She's Got a New Spell Lyrics
Where is it coming from?
All around
What are you running from?
Something you don't understand
Something you cannot command
She's got a new spell
Yes, that's how I know
That she's got a new spell
Who's moved this room from round me?
Where has it gone?
I fear this night will drown me
So I lie awake all night
Cos I can't sleep with something I can't fight
And you're just bending them for your own benefit
She's gone to get the cat in
The next thing I know
She's mumbling in Latin
She cut the stars out of the sky
And baked them in a pie
The script and the machinery
On the podcast Bill says the story is (and I think this is hillarious as it's so different to what it sounds like it means in the song) ...
The sound engineer lived next door to a pagan and was always complaining about her chanting late at night. One day he came in and said he hadn't slept well because of the chanting, "I think she's got a new spell".
Haven't you ever known someone with such intense force of personality that it seems like they have you under a spell? What a beautiful and poetic song.
the first time i heard this song was the 'peel sessions' version. i must have listened to it 45 times on repeat. it's one of those songs that just gets under your skin and you feel like you've heard it before, you know it already, but you have to hear it again. and again. just one more time.
This is about Mary, who was a woman with whom Billy had a brief intense relationship in the late 80s. They got engaged and it all went wrong and most of the songs on 'Workers Playtime', the album from which this is taken, are about her.
I hear she was into "spiritual" stuff, which is where the 'mumbling in latin' comes from and the 'spell' of the title.
However, I've been wrong before and I promise I'll be wrong again...