Into Dust by Mazzy Star

Album: So Tonight That I Might See (1993)

Charted: 47

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Songfacts®:

Written by lead singer Hope Sandoval and producer/instrumentalist David Roback, this song about losing yourself in someone else was a track on American alternative rock band Mazzy Star's second album, So Tonight That I Might See. The set also features Mazzy Star's best known track, their transatlantic Top 50 hit "Fade Into You."
Hope Sandoval doesn't say much about her lyrics, but at the time, she was linked to William Reid, guitarist of the Jesus and Mary Chain. He later told Goldmine: "I was in love with Hope, but it was the unhappiest time in my life."
According to Sandoval, she didn't even write down the lyrics. When David Roback started playing the guitar part, she came up with the words and they recorded the song right away. It was later augmented with strings.
The song was featured in a 2009 TV advertising campaign for Virgin Media in the UK. This generated enough interest in the track for it to become Mazzy Star's first entry in the British Top 75 since "Flowers in December" charted in November 1996.
This song has featured three times in the American teen drama series The OC, most prominently when it was the outro song in the episode where Marissa overdoses in Mexico. It was also used in these TV shows:

The Handmaid's Tale ("Mayday" - 2019)
Bosch ("Dark Sky" - 2018)
Rectify ("Modern Times" - 2013)
House ("Informed Consent" - 2006)
Charmed ("A Knight to Remember" - 2001)
The song entered the UK top 50 for the first time in September 2011 after featuring in promotional ads for the video game Gears of War 3.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers referenced this song in their 1995 song "Aeroplane":

I'm turning into dust again
My melancholy baby
The star of mazzy must
Push her voice inside of me

Comments: 7

AnonymousWhen I first heard this song it reminded me of my 17 loving years with my wife and then the loss of her how everything turned to dust
Grayson from The Desertmay be their greatest song in my opinion
John-mark Ratcliffe from Lancaster (60 Miles From Manchester On The Nnwcoast)I first heard it in 2018 June ish.
I just randomly decided to ask the real meaning behind her words. I applaud you, because you have hit the nail on the head.
We have all felt this confusing concoction of abandonment/guilt/blame/why and then eventual growing colder towards a warm feelings for your loss nomatter what or who it may be.
It was you breathless and torn ( not sure!)
And because he was unsure if he wanted to maintain his partnershiwith her she cried her eyes into dust.
As she witnesses two lovers who have now become strangers turn into the dust of time.
She is beautiful, her lyrics are so human.
I only discovered her because of rick and morty about a year ago. But im just glad know of her now.
I don't remember hearing of her in the nineties in the UK....
(((we had the I.R.A. and gulf and Yugoslavia etc, etc....sadly too much indifference in our affairs for feelings of empathic human interaction, around that time,
we had sinade o Connor and u2 and the GOD-Damn Smiths,
ohH! And Do not get me started with the musical representation of clinical depression with suicidal tendencies...... the cure!!!!! ( They are known for not being known) ))))))
about not knowing of her in the nineties, I'm just glad I discovered her and ain't going to snuff it not hearing her deliver a combination of everyday words in such a beautiful combination of such an explanetetry way everyone knows what she is saying to every individual listener.
True wordsmith.
Makes Lana look like a novice.
Cara from New YorkHeard this in the season 3 finale of Handmaid’s Tale. Had it on repeat ever since
(is that still a thing??) It is the song I now associate with the Corona Virus and the strangeness of the world right now, as this is when I discovered this haunting song.
Mike from Idahoamazing & hauntingly beautiful piece of dark folk music. just incredible.
Smartalek from Boston, MaNot to mention it provides the backdrop for the first get-together of the protagonists in the great girls-coming-of-age movie "Foxfire," in which "Legs" (a young Angelina Jolie) tattoos first herself, then the other girls, to celebrate their triumph over the skeezoid teacher who had molested two of them.
One of the most powerful & haunting scenes ever -- and made more so by this track.
Marie from Durham, United KingdomToday is September 20th 2011, and i heard this song for the first time last night on an advert for 'Gears of war' and i can honestly say it is one of the most beautiful, haunting tracks i have ever heard.

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