Remembering: Therapy...'Diane'

So much better than the Husker Du original..and is surely the only ballad that contains the line ‘But I think I’ll just rape you and kill you instead’.  Therapy? make such a brilliant job of this song from beginning to end. Far superior on every level to the original which pales so badly into insignificance it should never have been written first. Andy Cairns expressive vocals plunder the ground between menacing (hey little girl wanna go for a ride) and psychotic (You're the cutest girl I've ever seen in my life/but it's over now with my knife) to echo across the tender string arrangement that drops to an earth scraping  bass tone before climbing upwards on bursts of tormented cello staccato. The song is about the abduction and rape of Diane Edwards from a shopping mall in the USA and is sung from the perspective of the abductor which, in this case, is brilliantly voiced with sinister edginess.

The song was written by Husker Du drummer Grant Hart and featured on their Metal Circus EP (1983)

The cover by Therapy? is featured on their 1995 album Infernal Love and was also released as a single by the band on 6th November of that year, 

Hey little girl wanna go for a ride ?
There's room and my wagon is parked right outside
We can cruise down Rober Street all night long
But I think I'll just rape you and kill you instead.

Diane Diane Diane
Diane Diane Diane

I hear there's a party at Lake Cove
It'll be much easier if I drove
We could check it out,we can go and see
Come on take a ride with me

Diane Diane Diane
Diane Diane Diane

Lay down together for a while
I'll put all your clothes in a nice neat little pile
You're the cutest girl I've ever seen in my life
But it's over now with my knife

Diane Diane Diane
Diane Diane Diane

THERAPY? HOMEPAGE