Bela Lugosi's Dead

This song has a dual meaning.

It is actually a complaint about how the style had been commercialized, and how that scene was dying.

The kids back then were not called "Goth", they were called "Bat Cavers". The big club in London was The Bell Tower.

He says "White and white translucent black capes, back on the rack": He was saying the style had made it to the stores "on the rack".

"The Bats have left the Bell Tower": The club had closed earlier that year..

Believe me, I was there.

They stopped wearing Goth clothes after that record. For the most part.

Re: it being about Lugosi himself as opposed to the role of Dracula. I considered that the case -- in the way that a professional actor will get so into his role he 'becomes' the character. (Lugois's request to be buried in the cape just seems to compound this.)

So for him to be 'undead' is the result of an actor so typecast that even in death he's still either behaving or considered in line with the role of Dracula.

P.S.- Dear 'true goths'... how about just listening to the music you like, instead of complaining that others don't? :)

A minor proposition, yet I've never heard others talk about it. Could it be that this song refers not to Lugosi's characterisation of Dracula, but his actual life? Specifically, I was thinking about his 'role' in Plan 9 From Outer Space. Ed Wood had been 'good' friends with Lugosi, filming some of his last footage, which later found its way into the material of Plan 9. After Lugosi's death, Wood found a man to cast as Lugosi's fill in for much of the remainder of the movie ( though the scenes are completely scattered around ). This man of course bore little resemblance to Lugosi, except for the top of his head - he was ordered to keep his face and body covered in the vampire cape, thus creating the illusion that Lugosi was just in full costume.

This 'resurrection' of Lugosi could be, in my view, considered as a raising of the dead to a limbo state of 'undeadness.'

I don't think there's anything at all eerie to the lyrics of the song. It seems a mere commentary on the irony of Lugosi's death.

ok, so here's kinda how i could possibly analyze this song: White on white translucent black capes = this might have something to do with his skin tone after being dead, how it's pale and translucent and if eyelids were like capes, covering, then you can add that they're translucent white skin over white eyeballs... next. Back on the rack = goes back to the black cape, it goes back on the rack because he's no longer there to wear it. Bela Lugosi's dead = self explanatory. The bats have left the bell tower = he was partly crazy anyways. The victims have been bled = he was a big alcoholic so perhaps this has to do with the bottles left everywhere, empty. Red velvet lines the black box = his coffin. Undead undead undead = he'll never really be dead in the eyes of his fans... or perhaps this line goes with the next, his virginal brides filing past his tomb are the ones who are undead. Strewn with time's dead flowers Bereft in deathly bloom Alone in a darkened room The count Bela Logosi's dead = this most likely has to do with the body left all alone at the wake or just stuffed in the back, to wait for his burial/cremation. And that's if i try to analyze it... otherwise i just love the play on words "been bled the red..." :)

this is obviously about -the- funeral of the great, Bela Lugosi. it's just reffering to what you would have seen if you were there. and red velvet lined his coffin.

Bela was buried in his actual cape from Dracula and the coffin was lined in

Ha, I totally agree with everything everybody's said about this being the REAL goth music as opposed to Marilyn Manson and the similar singers and bands parading under the label of "goth". To me, goth music means Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nico, and their ilk. To me, goth music is pretty much the same thing as post-punk; pretty much my favorite kind of music. (By the way, I'm a teenager - 15 years old at the time of writing - which means that at least we're not ALL listening to that dreadful stuff they insist on calling goth. Some of us still appreciate the old school stuff.)

Anyway, regarding the song itself - I once heard that it was supposed to be sort of a parody of old horror film cliches, but some see it as celebratory of said movies. I don't know enough about Bela Lugosi to say how this relates to his death or life or anything. I always thought that when he sang "Undead" he was really saying "I'm dead". When I realized that the word was "undead", though, I decided that it probably meant that, although Bela Lugosi himself is dead, the influential films he acted in are still around and in that regard he is not dead.

what is your problems? Ok, bauhaus are the original goth band and sound, and love bauhaus and have since in was a kid, but i also like black metal. Say you hate black metal all you want, its your matter of opinion, but music styles develop and change throughout the years and goth has developed into what it is now. Get on with it

I could listen to this song forever. Isn't it strange how goths have nothing to do with goth music?

(just in case somebody doesn't know), Bela Lugosi was the actor with Dracula's role in many old terror movies... he went down a selfdestruction spiral (i like how that sounds) and, when he knew he was gonna die, he gave instructions to be cremated wearing the count's cloak... quite sick if you ask me

the song is absolutely nuts!! its freakin eerie.. But the song which started the goth-rock genre is a definite favourite with the true fans of the sounds. And contrary to popular belief, Marylyn Manson IS NOT GOTH!!! His music's a pile of crap, his following, a school-herd of wannabe's Bauhaus is the original old school shit amigo's too bad the goth scene would probably never see itself rise to its earliest of cult followings