The Story Behind the Lyric: “I See A Darkness” by Bonnie “Prince” Billy

The first album Will Oldham released under the name Bonnie “Prince” Billy features the fragile and revealing song, “I See A Darkness”. It’s the title track of his 1999 album, and it’s the type of grim and gorgeous meditation that has made Oldham’s wobbly tunes feel almost sacred.

For many, “I See A Darkness” is a way in to Oldham’s sprawling catalog. It also forever connected him to a country-music legend who alchemized the song into an outlaw psalm.

Can You See What’s Inside of Me?

“I See Darkness” begins with a kind of confession from one friend to another. As the conversation continues, the narrator slowly reveals how he sees nothing but despair around him.

Many times we’ve been out drinking,
And many times we’ve shared our thoughts.
But did you ever, ever notice,
The kind of thoughts I got?

But it’s not nihilism. He aims for peace and a stop to “our whoring” and hopes to replace the veneer of happiness and the temporary rush of random sex with a more lasting light.

Well, you know I have a love,
A love for everyone I know.
And you know I have a drive,
To live, I won’t let go.

Two Types of People and Johnny Cash

In 2001, Oldham told Pitchfork about a girl he knew in high school. She said there are two ways to see yourself. There’s the good person who attempts evil and the evil person who tries to do good. “And she asked which one I thought,” he said. “And I think I thought the latter—an essentially evil person who tries to do good in the world. That’s basically what the song is about.”

But could you see its opposition,
Comes rising up sometimes?
That its dreadful end position,
Comes blacking in my mind.

Following Johnny Cash’s cover, many have interpreted its meaning to be about death—a farewell note from the Man in Black, who was nearing the end of his life. Cash’s version appears on his 2000 LP, American III: Solitary Man. He died three years later.

When Oldham joins Cash in the chorus, their voices bouncing off one another feels like a glimpse of the opening hang between friends, searching for light as they fumble around, together in the dark.

And did you know how much I love you,
Is a hope that somehow you
Can save me from this darkness?

Photo by Francesco Prandoni/Getty Images