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Total ratings: 3175
Length: 3:25
Plays (last 30 days): 3
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 here when I was full sail?
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"
Well I'm as puzzled as the newborn child
I'm as riddled as the tide:
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Or 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"
Always captivating - have to stop and just let it wash over me.
Yes, and through me like a tidal wave of emotion...
i'm curious, what do you think of sinead o'connor's interpretation of it?
for some reason, i really like this version. it reminds me of some music i heard on the English Patient soundtrack. i'll have to look that up.
It's all subjective. IMO Sinead's version is better than This Mortal Coil's, but they both suffer from over-production. I think the song is better with a more straigntforward, relatively spartan performance.
Starts. Then doesn't go anywhere.
aww, but it really does
Contrary to popular opinion, I hate this version of one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Tim Buckley's is, obviously, fantastic. John Frusciante's is pretty good. But I feel like we're still waiting for the definitive interpretation.
I like this version, and I think that's because I probably heard this version first. But Tim Buckley's is, IMO, the best, and the definitive.
Contrary to popular opinion, I hate this version of one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Tim Buckley's is, obviously, fantastic. John Frusciante's is pretty good. But I feel like we're still waiting for the definitive interpretation.
i'm curious, what do you think of sinead o'connor's interpretation of it?
for some reason, i really like this version. it reminds me of some music i heard on the English Patient soundtrack. i'll have to look that up.
The original, performed solo acoustic by Tim Buckley, 1968:
TimBuckleySongToTheSiren
Fun fact- this was the last segment of the last episode of the Monkees. Still wild to me that that happened.
I like This Mortal Coil's version but it's not my favourite version of the song, and not even close to being my favourite Liz Fraser performance.
More than anything I guess though, that could be taken as high praise for Tim Buckley's version, and Fraser's body of work in general.
For me, this piece is like a hymn. When it starts everything else stops.
yes.
Oh wow! I've got this on disk. And it's still brilliant. A wonderful surprise on a late summer Somerset afternoon.
Have also got this on 12" which i bough in Plymouth back in the 80's and pretty darn stunning still today on a cold dry day from from your Devonian neighbour!
![cool](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/smiley-cool.gif)
Starts. Then doesn't go anywhere.
I am certain that's how the band wanted to play it.
Sometimes, that's exactly the style I want to hear.
Sometimes, there's no desire to go anywhere.
You may be thinking of Toad The Wet Sprocket.
Yes, This name comes from Shakespeare
This is Music As Art. That's why some people don't get it. Not saying they should - Music As Art involves a different response than just Music As Entertainment. Hence the reverse bell curve on the ratings. Me, I'm on the right hand side of the bell, cresting the wave and trying to spill onto the next page. One of the greatest musical performances ever recorded, in my ever-so-humble.
What ercasul said.
![cheers](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_cheers.gif)
![boohoo](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/eusa_boohoo.gif)
I actually first listened to it in full on RP, prior to that I'd heard the vocal incorporated into an equally beautiful Drum & Bass song by a Finnish artist called Fanu, in on of his earlier tracks called "Siren Song". It's worth a listen if you like electronica.
Stopped me in my proverbial tracks then ... and now.
Sheila Chandra does the definitive version of this song. She makes this version sound pedestrian.
I just listened to the Sheila Chandra version and couldn't disagree more. Elizabeth Fraser's vocals are edgier and more inspired. Although Ms. Chandra's voice is beautiful, I could easily imagine her version filed under Adult Contemporary.
Monty Python was the inspiration for the band's name? Good grief.
You may be thinking of Toad The Wet Sprocket.
WHO ELSE would drop the quintessential mortal coil song in the middle of a lazy radio afternoon ? NOBODY but BILL and this effin' wonderful radio station !! holy crap!! rush of memory and emotion. thanks bill.
AND 13 years later still relevant! Was a favorite when released in the 80's and still pushes the same buttons.
Edweirdo wrote:
Monty Python was the inspiration for the band's name? Good grief.
No, Shakespeare (from Hamlet):
To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause, there's the respect,
That makes calamity of so long life
Thank you for the elucidation.
Could do with a tad less ornamentation in the vocals, methinks...
I agree with you 100%. In the Cocteau Twins this could be regarded as some
sort of "vocal style"... (I don't think it worked all the time). - But
here... it just sound a little pretentious and distracting.
Maybe Bill could play the Czar's version of this song... - I think it is one of the best!
Monty Python was the inspiration for the band's name? Good grief.
No, Shakespeare (from Hamlet):
To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause, there's the respect,
That makes calamity of so long life
It's interesting how polarizing this song is.
Unfortunately I'm on the extreme left side of this rating scale - it's such a great song but it's ruined so horribly by Liz Fraser's extreme nasal affect on this track. And I normally like her voice (she was amazing on Massive Attack's Mezzanine) which makes this feel like even more of a cruel mockery.
Ironically, I love the song, but the back of my mind still goes,
"Holy Melisma Batman!!!"
![lol](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_lol.gif)
About as close to ghastly I've heard on RO. But Bill granted my brain with a reprieve by washing that dreck out with a soothing rinse of Joni Mitchell. Talk about polar opposites in talent and musicality.
Funny my thoughts are the opposite. JM grates hard on me and always is a PSD. While this I enjoy.
Try Frank Zappa's Valley Girl as a historic reference. It also shows when the dreaded 'I was like...' appeared.
"Who loves you, and who do you love?!?"
That tune would be:
MESSIAH - 'Temple Of Dreams' - (official video)
Thanks Proclivities. The way Steven Wilson uses The Mortal Coil, it is clearly the band and not just the expression.
Learn something about my favourite music everyday!
Terpsichore wrote:
![music](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_music.gif)
![music](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_music.gif)
![exclaim](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_exclaim.gif)
Unfortunately I'm on the extreme left side of this rating scale - it's such a great song but it's ruined so horribly by Liz Fraser's extreme nasal affect on this track. And I normally like her voice (she was amazing on Massive Attack's Mezzanine) which makes this feel like even more of a cruel mockery.
Just saw his live performance solo with accoustic guitar. No words can explain the haunted beauty.
Dear spaceman..., I'm not sure what Steven Wilson has to do with the song but you might want to go back to the original 1970 Tim Buckley recording. Buckley's clear tenor voice with his guitar accompaniment is one of the finest songs to emerge from the American folk scene. Perhaps it is Tim's untimely passing shortly thereafter that makes the song all the more haunting.
Never actually, but media portrayed it as an actual thing
Dang! I can't find the "11" button.
![bounce](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_bounce.gif)
(I'm with WhiteWater)!
Fixed. Thanks, friend.
![{#Sleep} {#Sleep}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_sleep.gif)
Then you might appreciate a little more the reason for the breathlessness and longing in this song about those sirens calling from afar and luring men into the watery depths.
Funny. I got instant aural gratification from this within seconds of first listen ...................................
Then you might appreciate a little more the reason for the breathlessness and longing in this song about those sirens calling from afar and luring men into the watery depths.
bump
westslope wrote:
Which one 1wolfy?
Me. I like. 8
Probably Perfect Life.
This Mortal Coil to Steve Miller Band — Your Saving Grace.
I'll take it though. Hope you are enjoying your day off when I'm still working.
SmackDaddy wrote:
deja vu
justin4kick wrote:
And another day off for Bill
And again. Why not?
Which one 1wolfy?
Me. I like. 8
Yeah, 'cause it's all gravy when you run your own radio station, with money pouring in and all ...
Sorry to all the fans.
And another day off for Bill
Once again today.
I suppose there's a nice-sized library of playlists, perhaps to carry on the RP experience after Bill leaves this world.
But to the song itself. I'd given it a 3 originally, and I'm going to have to stay there. It starts out okay but just doesn't seem to end, and the extra-nasal quality of the singer's voice, it's just a bit too much, at least for me.
This Mortal Coil to Steve Miller Band — Your Saving Grace.
I'll take it though. Hope you are enjoying your day off when I'm still working.
SmackDaddy wrote:
deja vu
And another day off for Bill
We could definitely not hang out together.
![](https://www.returnofkings.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sleeping-Man.jpg)
![{#Clap} {#Clap}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/eusa_clap.gif)
This Mortal Coil to Steve Miller Band — Your Saving Grace.
I'll take it though. Hope you are enjoying your day off when I'm still working.
deja vu
This Mortal Coil to Steve Miller Band — Your Saving Grace.
I'll take it though. Hope you are enjoying your day off when I'm still working.
![{#Frustrated} {#Frustrated}](https://img.radioparadise.com/emoji/icon_frustrated.gif)
Indeed! Who in 1984 was making music this amazing? Evocative, angry, arrogant, hurt and hurtful, needy, confused, lost and longing. So much to say with such spare instrumentals and that voice....that voice....and Tim Buckley! Good Grief!
Still stunning and beautiful.