Philomena

Album: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Decemberists vocalist Colin Meloy imploring the titular lady to "let him go down, down, down." Meloy wrote the track before the film of the same name came out. He told The Sun: "It's a fictional name. I'd written it, and then, a short while later, I thought it was ruined forever because of the Judi Dench movie."

    "But I thought I would just go with it anyway. It's sort of about sexual fumbling and bumbling."
  • The song features a retro Phil Spector's sound. Meloy told The Sun: "I wanted to build arrangements for two backing vocalists and it just seemed like the kind of tongue in cheek, over the top song that you could kind of give a Spector approach and still have a song survive."
  • Meloy's chief inspiration was Leonard Cohen, who got Phil Spector to produce his 1977 album Death of a Ladies Man. "I was on a Leonard Cohen kick," he said. "I had the idea of using backing vocalists and having them being an element that ties things together as well as using strings."

    "Then it became more of a big pop sound, which I think sits well with some of our earlier stuff."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot

Jon Foreman of SwitchfootSongwriter Interviews

Switchfoot's frontman and main songwriter on what inspires the songs and how he got the freedom to say exactly what he means.

Wherefore Art Thou Romeo Lyric

Wherefore Art Thou Romeo LyricMusic Quiz

In this quiz, spot the artist who put Romeo into a song lyric.

Colin Hay

Colin HaySongwriter Interviews

Established as a redoubtable singer-songwriter, the Men At Work frontman explains how religion, sobriety and Jack Nicholson play into his songwriting.

Lecrae

LecraeSongwriter Interviews

The Christian rapper talks about where his trip to Haiti and his history of addiction fit into his songs.

Elton John

Elton JohnFact or Fiction

Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou HarrisSongwriter Interviews

She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.