Video hit This Mortal Coil

This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren

"Song to the Siren" is a song written by Tim Buckley and his writing partner Larry Beckett and was first released on Buckley's 1970 album Starsailor.

The most prominent recording of "Song to the Siren" is by This Mortal Coil.

It was released as a single in September 1983 and spent 3 weeks on the UK Charts where it peaked at #66 on October 23, 1983. 

More impressive, however, was the sustained demand for the track, the record-buying public helping the single to spend 101 weeks on the UK Indie Charts, a run that ranked fourth in the 1980s after three classic long-selling records: "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus (131 weeks), "Blue Monday" by New Order (186 weeks) and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division (195 weeks).

"Song to the Siren" was included on This Mortal Coil's 1984 album It'll End in Tears which was released a year after the single.

This Mortal Coil was a collective name for a number of artists on the 4AD Records label, with Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins performing the song.

Following the release of the single by This Mortal Coil, Buckley's work experienced a reappraisal in the mid-1980s.

This revival of interest in the artist would be one of the greatest factors in the increase of his posthumous sales, falling second only to the publicity generated by the success of his son, Jeff Buckley.

In 2012, Dawn French selected this song on Desert Island Discs as, in her words, "The song that made me fall in love again".

The version by This Mortal Coil featured on David Lynch's 1997 film Lost Highway but did not appear on the film's soundtrack album. Lynch has stated that This Mortal Coil's version of the song inspired the first two albums by Julee Cruise. Also, he had previously intended to use the original version of the song on Blue Velvet but was prevented from doing so due to legal issues or budget limitations.

It was also used in the trailer for the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and in Peter Jackson's 2009 film The Lovely Bones.

The lyrics:

On the floating, ship less oceans

I did all my best to smile

Till your singing eyes and fingers

Drew me loving into your eyes

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 sang, "Touch me not

Touch me not, come back tomorrow"

Ohh my heart, ohh my heart

Shies from the sorrow

Well, I'm as puzzled as a newborn child

I'm as riddled as the tide

Should I stand amid the breakers?

Or shall 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