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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

38. Song To Siren by This Mortal Coil 1983




In the Eighties I was at the movies in London waiting for a movie to come on and the ads to finish when this song came on. It was an ad for a beach resort or island getaway. Basically it was girl drifting through sparkling waters. It was very beautiful. In an ad way It didn’t make me want to go away to an island in the sun but it did me want to chase down the song that soundtracked this paradise. There was no Google then so it was a matter of looking around and asking around.


The song seemed familiar. It turns out I had a version by the writer Tim Buckley in my record collection. It was however on the Starsailor album which I couldn’t stand and just hadn’t got round to selling. The voice was also familiar and it turns out that it was Liz Frazer, the lead singer of Cocteau Twins.

I managed to get the album and it became a mainstay of my top floor flat in Elwood in the Eighties. Nowadays I can’t remember much about the album but I always come back to this song. It just takes me away to another place. And it tells a story too. Of the sirens that called sailors to their deaths on the rocks. Or something like that.

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