Category: music | Our Mythical Childhood Survey

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Showing 12 entries for category: music

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Ash

Lyrically a very simple song, Aphrodite describes an encounter of an unidentified first-person narrator falling in love with a woman, who is referred to as the eponymous goddess. While the song is about love, the lyrics hint at a darker side to love as all consuming and weakening; the Aphrodite of the song is referred to as having a "dark power", while the narrator laments that they are "getting lost/ at such a cost/ as I fall/ I feel my heart deceiving even me" and "how(...)

YEAR: 1998

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Aphrodite

Ash

United Kingdom • 1998

Klaxons

Atlantis to Interzone

The title of the song is inspired by both the mythical city of Atlantis as described by Plato in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias and William S. Burroughs' short story collection Interzone. The title of Burroughs' collection itself was taken from one of the stories within, International Zone, referring to the Tangier International Zone that made up part of Tangier, Morocco, between 1924 and 1956 and in which Burroughs lived for a while. Burroughs explored the idea of the Interzone (...)

YEAR: 2006

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Atlantis Pegasus Plato

Klaxons

Atlantis to Interzone

United Kingdom • 2006

Atlantis Pegasus Plato

Arcade Fire

Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)

This song loosely narrates the death of Eurydice. Although he is not mentioned by name in the song, the second person perspective and the relative place of the song on the album (as a companion to It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus) suggests that it is being sung from Orpheus’ perspective. The lyrics do not directly reference ancient versions of the myth but narrates the version of events as told in the 1959 film Orfeu Negro (Eng: Black Orpheus; dir. Marcel Camus), from which the mythic eve(...)

YEAR: 2013

COUNTRY: Canada

TAGS: Underworld

Arcade Fire

Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)

Canada • 2013

Siouxsie and the Banshees

The song narrates the destruction of Pompeii in 79AD due to the eruption of Vesuvius. Pompeii is not mentioned by name, although the cover art for this single feature an image of the plaster cast of a dog, found in the House of Orpheus in Pompeii. The lyrics are direct and explicit in their treatment of the destruction and the human tragedy, through the choral lyric “your city lies in dust”, through references to hiding and choking, and in particular the final verse:Hot and burning i(...)

YEAR: 1985

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Eruption of Vesuvius Pompeii Roman History

Siouxsie and the Banshees

United Kingdom • 1985

Eruption of Vesuvius Pompeii Roman History

Anaïs Mitchell

Hadestown (album)

Track listing: "Wedding Song" featuring Justin Vernon – 3:18"Epic (Part I)" featuring Justin Vernon – 2:22"Way Down Hadestown" featuring Justin Vernon, Ani DiFranco and Ben Knox Miller – 3:33"Songbird Intro" – 0:24"Hey, Little Songbird" featuring Greg Brown – 3:09"Gone, I'm Gone" featuring The Haden Triplets – 1:09"When the Chips are(...)

YEAR: 2010

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Eurydice Hades Orpheus Persephone Underworld

Anaïs Mitchell

Hadestown (album)

United States of America • 2010

Eurydice Hades Orpheus Persephone Underworld

Klaxons

The song is inspired by an episode in the novel Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician by French absurdist and Symbolist Alfred Jarry, entitled "Concerning the Isle of Her, the Cyclops, and the Great Swan which is of Crystal", which is made clear in the lyrics, some of which are drawn directly from this passage.The song describes a journey to the "Isle of Her", with a choral refrain of "Row! There’s only seven more miles to go" being repeated(...)

YEAR: 2007

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Circe Cyclops / Cyclopes Homer Odyssey

Klaxons

United Kingdom • 2007

Circe Cyclops / Cyclopes Homer Odyssey

Arcade Fire

It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)

The song narrates the story of Orpheus’ attempt to rescue his dead wife Eurydice from the underworld, mostly from the point of view of Eurydice who urges Orpheus not to turn around. The rest of the song appears to be narrated by Orpheus who reassures Eurydice. The song begins at the point in the story where Orpheus is in the process of rescuing Eurydice, with her walking out of the Underworld behind him, and ends with an indirect reference to Orpheus’ failure and Eurydice’s ret(...)

YEAR: 2013

COUNTRY: Canada

TAGS: Orpheus Underworld

Arcade Fire

It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)

Canada • 2013

Orpheus Underworld

Ash

This song was written by Wheeler after he did a screen test for the role of Christian in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 Moulin Rouge! (Ryan, 2019), itself based on the myth of Orpheus. The lyrics are narrated by an Orpheus-character and take place after the loss of Eurydice: ‘ever since I lost her’; ‘hit me without warning, I was left out on my own’. The song ultimately deals with the process of recovery after lost love, underlined by the chorus: ‘I need the sunshine in (...)

YEAR: 1998

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Eurydice Orpheus

Ash

United Kingdom • 1998

Eurydice Orpheus

Bastille

The song describes the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and its aftermath from the perspective of the inhabitants of nearby Pompeii, although this inferred only from the title and not referenced directly in the song. The lyrics are imagined as a conversation between two people who were victims of the eruption. The song is mostly formed of repetitions of the following refrain and chorus, the first part which directly references the eruption and the second part of which reflects the idea of the conve(...)

YEAR: 2013

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Eruption of Vesuvius Pompeii Roman History

Bastille

United Kingdom • 2013

Eruption of Vesuvius Pompeii Roman History

Frank Ocean [pseudonyme of Christopher Breaux]

The song is two distinct halves, one of which describes an alternative pseudo-historical Cleopatra, and the other of which is narrated by the partner of a sex-worker. The first half is narrated by Cleopatra’s presumed pharaoh, and loosely describes Cleopatra’s involvement with Rome, through lyrical description of the abduction/absconding of Cleopatra from her palace and her eventual retrieval and death.(...)

YEAR: 2012

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Cleopatra VII Egypt

Frank Ocean [pseudonyme of Christopher Breaux]

United States of America • 2012

Cleopatra VII Egypt

Nick Cave

The Lyre of Orpheus

Attention: age restriction 18+With a discordant, seesawing melody and four-line verses organised into an ABCB rhyming scheme, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform a grim and grisly retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in The Lyre of Orpheus. Orpheus is a depressive figure, sitting ‘gloomy in his garden shed’ when by chance he arranges ‘a lump of wood, and a piece of wire’ into a musical instrument. But while his rudimentary lyre sounds beautiful to him, it is abho(...)

YEAR: 2004

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Eurydice Gods Hades Katabasis Orpheus Underworld

Nick Cave

The Lyre of Orpheus

United Kingdom • 2004

Eurydice Gods Hades Katabasis Orpheus Underworld

Taco Hemingway [Real name: Filip Szcześniak]

Various Tracks (2014–2018)

As in the case of most rappers, Taco’s tracks are mainly about himself. He sings about his career, life in Warsaw, best friends and girlfriends, raising the subject of authenticity, art, youth, loyalty, and love. He uses various metaphors inspired by art, football (he is a fan of Tottenham Hotspur F.C.), popular culture (Harry Potter) or classic movies (his favourite seems to be Stanley Kubrick). Taco diagnoses the world that we all live in, full of fake news and lacking inspiration, and a(...)

YEAR: 2014

COUNTRY: Poland

TAGS: Antigone Brutus Dionysus / Dionysos Moirai Nero Prometheus Zeus

Taco Hemingway [Real name: Filip Szcześniak]

Various Tracks (2014–2018)

Poland • 2014

Antigone Brutus Dionysus / Dionysos Moirai Nero Prometheus Zeus