you had that in the "here, record this on a tape that you will eventually destroy" era of our friendship. my memories of it are probably finder than the actuality.

dude I still have the CD!

!!!

There is no reason why you would ever check out "A Psych Tribute to The Doors." The cover is awful. The Doors are ridiculous. Yet everyone manages to toss out the worst elements of The Doors and add enough of themselves to make a decent comp.

If you only listen to one, go directly to The Raveonettes' take on "The End." Good stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4psjXv9khM&list=RDY4psjXv9khM#t=5

So is Cleopatra still around? I think I would pay money to read a "oral history" type of book on that label

Coincidentally I just saw earlier this week that Cleopatra is putting out a new The Guess Who album next month!!

https://cleopatrarecords.bandcamp.com/

jesus

https://cleopatrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/8-assassins-beautiful-the-bad-the-ugly-original-motion-picture-soundtrack

Weirdest goddamn label.

Throwing shit at the wall with a fucking catapult.

This is very carefully phrased:

It was her original image, more than her music, that inspired Brian Perera, the head of Cleopatra Records, which specializes in projects of a historical nature, to propose the album to her.

So is Cleopatra still around? I think I would pay money to read a "oral history" type of book on that label

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, August 22, 2018 3:51 AM

I was just saying similar elsewhere!

the pastel ghost album on cleopatra is so so good

https://www.discogs.com/master/1426271-Pastel-Ghost-Ethereality

https://pastelghost.bandcamp.com/album/ethereality

I was suckered into picking up that Sisters of Mercy tribute when it came out, but without Cleopatra I don’t know if I would’ve discovered Kommunity FK so I call it even. Some of the absolute worst cover art and design on my shelves though; they never should’ve been given access to Photoshop.