Mystery

Album: Sugaring Season (2012)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Beth Orton closes her fifth album, Sugaring Season, with this offer of solace and comfort. The album title serves as a metaphor for the ten songs on the set. Orton told The Sun: "The term 'Sugaring Season' refers to the time in the late winter or early spring in New England and elsewhere, when they tap the maple trees to make maple syrup. In the cold nights and warm days, the sap flows… it is very much a time of reckoning and of introspection and darkness and light. It takes a lot of sap to make a little bit of sugar."

    Orton's husband, American folk singer Sam Amidon, is from the New England state of Vermont and they consequently spend a lot of time there.
  • The lyric, "Oh please don't stand a mood apart" was borrowed from Robert Frost's 1947 short poem, A Mood Apart. ("I stopped my song and almost heart. For any eye is an evil eye. That looks in onto a mood apart." ) According to Orton, Frost's poem, "uses nature to capture a sense of 'innocence regained,'" which is one of the themes of Sugaring Season. (Source The Independent).
  • Here are a few more songs on our database that reference the poetry of Robert Frost:

    "Uncle John's Band" by Grateful Dead.
    "Stay Gold" by The Big Pink.
    "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan & Dean.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Who Did It First?

Who Did It First?Music Quiz

Do you know who recorded the original versions of these ten hit songs?

Metallica

MetallicaFact or Fiction

Beef with Bon Jovi? An unfortunate Spandex period? See if you can spot the true stories in this Metallica version of Fact or Fiction.

Scott Stapp

Scott StappSongwriter Interviews

The Creed lead singer reveals the "ego and self-fulfillment" he now sees in one of the band's biggest hits.

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.

Charlie Benante of Anthrax

Charlie Benante of AnthraxSongwriter Interviews

The drummer for Anthrax is also a key songwriter. He explains how the group puts their songs together and tells the stories behind some of their classics.

Tommy James

Tommy JamesSongwriter Interviews

"Mony Mony," "Crimson and Clover," "Draggin' The Line"... the hits kept coming for Tommy James, and in a plot line fit for a movie, his record company was controlled by the mafia.