#21 Nico - Afraid

Album: Desertshore (1970)

Lyrics excerpt:
Cease to know or to tell
Or to see or to be your own
Have someone else's will as your own
Have someone else's will as your own
You are beautiful and you are alone

Reasons to love this song:
A few times I've come across music critics saying something along the lines of "The Velvet Underground were a great band, too bad Andy Warhol forced them to perform with Nico". I would take it as a sure sign that I need not pay any attention to any of their reviews. Yes, Nico was a beautiful woman, but she was far from "just a pretty face"; she had a unique, warm and deep voice coloured by her German accent, a way of singing I've seen compared to a priestess chanting, and she developed a songwriting style that sounded timeless and didn't fit into any existing genre.
I've always understood Afraid to be similar to Tori Amos's Girl -- the artist addressing and comforting her younger and more insecure self. Nico's chant-like way of singing gives the impression of a prophetess or deity comforting a mortal.

Link to Amazon preview:
The album version by Nico: Afraid
A lovely cover by Espers from The Weed Tree (2005): Afraid

YouTube link:
Nico performing Afraid live in Manchester in 1980:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG2JNv5r6yE

# 20 Madonna - Mer Girl

(Halloween playlist, #5)

Album: Ray Of Light (1998)

Lyrics excerpt:
I ran past the churches and the crooked old mailbox
Past the apple orchards and the lady that never talks
Up into the hills, I ran to the cemetery
And held my breath, and thought about your death

I ran to the lake, up into the hills
I ran and I ran, I'm looking there still
And I saw the crumbling tombstones
All forgotten names

Link to Amazon preview:
Mer Girl

Reasons to love this song:
A rather simple, bleak and poignant song about death that concludes Ray Of Light. I've noticed that, when I play this song to friends unfamiliar with Ray Of Light or quote a part of the lyrics, they often seem surprised it's a Madonna song -- and yet, it's probably one of the most personal songs Madonna ever made.
I've seen some conspiracy theories about an alleged deep occult meaning to this song (an example can be seen in the comments to the YouTube video linked below), but I firmly believe they are rubbish. There is no need to look for hidden meanings if there is an obvious meaning -- the singer's thoughts about her mother's death and about her own mortality.

YouTube link:
A fragment of the song with the (beautiful and disturbing) backdrop video made for the Drowned World Tour:

#19 Emilie Autumn - Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches

(Halloween playlist, #4)


Album: Opheliac (Deluxe edition, Disc 2) (2010)

Lyrics excerpt:
Lunatics are dangerous
And doctors are obeyed
They also go together just like toast and marma-

Ladies are like children
With brains the size of squirrels
Lets give clitoridectomies to all the little ...

Girls are helpless trasures
That daddies must protect
So lie upon the table for the doctors to in-

Reasons to love this song:
I can't imagine a song with more dark humour than this one. It's a parody of a children's clapping song with many variations (Miss Lucy Had a Baby/Miss Suzy Had a Baby/Miss Lucy Had a Steamboat), describing the mistreatment of women in 19th century medicine and psychiatry. As in some versions of the children's song, the last word or syllable of each stanza is missing, but it is implied by the rhyme and by the first word in the next one. The simplicity of the tune and Autumn's cheerful voice make the subject matter even more terrible -- and yet, you can't help laughing. I wasn't able to get this song out of my head for days after I first heard it.

Link to Amazon preview:
Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches
Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches (Live)

YouTube link: