submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Cape Ann Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "More salt, more sand, more sea. Enough already, right? I clearly have a problem or two. If the oceans were aware of me, I would definitely have received a no contact order by now. Like the one I got from the moon a few years back." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – The End to the Dawn Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Written with Dean [Tanya's husband], from the other room. About purging the toxic from your life, while acknowledging that poison can be healthful with proper dosage.
But you knew that." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Oh Me of Little Faith Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "In 1995, Belly toured the UK and Europe with a band called Coldwater Flat, who were also part of the Ft. Apache stable, led by Paul Janovitz (one of my many Jano fam connections). We all became fast friends and there was an abundance of humor, much of it supplied by drummer Paul Harding. Years (and years) later, I fell in love with his book, Tinkers (2010 Pulitzer winner) and asked if he had any abandoned scraps hanging around that I could scarf up. He sent pages of wonderful words, and I pulled some of the related imagery into these lyrics. The words are his, so I hesitate to weigh in too heavily on them, but they remind me of the people who grew me up, and how we may fall in and out of knowledge of each other, but we're inextricably woven together. (And a good thing, too.)" |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Tu Y Yo Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Lyrics inspired by my feisty, mouthy, high-octane ladyfriends -- you know how I love you." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Snow Goose and Me Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Fred [Abong]'s chord structures, time changes and vibe always bring the darkly hopeful stories out of me. This one feels like a fable, but with no sticky moral to bind it. About getting by, getting away with it, making some small contact, hoping for more. (btw, Snow Goose is a human, not a bird, unless you want it to be. I leave it to you.)
Also, just to note: I'm saying "selfish", not "shellfish". (Actually -- I am saying "shellfish", but I mean "selfish".)" |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Flying at Night Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Flying over cities at night never fails to break my heart. It is deeply moving to see all of our lights and patterns and plans from above, and all the dark spaces between. In love with everyone and everything up there, which is super dorky and sentimental, and in conflict with much of the reality on the ground." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Worry Doll Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "This is the oldest song in the series, written to my daughters. The chorus is a homemade lullaby I sang to the littler one (Harriet) when she was a baby. A predictably maternal shortlist of broad suggestions: don't be afraid to be strong, try to live outside of clock and calendar (as least as much as a relatively sane life allows), choose your battles, get lost sometimes. Written with Dean, whose parental advice is a lot more practical." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Salt Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "This could be heard as a resignation, but it's not, even though I claim that "faded" is my favorite color. But really, it's just a singular letter written on a particular day in a specific mood to a certain person. Not a white flag, just a reminder that sometimes it hurts and we are lucky to have each other." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Hidalgo Street Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "There are many streets in Mexico named for Miguel Hidalgo ~ this one is on Isla Mujeres, Yucatan, where I wrote the words for this. I’d just spent the night talking with a woman who told me story after story of local lore and history, all of them intense and centered around women: the devoted and difficult pilgrimages of Maya women to the island sanctuary of the goddess Ixchel; the fishwives and pirate mistresses who governed while their partners were at sea; a very terrible pirate humbled and driven crazy by unrequited love for a local girl called The Brunette; sightings of the Virgin walking on the water. Walking back to my room later, I thought of these stories as little globs of song buried in the sand and floating in the bay, and of generations of girls finding them, and leaving their own." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Far Away and Hard to See Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "These words were pulled from a short story sent to me by Mary Gaitskill ~ most lines are directly lifted from the narrative. Mary’s story, “Wish Fulfillment”, was written for a compilation called Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth. Link to the story: www.fiftytwostories.com?p=44
I am proud of this song ~ my first written from prose. Another song about decisions and secrets." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Vivakaraoke Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Love this! So much fun to sing these words. This song is about choosing a song, and choosing in general. And putting an end to pretend. And about how music can save the night." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Miranda (Pacifically) Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Saw The Tempest performed in a local park recently -- a morally complicated story with loose ends. I had this great piece of music from Michael Hearst waiting for me, and this was one of those “the lyrics wrote themselves” situations, inspired by the stranded souls of that play. (It's not sung in Elizabethan English, don't worry.) Other things crept in too, because most songs are about more than one thing." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Making Light Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Written with Dean, and to Dean, 20 years in. This is our “I Got You Babe”...
(ps. There’s a reference within this song to an old Belly b-side.)" |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Why So Sad Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Another song written with Rick Moody. Most of the words for this one came from a lyrical poem Rick sent me called Last Chances, an itemized list for an existential yard sale. Sad and funny, Moody-style. It was hard to boil it down to just one song; there were so many bleak and beautiful images to choose from." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Mary Magdalene in the Great Sky Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "There's a lot I could say about this song, but it would be long and rambling, with many footnotes and apologies. So, it's about MM and her mythology, and the voices in history that are heard in spite of being edited. (You just have to be really, really quiet to hear them.) It's also about lost chapters in personal histories. Plus: moths, hair, lights." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Still Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "I loved the music for this song after the first bar, and knew right away what it would be about, which is this: the feeling of relief and euphoria that happens when the sky opens up and pours after a day of hallucinatory heat in the American west. It kind of feels like falling in love, and so is sometimes confused with falling in love." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Meteor Shower Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Written with Rick Moody...There are only a few in this series with contributed lyrics by another and music by me, and this is one...Growing up and grown-up, I’ve spent many summer nights (alone and not) lying on chilly East Coast beaches waiting for the sky to do something. The simple act of looking up (put down your device now) is an instant recalibrator. When Rick sent me the lyrics that became Meteor Shower, I felt that same shift." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Blame the Muse Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Despite the classic pop of this one, I imagine this conversation taking place a hundred years ago -- flowers in the river, cowering dogs, night rages, blown-out candles. (Also, this lady seems more patiently long-suffering than she might be today.) Lyrics for this inspired in part by [Wesley Stace's] Misfortune (the book), not so much in tale but tone." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Let Fall the Sky Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "co-written by Joseph McMahon. Beautiful piano by Joe, this is a heart-warming apocalyptic love song, sung as the sky literally falls apart and down. This one makes me feel good." |
submissions
| Tanya Donelly – Mass Ave Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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From Tanya's Bandcamp: "Co-written with Dean Fisher...with whom I have created many songs and two children. Dean is my most constant (and convenient) musical partner and trusted ear. I love the linear chug of this song, the forward motion. The lyrics came easily for this one, inspired by a strange evening of small but important moments. True story." |
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