Reviving the Echoes of Q Lazzarus with ‘Goodbye Horses’ Album in 2024
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Diane Luckey, broadly recognized by her professional name, Q Lazzarus, was an unforgettable personality behind the soul-stirring melody of “Goodbye Horses”. This song that magnified her reputation as an artist was ingeniously composed by the songwriter Bill Garvey. Comparable to the magnetic allure of sound produced by the likes of Céline Dion and Whitney Houston, Lazzarus’ voice was both potent and warmly entrancing.
Growing up in Neptune Township, New Jersey and the youngest among seven siblings, Diane was musically inclined from a tender age. Her contribution to the Mount Pisgah Youth Choir gave her the sturdy bases she required to further her interest in music. Taking inspiration from the Broadway show ‘Bubbling Brown Sugar,’ she decided to move to New York at the young age of 18 to explore her passion and potential in music. During her early career, she put her singing talents to work at the renowned Sigma Sound Studios.
The ’80s saw Lazzarus forming her band, Q Lazzarus and the Resurrection, alongside other artists such as William Garvey, Gloriana Galicia, and Janice Bernstein. However, to sustain her life in the big city, she took up the job of a taxi driver. It was during one of her usual shifts when she met the acclaimed Hollywood director, Jonathan Demme. She managed to impress him after he listened to her demo tape that played on their ride.
The enigma of Q Lazzarus transcends into her songs, just like her famous track “Goodbye Horses” written by Garvey, which was selected for the movie ‘Married to the Mob’. It was then chosen again for the movie ‘Silence of the Lambs’, creating a dramatic atmosphere for the scene featuring Buffalo Bill. It’s captivating how Bill effortlessly blends into the woman’s apparel while the moving pleas of his targeted victims were muffled by the loud music playing in the background, adding to the bone-chilling horror.
Even with the immense exposure brought by the films, Luckey and Garvey managed to remain relatively unnoticed, but that didn’t stop them from creating more music. The song “Goodbye Horses” was an ethereal heartstring tugger, mainly characterized by Garvey’s plush synthesizer skills and Luckey’s distinctively strong voice. They worked for over a decade bringing this album to life, with all its songs unreleased previously and sourced from original master tapes. In the same vein with the kind of music generated by artists like Bjork and Sade, Q Lazzarus brought something magical and profound to the world of music.
Although Q Lazzarus passed away tragically on July 19, 2022, her legacy doesn’t cease with her. In the upcoming documentary focusing on her life – “Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus”- by director Eva Aridjis Fuentes, we await a deeper understanding of the ambiguous life of Diane Luckey and William Garvey, their hardships, their stories, and how they crafted the influential tracks that are still being appreciated years after their creation. The highly anticipated album “Goodbye Horses” was released posthumously in January 2024, and it’s a timely opportunity to remember the talents we had lost and appreciate their undeniable brilliance.
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