how I discovered Peter...
I had read a little about him and I knew he was in "some goth band" but I hadn't ever heard any of his music (or so I thought). anyway, so one day (I believe it was Martin Luther King day of 2000) I was at the thrift store with my punky friend, Sarah. they had a bunch of unopened cassettes, so I looked through them. I found "black tie, white noise" by David Bowie, "blast of silence" by the Golden Palominos and "deep" by Peter Murphy each for 79 cents. I thought "what the hell, even if I hate them they were less than a dollar so I don't care, I'll buy them anyway". (I hadn't ever heard the Golden Palominos either, I just knew Nicole Blackman did some stuff with them, and I had barely heard any Bowie. keep in mind, I was heavily into industrial dance stuff like KMFDM at this time, I was not into goth or anything else).
So after I get home I listen to bowie, it didn't do much for me. since I'm such a retard I didn't listen to the others for, I don't know, at least several weeks. so I finally open them and take a look at them. ("ohhh... this peter guy looks pretty cute, nice thighs" I immediately thought) I was reading the lyrics to deep and when I got to 'cuts you up' I thought "hmmm... these sound kinda familiar, do I know this song?") so I fast forward to the song and FUCK YES, I DO. but where had I heard it? think, think, think, think, think, I was 9 when it was released, think, think, think. then it hit me, SHIT! I HEARD IT ON THE SOFT ROCK RADIO STATION THAT WAS ALWAYS PLAYED IN THE WAITING ROOM AT MY MOM'S THERAPIST'S OFFICE WHEN I WAS, LIKE, 10 YEARS OLD!!!!!! holy smokin' shit, I remember kinda of liking it at the time.
So I finally listen to the whole cassette, and I fell in love with it like ***that*** even though it was 180 degree turn from what I usually listen to ("god, he sings good".) in about august of 2000 I took the cassette with me on road trip and listened to about 10 times. soon after the trip, I seemed to lose it. ("OHHHHH GOD NO!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!! WHERE IS IT? PETER, WHERE DID YOU GO?") several months later (after tearing the house apart looking for it many times) I found it under this rolling shelf thing I have in my room. ("YEAAAAA!!!! OH PETER I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!"). Despite loving it so much, I didn't buy anything else by him. (I was buying Apoptygma Berzerk and EBM stuff, just starting to discover goth and expand my musical tastes further than industrial, around thanksgiving I discovered Depeche Mode, more kicks to self in head for not liking them sooner but that's another story) oh yeah, I still haven't listened to the Golden Palominos yet.

so how did I get from that to where I am now (which is completely obsessed)...
I'd say in about early February, I was at my local music store, looking at the used CDs and I found 'frankenstein girls will seem strangely sexy' by mindless self indulgence and 'crackle' (I hadn't ever heard any Bauhaus before and I didn't know it was a "best of" CD, so I thought "hmmm... this has got that Bela Lugosi song on it, that's on lots of goth compilations, maybe I outta hear it, I think I'll get this one" duh, oh my god, I'm so stupid). this time I listened to them right after I got home. mindless self indulgence was exactly as I expected (raunchy mean-punk stuff) but Bauhaus was not (ok I'll admit it, I skipped right to Bela), I wasn't sure I liked it, it's umm... different, but I know from experience to give CDs a chance and listened to it (and the rest of the CD) a few times before I made my judgment. but, I didn't need to, one more time had me hooked. I liked 'crowds' RIGHT away, (and most of the others soon after) I started to do some research (meaning I pulled out my old outburns and reread the interview with Peter, a resurrection concert review, a Gotham review and a wild birds CD review, suddenly they all had new meaning to me) and after listening to 'crackle for a week (it got to be almost constantly) I went and bought the 'Gotham' video, and 'burning from the inside' on the same day. I watched the video as soon as I could ("FUCK THIS IS COOL! OH MY GOODNESS, THAT PETER IS VERY SEXY!")... two days later I bought a bauhaus sticker, a pin, and 'in the flat field' w/ extra tracks (I didn't realize there was a naked guy on the front until I was in Little King examining it) then the 'wild birds' video then the CD then 'mask' w/ extra tracks and 'holy smoke' and the mask poster then 'should the world fail to fall apart' a bauhaus shirt (black w/ Peter and Danny on it) and a Bela Lugosi's Dead poster then 'swing the heartache' and 'rest in peace' double CD and 'gotham' double CD then 'love hysteria' and 'cascade' then 'press eject and give me the tape' then the Heavy Metal 2000 soundtrack just for 'the dog's a vapour' then a little glittery Bauhaus shirt then 'behind the mask' book with CD then 'Bela Lugosi' on vinyl even though I don't have a record player or know any one that does, so alas, I haven't gotten to hear the original version of 'boys' yet, and 'burning from the inside' on vinyl and the 'kick in the eye' single on vinyl and then 'the hunger' video just because I heard Peter was in it for a few minutes then 'everything' by tones on tail and some David Bowie cassette because I wanted to hear if Peter really sounds as much like David as everybody said then some velvet underground cassette w/ 'waiting for the man' on it then a couple of Love and Rocket cassettes and a Joy Division cassette and 'ziggy stardust' on vinyl (for research you know) then I bought 'should the world fail to fall apart' again (the first was used and kinda icky) and the 'passion of covers' tribute album. this all happened in about three weeks (it probably would have happened faster but I do have bills to pay). Then to sheer joy and dark delight I was lucky enough to find the 'shadow of light' video
So that's my story of how I became obsessed (or maybe I should say posessed) with the beautiful, incredible, awesome, wonderful, sexy, perfect, fascinating, (words fail to describe him) Peter Murphy (I hope it makes some sense).

Now for my weird "sesame street/love and rockets connection" story
I thought I had never heard Love and Rockets either. But one day my sister was visiting from Philadelphia for christmas. I dragged her to our cool neighborhood music store. She was looking at the cassette singles and she said something about love and rockets, and I was like "what? they used to be in some goth band with Peter" (keep in mind this is before i found Bauhaus. I had played 'deep' for her, it turns out she had been to one of his shows in 1995 because her friend wanted to see him! she vaguly remembers hearing 'cuts you up' they didn't get pictures or autographs or anything!) Then she said "have you ever heard this song?" (so alive) and I said "no, I don't think so" and she says "are you sure? they played it on the radio" then she sang alittle bit of it. i said "hmm, that sounds familiar" so i bought it (it was only 50 cents). later I listened to it and said "I have heard this before" but where? ...think think think think... oh my god no... no way, why would they it on that show?... dude they did!!!! IT WAS ON SESAME STREET!!! (the song came out when i was 9, i don't know why i was still watching sesame street, hopefully out of sheer bordem during the summer months ) I remember it clearly, it was those muppet puppets, they did sort of a music video, they were singing 'i'm alive, oh i'm sooo a-live' and dancing (they did it with a beatles song too. 'let it be' became 'letter b'). but why would they do that song? (I wouldn't exactly call it appropriate for little kids) then one day several days later (I pondered this alot) I figured it must be something to do with a "i'm alive, and this microphone is not, this plant is alive and this rock is not, this cat is alive and this picture of a cat is not" kind of thing.
Does anyone else remember this? Have I really gone crazy like my friend said when I told her this story? ...I can see the puppets, they had wild colored, floppy hair...