This Side of Nowhere

Album: 13.13 (1982)
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Songfacts®:

  • This horror-rock song is part of the second solo album from Lydia Lunch, a very provocative singer, songwriter and conceptualist. The song describes a "pitch black murder in the dead of the night."

    Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Lunch moved to Southern California, where there was no shortage of murderers. Kenneth Bianchi, one of the Hillside Stranglers, was an inspiration on this song. Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker," had not yet started his reign of terror, but Lunch feels like she channeled him, in a way.

    "I wrote those songs as if I'd frickin invented him," Lunch said of the 13.13 album in a Songfacts interview. "I find Los Angeles - in spite of the happy weather, beautiful architecture – is one of the creepiest f--king places in this country."
  • Lunch's backing band on this song was Weirdos members Dix Denney, Cliff Martinez and Greg Williams.

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