In honor of World Goth Day, which ironically is on Morrissey’s Birthday, I decided to put together a kick-ass Goth – Industrial – Dark Wave playlist.

These are the most memorable tunes I can remember hearing (and dancing to my heart’s content) back in the late 1980s to mid-1990s at Northern Ohio area clubs like Spanky’s, Nine of Clubs, The Phantasy, Metropolis, The Whisky, Pocketts, and The Chamber.

I cannot forget my all-time favorite club, down in Columbus, Ohio, Mean Mr. Mustards! Oh, how I miss that place with its buckets o’beer for $5, restrooms with no doors and graffiti everywhere! Those were the days!

Best times of my late teens to early thirties were spent in dance clubs like these. I looked forward to my dancing nights out. I didn’t care if I had to go alone – and many times I did – I just wanted to forget my life for a few hours and get lost in the music. It was my therapy. 

The music is still therapeutic and I’d love nothing more than to go out dancing to these awesome tunes like I used to. Alas, I am older and the music they now play at the clubs sounds like Transformers having bad sex (dubstep) and the clubs are filled with young kids twirling glo-sticks as they dance (emo ravers).

Maybe I should open an old school punk and goth club… but would anyone my age actually go and indulge in these great tunes of days gone by? Is anyone else as passionate about the music as I am? I wonder…

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this dance trip down memory lane and that these songs make you want to get up and dance! 

1. This Corrosion (extended mix) – The Sisters of Mercy
2. Testure (12″ mix) – Skinny Puppy
3. Fascination Street (extended mix) – The Cure
4. Strangelove (Pain mix) – Depeche Mode
5. Cities in Dust (extended Eruption mix) – Siouxsie and The Banshees
6. So What – Ministry
7. Godlike (Doglike mix) – KMFDM
8. The Bog – Bigod 20
9. Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus
10. How Soon is Now? – The Smiths
11. New York New York (dancefloor cut mix) – Microchip League (MCL)
12. Dominator – Human Resource
13. Headhunter (full version) – Front 242
14. Supernaut – 1000 Homo DJs
15. A Daisy Chain 4 Satan – My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
16. Join in the Chant – Nitzer Ebb
17. Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) – The Pixies
18. Stainless Steel Providers – Revolting Cocks
19. Doctorin’ the TARDIS – The Timelords
20. Cuts You Up – Peter Murphy
21. Sin (remastered) – Nine Inch Nails
22. Blue Monday 88 – New Order
23. Motorcycle – Love and Rockets
24. I Sit on Acid (extended remix) – Lords of Acid
25. Wasteland – The Mission UK
26. Nemisis (12″ mix) – Shriekback
27. Just Like Honey – The Jesus and Mary Chain
28. Lucretia my Reflection (extended mix) – The Sisters of Mercy
29. A Forest (extended) – The Cure
30. Beers, Steers & Queers – Revolting Cocks
31. Kooler Than Jesus (Communion mix) – My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
32. Stigmata – Ministry
33. Rush – Depeche Mode
34. Love Like Blood – Killing Joke
35. Open Your Eyes – Lords of the New Church
36. Like a Bad Girl Should – The Cramps
37. Fade to Grey – Visage
38. She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
39. (I Can’t Stop) The Rain – The Crush
40. Transmission – Joy Division
41. There is a Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths
42. Peek-A-Boo (Silver Dollar mix) – Siouxsie and The Banshees
43. The Killing Moon – Echo and The Bunnymen
44. Obsession – Clan of Xymox
45. Circling Overland – Front 242
46. Carpe Diem – Bigod 20
47. Delicious Demon – The Sugarcubes
48. Pearly Dewdrops’ Drops – Cocteau Twins
49. Flowers of Romance – Public Image Ltd.
50. Sonic Reducer – Dead Boys
51. She’s in Parties – Bauhaus
52. The Mercy Seat – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
53. Get Down Make Love – Nine Inch Nails
54. Debaser – The Pixies
55. Johnson’s Aeroplane – INXS
56. Church of No Return – Christian Death
57. I Walk The Line – Alien Sex Fiend
58. I Want You (7″ mix) – Cabaret Voltaire
59. The Great Commandment – Camouflage 
60. Close to Me – The Cure