Here’s another song that filled out the soundtrack of our lives in the summer of ’92. I remember listening to this while driving in my mom’s Miata, top down under the stars. It’s a really good nighttime song… especially on a very still night with nobody around for miles.
As I’ve written before, Peter Gabriel’s So was one of the key formative albums in my early years as a music listener. Setting aside the big hits (‘Red Rain,’ ‘Sledgehammer,’ ‘In Your Eyes’ … all wonderful), I’d never before heard that sort of atmospheric mood music. ‘Don’t Give Up’ and ‘We Do What We’re Told’ were powerful, but without a doubt ‘Mercy Street’ had the biggest impact.
Something about those echoing triangles, the multi-tracked vocals, the lonely synth solos between verses… I had no idea who Anne Sexton was (still don’t, to be honest), or why he’d write a song about her, and I didn’t care. This was one of the best things I’d ever heard.
And just six years later I got to share it with my future wife.
Meet Me In Montauk 
So, what exactly were you doing driving around in your mom’s Miata in the middle of the night with nobody around for miles? What secret life did you have about which none of us knew?:)
As for Mercy Street, a great song on a great album. Gabriel is another of those unique voices. Much like Sting, he could pretty much sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and it would somehow be compelling. With So, he (along with Paul Simon and David Byrne) became part of the introduction of world music (African sounds, instrumentation) to my American ears. I was hooked on the CD, so much so that I had a huge poster of Gabriel hanging above my bed in my college apartment. Looking back, I question how exactly I got away with that without a constant barrage of jokes and questions regarding my sexuality. But perhaps my friends avoided the easy jokes because Gabriel was just THAT cool (or I was just such a big nerd–with the rest my room including posters of Billy Joel, that the jokes would have just been too easy)
Anyway, I must now go hunt down a Miata and drive a lonely stretch of road so I can try to duplicate Clay’s experience.:)(By the way, where exactly did you find that lonely stretch of road in South Florida anyway, Clay? Were you a mule doing runs to the Everglades in 92?:)
Well, Alex and I got off work around 2 a.m. most nights, and we’d drive down Old Cutler Drive in Coral Gables or sometimes out to South Beach.
So where are those posters now, girly man?
now I know why I never had any gas in the car.
Ha, Mom 🙂 Love the song; love the album; loved the poster. When I listen to a song like this, which I honestly haven’t listened to for, I’m probably not exaggerating here, years, it makes me reluctant to ever be introduced to another new artist. There is so much music that I loved that I rarely listen to; where are there enough hours in the day for all the songs, books, films? Of course, I know that the next Peter Gabriel/Lyle Lovett/Elvis Costello could be about to release an album, but I already have the old PG/LL/EC, so do I really need the next one? And, yes, the next COMPLETELY ORIGINAL voice may also be around the corner, but if I’m satisfied with the voices I already have to I need another one? Maybe we should “marry” our musical artists the way we marry our spouse. We get to have more than just one, but we shouldn’t always be on the look-out for the next one. We should enjoy the ones to whom we’ve made a commitment. I’m going to dig out So and listen to it on the way to work tomorrow.
It’s kind of a haunting song. I was intrigued by who Anne Sexton was and turned to the most obvious source of factual information available to the general public these days, Wikipedia. 🙂
She was an American poet with serious mental illness (bipolar – eventually committed suicide), and with whom several of your favorite artists apparently felt some connection. Following are miscellaneous entries on her bio:
British musician Peter Gabriel wrote a song, “Mercy Street”, dedicated to Sexton in 1986.
Dave Matthews has said that the song “Grey Street”, from the album Busted Stuff (2002), is inspired by Sexton.
During a 2007 concert in Boston, Morrissey stated that he felt privileged to “trod the same streets as Anne Sexton. She died for you, you know. And for me.”
Aimee Mann mentions Sexton in song “Stranger Into Starman” from her album Smilers.
Thanks for sharing a great song and for making me learn about someone I had never heard of. 🙂
P.S. Aunt Peggy’s comment cracked me up!
Thanks for the research, Kerrie! I did catch that mention in Aimee Mann’s song but didn’t know about the rest.