Wake (RSV)

This is Wayne Hussey's attack on Sisters Of Mercy mainman Andrew Eldritch, written during the "tricky divorce" period just after Hussey and bassist Craig Adams had quit the Sisters.

Compare and contrast "This Corrosion" by the Sisters, which is pretty much Von Eldritch's counterblast.

Blue Man is right, but This Corrosion came first, attacking The Mission (for touring as The Sisterhood and for playing songs originally intended to be Sisters songs), to which Wake is a rebuttal. Hussey even alludes to This Corrosion in the lines "Heartless wordplay and dreams of revenge", commenting on the wordplay throughout This Corrosion's lyrics, as well as the spiteful nature of the song. Hussey then begins the tyrade on Eldritch, citing his cocaine use ("living on the razor's edge". Read the lyrics to find out what the Vision Thing is.), but uses the chorus to note the absurdity of their quarrel before essentially finding a few different ways to say that Andy is a pretty admirable guy in some respects (Hell, he'd have to admire him to call his band The Sisterhood, wouldn't he?), he's basically too much of an egomaniacal dick to have anybody like him as a person. He has no friends; they died laughing at him. Wayne'd feel sorry for the guy if he weren't hurt by him. It's a shame Andrew is such a jerk, and Wayne sounds like he really still cares about him a bit. Andrew having some of his own medicine is the song referencing itself in response to This Corrosion, but since Eldritch thinks he's God, he may as well have God's Own Medicine. Death cures all ailments.

ModernDandy is basically right except that Wake is not a response to This Corrosion because This Corrosion didn\'t see the light of day until over a year later. Eldritch liked his wordplay so I don\'t think that is a specific reference to the song. \nI\'ve just read the book Paint My Name In Black And Gold which covers the Sisters early days up until the fallout from the split. It\'s interesting to find that the split was quite amicable until Eldtritch thought Hussey and Adams were planning to call themselves The Sisters , which apparently wasn\'t true and was all a misundestanding. Eldritch got his lawyers onto them , and they called themselves The Sisterhood initially to get up his nose.