Lucette Stranded On The Island

Album: Have You in My Wilderness (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Julia Holter sings here of a woman that wakes up on a Balearic island, badly wounded and strewn with cactus leaves. As the song proceeds, she explores the woman's flickering consciousness.
  • The song is based on a minor character from a Colette short story. Holter explained to Mojo: "Lucette is just this side character – she runs away with a Russian Prince and they have this affair, and they are on this cruise and he ends up stealing her jewels and hitting her and then leaves her on this island. She dies of blood poisoning, it's really awful – but it's part of this kind of funny short story by Colette, which is not supposed to be gruesome."

    "I was interested in the state of waking up from being unconscious in an unknown place. I wanted to make a song that was kind of grotesque that captures that moment of confusion and gradually the mind gets to remember what happens, and you start to see things emerge more clearly."
  • Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954) was a French novelist, whose best known work, the 1944 novella Gigi, was the basis for the Leslie Caron-starring musical film and Lerner and Loewe stage production of the same name. Julia Holter's 2013 album Loud City Song was her own loose interpretation of Gigi - both the musical and the original novella.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.