“Quite a lot of people thought “Dear Prudence” was our original,” – Siouxsie Sioux
“Dear Prudence” was the second time the Banshees had chosen to cover a Beatles song, another Lennon/McCartney favourite “Helter Skelter” had been included on their 1978 LP “The Scream”. Both of these songs originally appeared on The Beatles 1968 White album. Whereas the Beatles original of “Helter Skelter” was already dirty and messed up, “Dear Prudence” had a much lighter touch and is one of John Lennon’s most lyrically optimistic songs, featuring none of his trademark negative back chat.
Written in 1967 during the famous Beatles meditation retreat with the Maharishi in India, it was penned for a young Prudence Farrow. John was concerned that the younger sister of Mia, who was also a member their group, was meditating way too much and had locked herself away and wasn’t having any fun. All the Beatles had brought acoustic guitars to the retreat, as did their friend, the singer songwriter Donovan. While they were there, Donovan introduced John and George to a folk guitar technique called “claw hammering”, which he also combined with custom tunings, to give a drone effect under a melody. It’s this technique and tuning, along with the descending scale, that gives “Dear Prudence” its other worldly quality – the drone and the open string tunings are a more familiar sound in Eastern music, a bit like those played on a sitar.



The India trip had come at a strange time for the Beatles. Their manager Brian Epstein had just died, and by the late 1960s the group, along with a large section of the younger generation were questioning the world, experimenting with psychedelic drugs and looking at new ways to move forward into a peaceful, more harmonious future – hence the transcendental meditation.
Talking to Carol Clark in loundersound.com in 2018, Siouxsie recalls that time leading up to the release of “Dear Prudence”, “It was an insane period for us, extremely busy, we were just being totally hyperactive. I think it took its toll maybe a year or so later. John had been hospitalised for stress and overworking, so he was suffering a bit. Robert stepped in, for the second time, as he did in ’79, so the show was still going on, and the touring was all pretty intense and crazy. We went on to record Hyaena together, and then he imploded as well. He just couldn’t cope with it.”
“Dear Prudence” was recorded mid-tour at a studio in Stockholm, produced by Mike Hedges, and completed in London, where Robert Smith’s sister Janet added the harpsichord part. The finished record, made by this classic Banshees line up of Sioux, Severin, Smith and Budgie is master class in inspired cover versions.
As both a cover and a non-album single, it also heralded a new chapter in the Banshees own story. The world tour was capped off with a bonefide chart hit. “Dear Prudence” peaked at number 3 in the UK and showed that the Banshees were still a force to be reckoned with, by covering one of the greatest pop songs ever written, and making it sound entirely their own.
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