This Mortal Coil recorded their version of this song in 1984 and everytime I hear it on my iPod it stops me cold and transports me to somewhere else. I've listened to it several times today and it has put me in a strange mood (like Camus strange).
I had never been able to make out the lyrics so I researched it and was surprised to find that the song was originally written by Tim Buckley. It turns out that he was the father of Jeff Buckley, another one of my favourites, who incidentally met his father only once. Both 4-octive singers died young (Tim was 28 and Jeff was 30).
It occurred to me that this would be a very suitable song for a funeral. If I were ever to succumb and depart this mortal coil then my surviving 200 year old contemporaries might consider it.
Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren
Long afloat on shipless oceans
I did all my best to smile
'Til your singing eyes and fingers
Drew me loving to your isle
And you sang
Sail to me
Sail to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am
Here I am
Waiting to hold you
Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you hare when I was fox?
Now my foolish boat is leaning
Broken lovelorn on your rocks,
For you sing, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow:
O my heart, O my heart shies from the sorrow"
I am puzzled as the newborn child
I am troubled at the tide:
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Should I lie with Death my bride?
Hear me sing, "Swim to me, Swim to me, Let me enfold you:
Here I am, Here I am, Waiting to hold you
1 comment:
This mortal coil's album was given
to me on tape by a female friend
back in my school days.
For may years, it has also transported me.
Until the birth of the internet,
I was never quite sure what I was hearing.
Was the song entirely from that sailor’s
point of view?
In my mind, it was not always clear
who was the sailor and who was the siren?
Hear me sing, "Swim to me, Swim to me, Let me enfold you:
Here I am, Here I am, Waiting to hold you
Maybe sirens get lonely to.
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