Only If for A Night

Album: Ceremonials (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song was inspired by a dream Florence had in a camper van parked in a German wood while she was on tour with MGMT. "There's a song on it that's inspired by a visit [from] my dead grandmother — like, I had a really, really vivid dream about her and, um, she was giving me advice in this dream," she explained to Q magazine. "And it was really emotional, and I woke up crying. And there's one song that's inspired by that experience."
  • Joan of Arc also crops up on this song. For more tunes about the medieval French heroine, check out the pair of hit singles by OMD "Joan of Arc" and "Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)." Also Leonard Cohen featured a track called "Joan of Arc" on his 1970 Album, Songs of Love & Hate. If your music tastes extend to extreme heavy metal, you might want to give a listen to Cradle of Filth's "The Death of Love," which is about Joan being burned at the stake.

    Another Joan of Arc music connection is that Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Go's played the Hundred Years War martyr in the 1989 movie, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
  • The song begins with a church bell-like piano riff before Florence enters with her vocals. She told Spinner how producer Paul Epworth's instrumentation prompted her to write the lyrics about her grandmother. Florence explained: "When Paul sent me this track that had church bells on it in the beginning, these English church bells, it suddenly brought me back to being at my Grandma 's house and hearing them, and her funeral, and things like that."

Comments: 1

  • Philip from Akron, OhIf you're going to bring up Joan of Arc references, Kate Bush's song "Joanni" of the album _Aerial_ is about her.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in Rock

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in RockSong Writing

We ring the Hell's Bells to see what songs and rockers are sincere in their Satanism, and how much of it is an act.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.

Justin Timberlake

Justin TimberlakeFact or Fiction

Was Justin the first to be Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher? Did Britney really blame him for her meltdown? Did his bandmates think he was gay?

Billy Gould of Faith No More

Billy Gould of Faith No MoreSongwriter Interviews

Faith No More's bassist, Billy Gould, chats to us about his two new experimental projects, The Talking Book and House of Hayduk, and also shares some stories from the FNM days.

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?Song Writing

A big list of musical marriages and family relations ranging from the simple to the truly dysfunctional.

Dino Cazares of Fear Factory

Dino Cazares of Fear FactorySongwriter Interviews

The guitarist/songwriter explains how he came up with his signature sound, and deconstructs some classic Fear Factory songs.