Hamburger Lady loses a limb.
This small, insignificant looking hunting horn was recently sold on eBay… for $800/£520.
If I’d had £500 to spend on this ancient, battered horn, I would have. I’d have spent £1000… the reason being this particular horn played a significant role in molding my attitude towards music. Those that know me can therefore direct their thanks/blame towards this horn.
“So what’s so spectacular about this poxy thing?”, I hear you moo. Well, instead of spewing words at you, I’ll just encourage you to listen to this:
The horn can be heard throughout (although heavily Gristlized) and, I think you’ll agree, creates the most uneasy atmosphere with its repeated 3-note riff. From my position, this was the best introduction to any band I’ve heard.
I found Throbbing Gristle purely by chance. I was scouring the net for music that was completely different to everything else I’d heard. It was on a day that consisted of Acid Mother’s Temple screaming into my ears for breakfast, Julian Cope serving “Peggy Suicide” for lunch and Boredoms‘ “Super Ae” for dinner. By midnight I was typing “most disturbing songs” into Google and up cropped list after list of supposed nightmarish ditties, some of which I’d heard of, other I hadn’t. “Hamburger Lady” topped many of these lists.
After I’d heard it I was obsessed. I frantically tracked down every album they’d ever done, read up on their history and became familiar with the band and their frontwo/man: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (That’s his/her hand in the image above).
It was thanks to this iconic industrial band that I went further and discovered Suicide, Can, Cabaret Voltaire, Conspiracy International and others. To this day, “Hamburger Lady” still makes me feel queasy.
As with any fascinating story, there’s a sad side. This horn was used in every live performance of “Hamburger Lady” from 1976-2009, and now it’s gone. Which begs the question “Will the track ever be played again live?”. It’d be a damn shame if the answer is “no”.
Below is a replication of the original eBay listing (the link to the original posting is also included, but with eBay removing them after 90 days, I figured it’d be a worthy cause to have a record).
“Throbbing Gristle horn used on Hamburger Lady COUM
From personal archives of Genesis P-Orridge
Item condition: —
Ended: 15 Apr, 201018:09:16 BST
Bid history: 20 bids
Winning bid: US $800.00
. Approximately £521.41
Item number: 170470321248
Item location: New York, United States
Post to: Worldwide
EXTREMELY RARE UNIQUE ICON OF THROBBING GRISTLE AND INDUSTRIAL MUSIC!! “HAMBURGER LADY “ SIGNATURE SOUND FOX HUNTING HORN.
Almost anyone you ask to tell you their favourite Throbbing Gristle track, or the most uniquely memorable will reply, “HAMBURGER LADY”. The whole track is a TG tour de force by all four members. A breakthrough track for all Industrial Music to come afterwards. Chris Carter generates spooky hospital sounds with his synths, Cosey adds shredded washes of Gristleized guitar and Sleazy fragments of hallucinatory distant voices and half-recognizable medical noises. Genesis contributes a Gristleized deadpan true story about a horrifically burned car crash victim nicknamed the “Hamburger Lady” by the Hospital orderlies who had to take care of what remained of her. TG created a song that is to Industrial what The Velvet Undergrounds “Heroin” was to 60’s intelligent rock. BUT there is one more sound that above all the other tightly meshed layers of brutal sound and word make “Hamburger Lady” instantly recognizable. The “ooh eehaah” sound that occurs at almost regular intervals. People have puzzled over what it was ever since Genesis first played it in 1976. The sound is Gristleized so it modulates. HERE at last, for sale, is the answer. During the early 1970’s Genesis would, like many people, wander around Notting Hill Gate and Portobello Road in London and old curiosity shops and antique shops anywhere s/he traveled. Always looking for anything different that made a sound Genesis found an old fox hunting “SIGNAL HORN”. It is very battered and scratched but still works just fine. By blowing harder and softer you get those two haunting and forever immortalized notes that are the “sonic hook” that makes “Hamburger Lady” so instantly recognizable. Here are the technical details.
It is FIVE inches long. In 2 parts joined by a brass stud. Of unknown metal.
On one side it has engraved in it: “THE KOHLER SIGNAL HORN”
On the other side it has engraved: “1851 – 1852” and 2 stamps that might relate to the amount of silver in the metal.
It also has on this side: KOHLER & SON MAKERS BROMLEY KENT
And finally below that: ( FROM COVENT GARDEN ) LONDON
You can see from the photos how worn in it is. It is but remember it is 158 years old! The item will come with a signed letter of provenance from Genesis Breyer P-Orridge confirming that this IS the genuine, ONLY and original “Hamburger Lady” horn as used in the original recording on “D.O.A.” , used on occassion on “Second Annual Report” and at every live performance of “Hamburger Lady” from 1976 until the last tour of the recently regrouped Throbbing Gristle. Nothing quite this unique and culturally iconographic in the Industrial genre will ever be available again.“
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