College nostalgia vignette: She Sells Sanctuary

Today marks the 37th anniversary of The Cult's Love album release. 

The album was released on October 18, 1985, but I didn't hear The Cult for the first time until at least one year later. 

I was at WhereHouse Records in East Lansing. It was the old location on Grand River Avenue and Charles Street, which is now a Starbuck's Coffee. I don't know what I was doing at WhereHouse or what I was looking for. I might have just been poking around or maybe I was looking for an R.E.M. or Smiths album (having just really gotten into those bands upon arriving as a freshman at MSU). I felt free from the restraints of home and of the secluded backwater I had lived in from fifth grade through high school graduation. College life and by extension, the energy and vaguely countercultural vibe of this record store made me feel alive in a way that it difficult to describe.

So that one particular afternoon--and I am positive it was an afternoon because I remember natural sunlight splashing through the windows--this song plays on the overhead sound system. The drums sound like a cracking whip, the acoustic and electric guitars dance and swirl and punctuate the dramatic bellows and yowls of the singer. The band sound as if they are performing into the pounding wind of a tornado, or maybe the sound they're making is the tornado. I have to find out who this is and the song title. I don't remember who I ask or who tells me, but I learn it's "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult.

Shortly thereafter, I found someone on my dorm floor who owns The Cult's album Love and I was able to dub it onto a Maxell 90 minute cassette. Unfortunately, the album is longer than 45 minutes, so the final song "Black Angel" had the final 1/3 or so lopped off. (When I finally bought the CD several years later, I was finally able to hear "Black Angel" in its entirety, but to this day expect the song to end abruptly 2/3 of the way through.