Weighty Ghost

Album: Welcome to the Night Sky (2007)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds lead singer Paul Murphy confronting his own ghost, which could represent another side of his personality. This ghost has not ascended to the clouds but his with him on Earth, although with a great deal of detachment. He sees the ghost as part of his soul, so he's not looking to excise it:

    I don't need no surgery
    Take those knives away from me
    Just wanna die in my own body
    A ghost just needs a home
  • This is the most popular song from the Canadian band Wintersleep. They performed it on the Late Show with David Letterman when it was released.
  • In his Songfacts interview, Paul Murphy talked about performing this song live, where it takes on a different meaning. "You can play a song so many times live and go through the element of going through the motions, but you have to have that connection," he said. "I try to get into the same headspace that I got into when I wrote the songs, so they're still definitely relevant. But then there's changes because you're doing it in front of an audience, so there's an element of celebration. So it's different - it's not just about the meaning of the song."
  • This was the theme song to the CBC TV series Cracked, which ran from 2012-2014.
  • The video, directed by Sean Wainsteim, earned the Much Music Award for Best Independent Video. The song also helped Wintersleep win the Juno Award for New Group of the Year.

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