SONG FOR TODAY: Magazine - Shot By Both Sides

A band who I first became aware of after singer Howard Devoto collaborated with the much-missed Mansun on one of their B sides. Then as the years went on I discovered the Buzzcocks, who Devoto also used to be a member of, and eventually began to listen to the excellent Magazine, who were also notable for the stunning guitar of John McGeoch... 


"Shot by Both Sides" is a song written by Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, and performed by the English post punk band Magazine, which was released in January 1978 as the band's first single (reaching #41 on the UK charts) and a few months later appeared on their debut album Real Life. Shot by Both Sides is also the title of the English translation of Meisei Goto's paranoid Japanese novel, Hasamiuchi (original 1973, translation 2008). Translator Tom Gill chose the title because he was a Magazine fan, and also because the more obvious title, Crossfire, had already been used as the title of another Japanese novel translated into English—a detective novel by Miyuki Miyabe. A very similar guitar riff would shortly be used in the song "Lipstick" by Devoto's former band Buzzcocks, released as a b-side in November 1978...