Declan O’Donovan notes that his song title comes from a biblical exhortation to relinquish and reject sin and join the virtuous doing hard, but good, work. The words of the song somewhat belie the wholehearted embracing of this pious proposal “unlike the beast I feed each day / That lives to sleep and screw and play / My heart seems wild, the mind unreal.” It’s not only unclear but with its unusual rhythm patterns it’s a somewhat unsettling song.
Declan O’Donovan tells that “The music for this song was written on a purple baby grand piano in a basement filled with spiders on Vancouver Island. The owner of the piano and the house where it lived was an unfettered conspiracy theorist. I have no doubt the setting informed the strange rhythms and melodies in the song.”
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Sure, I could climb high in a tree, or go to Skye on my holiday. I could be happy. All I really want is the excitement of first hearing The Byrds, the amazement of decades of Dylan’s music, or the thrill of seeing a band like The Long Ryders live. That’s not much to ask, is it?
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