Song to the Siren

The song was written in 1967, but Buckley was dissatisfied with the early attempts at recording it. It would finally appear on Starsailor three years later.[1] In 1968, Buckley first performed the song in its original folk song style, with Buckley playing solo with a 12 string guitar, as the a guest star on the series finale of The Monkees. This stands in contrast to the lusher, reverb-filled version present on the Starsailor album. The Monkees television spot features the song in the key of E while the later album version is played in Bb. The album version also features heavy reverb on the electric guitar and high pitched background vocals. In comparison, the live version is more lo-fi, with no effects, and Buckley's voice is accompanied only by his guitar. The 1968 performance also features different lyrics with the phrase "I am puzzled as the oyster" later being changed to "I'm as puzzled as the newborn child" in the album version. This was reportedly because when Buckley played the song to Judy Henske, wife of then producer Jerry Yester, she responded to the line with laughter.[2][3]

Despite this, Buckley and Beckett regarded this song as their greatest collaboration effort, with Beckett later stating "It's a perfect match of melody and lyrics. There was some kind of uncanny connection between us."[1]

The song's reference to the sirens tempting sailors at sea stems from Greek mythology. This lyrical style is an example of Larry Beckett's literary inspirations, and stands in direct contrast to Buckley's own more personal writing style.[4]

Larry Beckett wrote the lyrics to Song to the Siren as part of his ongoing collaboration and friendship with Tim Buckley throughout their high school years. Beckett has been working alongside the English musician, vocalist, and song writer Stuart Anthony in a number of guises. The collaboration with Stuart Anthony began with the Lancaster based band 'The Long Lost Band' in 2014 when Beckett began contributing lyrics to their work.[5] Song to the Siren formed part of their collaboration when Beckett visited the UK for two tour dates in 2015 - Liverpool and Lancaster.[5] The live version of the song featured a spoken word part by Beckett explaining the origin of the lyrics, which was previously included in documentary footage with the author. Subsequently a studio version of the song was recorded in 2016 to reflect the live rendition, making this recording somewhat special as (amongst the raft of cover versions) this is the first time the lyricist has appeared on the track. The Larry Beckett and The Long Lost Band version was released online on 21 October 2016.[6][7] The song was also performed live by Stuart Anthony on the boat The Odysseia, a replica Ancient Greek Ship, setting sail from Lefkada. This rendition denotes a spiritual ‘home coming’ for the song; the surroundings being thought to be Homer’s Ithaca.

This Mortal Coil recorded a version of "Song to the Siren" that was released as a single in September 1983. It spent three weeks on the UK Charts where it peaked at no. 66 on October 23, 1983.[8] Eventually, the single appeared for 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 the group'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 label, with Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins performing the song. Fraser also recorded a duet with Tim's son, Jeff Buckley, developing an intense personal relationship with him.[9][10]

Following the release of the single by This Mortal Coil, Buckley's work experienced a reappraisal in the mid-1980s.[11] 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.[11]

In 2012 Dawn French selected this song on Desert Island Discs as, in her words, "The song that made me fall in love again".[12]

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.[13] 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 cover by Israeli singer Ivri Lider was featured in Eytan Fox's film HaBuah.[14] The original Tim Buckley version also appeared in the 2006 Australian movie Candy, as well as a cover by Paul Charlier and Paula Arundell. The song has also featured in popular TV shows such as Waterloo Road. In October 2018 the This Mortal Coil version of the song appeared in the BBC drama Wanderlust (S1: E6). The song is also featured on the soundtrack of the film Beautiful Boy.

"Song To The Siren" has been covered many times since This Mortal Coil's version.[15]

• Experimental rock group Cul de Sac released a cover the song on their 1991 album ECIM, featuring vocals from Dredd Foole.
• Former Two Nice Girls member Laurie Freelove covered the song on her 1991 album Smells Like Truth.
• The Chemical Brothers made an electronic big beat track called "Song to the Siren" in 1992, when they were known as the Dust Brothers. This is often erroneously stated to have sampled the This Mortal Coil version, but in fact the vocal sample is from 4AD labelmates Dead Can Dance (specifically, Song of Sophia)
• Italian band Dawn Fades used to play the song live (1992).
• Sally Oldfield covered the song on her 1996 album Secret Songs.
• Australian band Cordrazine covered the song on their 1997 EP Clearlight.[16]
• English artist Isobel Cooper covered the song for the 2000 compilation album Gifted on Real World Records.
• The song was given a trance remix by Lost Witness — "Did I Dream (Song to the Siren)" peaked at #28 in the UK singles chart in 2002.[17] Similarly, a sample of This Mortal Coil's version was featured prominently in Messiah's techno single "Temple of Dreams".[18]
• On the 2000 tribute album Sing a Song for You: Tribute to Tim Buckley, The Czars contributed a version of the song over three minutes longer than the original.
• It has also been covered by Mercury Prize nominee Susheela Raman on her 2001 album Salt Rain.
• Robert Plant covered this song on his 2002 album Dreamland, and as a duet with Plant and English tenor Alfie Boe on his 2011 album Alfie.
• A cover of the song was the title track of Song of the Siren: Live in San Sebastian (Sub Pop #SP592), a 2002 live album by Damon and Naomi with Kurihara, guitarist for the band Ghost.
• Post-punk band Half Man Half Biscuit covered the song for the Peel Sessions in 2002.[19]
• It was also sampled by Ratty in their trance track "Sunrise" and a cover is used as the break in a 2003 hardstyle track by Deepack titled "Down Low".
• In 2005 Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley, a tribute album of songs by both Tim Buckley and his son, Jeff Buckley, featured a version of "Song to the Siren" by Engineers. This cover was based upon This Mortal Coil's version of the song.
• London punk band Snuff included a version on their 2004 album Greasy Hair Makes Money.[20]
• David Gray included "Song to the Siren" on his 2007 album of live covers, A Thousand Miles Behind.
• John Frusciante in his 2009 album The Empyrean.
• Italian singer Maria Pia De Vito recorded this song in her 2009 album Mind the Gap.
• Sinéad O'Connor covered it on the 2010 album Music of Ireland: Welcome Home.
• Alex Cooke sang it on his 2010 release Song to the Siren.
• Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music recorded a version for his 2010 solo album Olympia.
• Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance covered the song accompanied by Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, on Perry's 2011 tour, then again for the world tour of 2012. A live album from the 2012 tour, In Concert, was released in 2013, and featured a rendition of the song.
• George Michael covered "Song to the Siren" on his 2012 "White Light" CD-Single.
• Gravenhurst released a version as the b-side of The Prize single in 2012.
• Jann Klose, who is a featured vocalist and guitarist in the movie Greetings from Tim Buckley, covers "Song to the Siren" on his 2013 album "Mosaic".
• American singer Mikky Ekko covered this song in a Yours Truly Session in 2013.
• Amen Dunes covered "Song to the Siren" on their 2014 Cowboy Worship EP on Sacred Bones Records.
• Daniel Cavanagh of Anathema covered "Song to the Siren" on 2015 "Meaning & Memory" solo album.
• Sheila Chandra covered the song on the 2001 Real World Records compilation "Gifted: Women Of The World".
• Wolf Alice covered the song for Spotify Singles in 2017.[21]
• Third Eye Blind covered the song on the 2018 album Thanks for Everything.[22]
• Kitty Macfarlane covered the song on her 2016 EP Tide & Time[23].

• Official Tim Buckley site
• Song to the Siren on YouTube
• List of Song to the Siren covers
• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics