As Olivia Newton John almost once observed, ‘let’s get metaphysical, metaphysical / let me hear your mystic talk, your mystic talk.’ October is a good time to curate songs involving magic, myth and mystery.
Van Morrison, “Into the Mystic”
“And I wanna rock your gypsy soul / Just like way back in the days of old / Then magnificently we will float / Into the mystic.” A well-deserved early hit for the famously irascable Irish genius. “I guess the song is just about being part of the universe,” Morrison once remarked.
Sarah McLachlan, “Building a Mystery”
The Canadian singer-songwriter explains the meaning behind her hit song in this video.
Paul McCartney, “Magical Mystery Tour”
Big Mac magnificently floats his audience into the mystic while performing the title song of the Beatles’ wondrous 1967 album, Magical Mystery Tour. Fun fact: the album release was followed by a hideous BBC hour-long Beatles special of the same name. You can watch Paul’s cross-marketing misfire in appalled fascination here.
Dead Can Dance, “Persephone”
Here’s the brilliant twosome of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry collaborating on a musical rendering of the Hellenic myth of the vegetation goddess Persephone’s abduction into the underworld.
Brendan Perry, “Song of the Siren”
In a live performance, the Dead Can Dance singer-songwriter pours new wine into a an old bottle: a Tim Buckley tune inspired by the Homeric myth of the Sirens, who lured sailors to rocky deaths with their songs.
Arcade Fire, “It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)”
Orpheus was the son of Apollo, the Greek god of music and poetry, and Eurydice was a hot nymph. When he joined the expedition of the Argonauts, Orpheus saved his shipmates from the music of the Sirens by playing his own, more powerful music. On return he married Eurydice, who soon died from a snakebite. Overcome with grief Orpheus traveled to the land of the dead, hoping to bring his nubile nymph back to life. Although things didn’t work out well for the pair, their myth made for a fine track from Arcade Fires’ 2013 album, Reflektor.
The Waterboys, “Song of Wandering Aengus”
Some years back, Van Morrison couldn’t get permission from the family estate of William Butler Yeats to use the poet’s words in his songs. Mike Scott of The Waterboys had better luck, and in 2010 he wove an entire album - An Appointment With Mr. Yeats - around the mystical writer’s output.
“Song of Wandering Aengus” is a poetic rendering of wonderment in the face of transformation. In a certain sense, a fish turning into a girl is no more astonishing than a caterpillar pupating into a butterfly. The piece is also about the search for meaning and love, even when the seeker is “old with wandering.” Scott’s musical rendering takes Yeats’ poem to a whole other level.
Van Morrison, “The Mystery”
“Let go into the mystery / Let yourself go / You've got to open up your heart / That's all I know.” Van again. One of the lesser-known diamonds from his catalogue of gems.
That's a lovely and talented bunch of artists, all so original, the mystical content never descending into cheap sentimentality. Good choices!
beautiful series of song, so i lifted my guitar and played along
it take two or three to become One