The Alternative Number Ones: Peter Murphy’s “Cuts You Up”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

There's this series of videos called "Dracula Flow" that's been going around online for the past few weeks. An older white guy, made up to look like an old-timey movie vampire, shouts ignorant and increasingly absurd rap punchlines into the abyss as voices offscreen giggle: "I'm on 12 Vicodins, smokin' on Scooby-Doo dick!" There's no reason why this guy has to be a Dracula, except that it makes everything feel that much sillier. That's how I feel about Peter Murphy.

Peter Murphy is the vampire guy. He's always been the vampire guy, and he'll always be the vampire guy. When Murphy was young, he had no grand designs on a singing career, but an old friend badgered him until he joined a band, presumably because he looked so much like a vampire guy. My main image of Peter Murphy will always be the one from the opening credits of 1983's The Hunger, the first movie that Tony Scott ever directed. Murphy is the first person to appear onscreen in the film -- shimmying his way toward the camera and locking eyes with the viewer, like he's trying to hypnotize someone.