Belle and Sebastian released their first two albums in 1996: Tigermilk, recorded over three days, and If You're Feeling Sinister, recorded in a week, at the peak of the chamber pop movement. At first, some critics in Britain's music weeklies tied the band into the subgenre, yet the group was too pretty, too delicate, to bear that label. Through their first two years of public existence, the band shielded their personalities, submitting publicity photos featuring a girl, who was a friend of the band and reluctantly posing for photo shoots. Furthermore, they performed in odd venues, playing not only the standard coffeehouses and cafes, but also homes, church halls, and libraries.
Prior to the formation of Belle and Sebastian, Murdoch suffered from a protracted battle with chronic fatigue syndrome, which forced him to drop out of school and spend seven years living in his parents' home crippled by his condition.Whilst in his parents home, Murdoch wrote a short story about a boy named Sebastian and a girl named Isabelle based on the names from Madame Cecile Aubery's children's book Belle et Sebastian. On New Year's Day 1996, Stuart attended a party at which he met a young singer and cellist named Isobel Campbell. In a letter to his brother Fraser, Murdoch explained how he was making a single for Stow college at the end of February. Murdoch opted to use the name Belle&Sebastian for the project because it was occupying him at the time. Murdoch took to songwriting as an escapism from the four walls surrounding him in his room and eventually recorded demos with bassist Stuart David whom he met at a government training programme called Beatbox. Murdoch quickly met a series of other musicians through social and musical circles in his hometown Glasgow and they agreed to help with the Stow project. The members he found for this initial lineup were Stevie Jackson (guitar), Mick Cooke (trumpet), Chris Geddes (keyboards), Stuart David (bass), Richard Colburn (drums), and Isobel Campbell (cello). The Stow College record was to be issued by Electric Honey, but it turned into a full album. The course instructor Alan Rankine determined that Murdoch had enough good material to record a full LP and could do so if they could get it all done in three days, studio time allotted for the single. Murdoch and his musicians rose to the challenge and recorded ten tracks putting the songs in order as they would appear on the record and mostly completing them in just a few takes.
In May of 1996, Belle and Sebastian self-released their debut album, Tigermilk, on Electric Honey Records. Only 1,000 copies of the album, which was only pressed on vinyl, were released, but it unexpectedly became a sensation, earning terrific word of mouth throughout the UK. As a result, the band became slightly more than a school project — it became an actual band. If You're Feeling Sinister, released on the independent Jeepster label, followed in November of 1996. By the time the album was released in America on the EMI subsidiary The Enclave, it had earned considerable critical acclaim in the U.K. — not only from music weeklies, but from newspapers like The Sunday Times and magazines like The Face — and a large cult following; by some accounts, Tigermilk was being sold for as much as 75 pounds. Over the course of 1997, word of mouth continued to grow in America, even as the band pulled out of an American tour because The Enclave went bankrupt and closed.
As the band cult continued to build in 1997, Belle and Sebastian released three EPs — Dog on Wheels (May), Lazy Line Painter Jane (July), and 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light (October). Each subsequent EP placed higher on the indie charts and received great critical acclaim. Later in the year, violinist Sarah Martin became a member of the band. By the end of the year, the group finalized an American deal with Matador Records, issuing The Boy With the Arab Strap in September 1998. The following year saw the eagerly anticipated wide re-release of Tigermilk, the album that started it all. It was the biggest selling album but is unpopular with the group themselves. Following completion of 2000's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, Stuart David left Belle and Sebastian to focus full-time on his solo project, Looper, being replaced by Bobby Kildea of V-Twin. In 2001, the group released two EPs — Jonathan David and I'm Waking Up to Us — and recorded the soundtrack for Todd Solondz's film Storytelling. Just before the soundtrack's release in spring 2002, Belle and Sebastian embarked on a comprehensive tour of the United States and Canada before returning to Europe for the summer festival season. Midway through the tour, Isobel Campbell left the band, citing the usual differences.
Another major change that soon took place was the band leaving Jeepster and Matador to sign with Rough Trade, with their next record, late 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, produced by the inimitable Trevor Horn (who also produced Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes, and scores of others). The record spawned the brilliant "Step into My Office, Baby" and "I'm a Cuckoo" singles, the latter of which was the group's biggest U.K. hit, reaching number 14 in early 2004. After a long worldwide tour that found Belle and Sebastian reaching new levels of success, they retired to Scotland and began preparing for the recording of their seventh full length album, The Life Pursuit, released in 2006.
In 2010, they released their eighth full length album, Write About Love.
Official website: www.belleandsebastian.com
Come On Sister
Belle and Sebastian Lyrics
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The men started working
I can't sleep
No, I can't sleep
I keep feeling the lights
So I think I should get up and call you
Gonna to find you
Thinking of you like a movie star
And it's dumb
Thinking of you like the way that you were
Everyone loves you
The boy in the corner
The postman
The policeman
It does me no good
To keep looking ahead at your future
Adoration
And it's fun
Thinking of you like a movie star
And it's dumb
Thinking of you like the way that you were
Every moment like a sudden pleasure
Every moment that will get you by
And it's going to cause a crisis
Might just lose a little faith
I've seen all kinds of strangers
The rich and the famous
They don't count
No, they don't count
Now I'm back on my beat
On the same greasy street
There's an angel on my shoulder
Saying, "Ho, have you ever said an honest word?"
Saying, "Yo, have you ever said a pretty word?"
Every moment like a sudden pleasure
Every moment that will get you by
And it's going to cause a crisis
Might just lose a little faith
Don't touch me
If you touch me you could never go back
Faith
Come on, sister have a drink
Have a seat at the bar
Tell me all about your men
And your hopes
And the hours of your life
You could love
After all that's what you're looking for
You can love
It's a currency unspoken of
But it's hard to form a good opinion
Yet you're going to look at me that way
And it's going to cause a crisis
Might just lose a little faith
Don't touch me
If you touch me you can never go back
Faith
Come on, sister have a drink
Have a seat at the bar
Tell me all about your men
And your hopes
And the hours of your life
The lyrics to Belle and Sebastian's "Come On Sister" describe a sleepless night where the singer is plagued by thoughts of someone they care about. The song opens with a description of men starting work at six in the morning, which keeps the singer from sleeping. They are reminded of the person they are thinking of by the lights around them and decide to count down the hours until they can call them. The chorus notes that while it is "fun" to think of the person as a movie star, it is "dumb" to idealize them as they used to be.
The second verse highlights how popular the person is, with everyone from a boy in the corner to a policeman admiring them. However, this does the singer no good as they cannot focus on the person's future without getting lost in adoration. The chorus then repeats, emphasizing the fleeting nature of pleasure and the danger of losing faith.
The final verse sees the singer back on their "greasy street," looking for honesty and beauty in a world where even the rich and famous do not count. They are urged by an angel on their shoulder to speak truth and speak prettily. The chorus then repeats one last time, urging the sister to have a drink and tell the singer about her hopes and loves before either of them lose faith.
Line by Line Meaning
Six in the morning
It's early in the morning at 6 am
The men started working
Men have already started working
I can't sleep
The singer is unable to sleep
No, I can't sleep
The artist repeats that they are unable to sleep
I keep feeling the lights
The artist is being disturbed by the lights
So I think I should get up and call you
The singer decides to call someone due to their inability to sleep
Gonna to find you
The singer wants to find the person they are calling
And it's fun
It's enjoyable
Thinking of you like a movie star
The artist is thinking highly of the person they are addressing
And it's dumb
It's not smart
Thinking of you like the way that you were
The singer thinks highly of the past version of the person they are addressing
Everyone loves you
The person being addressed is loved by everyone
The boy in the corner
Even the boy in the corner loves the person being addressed
The postman
Even the postman loves the person being addressed
The policeman
Even the policeman loves the person being addressed
It does me no good
It's not beneficial for the artist
To keep looking ahead at your future
The artist shouldn't focus on the future of the person being addressed
Adoration
The singer has great admiration for the person being addressed
Every moment like a sudden pleasure
Every moment is like a sudden pleasure for the singer
Every moment that will get you by
Every moment is sufficient to sustain the person being addressed
And it's going to cause a crisis
It's going to cause a problem
Might just lose a little faith
The artist might lose some faith
I've seen all kinds of strangers
The singer has seen all sorts of people
The rich and the famous
Includes even the rich and the famous
They don't count
They are not important
Now I'm back on my beat
The singer is back to the place where they usually are
On the same greasy street
It's the same weary street as before
There's an angel on my shoulder
The artist feels like they have guidance
Saying, "Ho, have you ever said an honest word?"
The angel is reminding the artist to be honest
Saying, "Yo, have you ever said a pretty word?"
The angel is reminding the singer to say something nice
Don't touch me
Don't touch the singer
If you touch me you could never go back
If you touch the artist, something irreversible will happen
Come on, sister have a drink
The artist encourages the person being addressed to have a drink
Have a seat at the bar
The artist wants the person being addressed to sit on a bar stool
Tell me all about your men
The singer wants the person being addressed to talk about their romantic relationships
And your hopes
The artist wants the person being addressed to talk about their aspirations
And the hours of your life
The singer wants the person being addressed to talk about how they spend their time
You could love
The singer believes the person being addressed can fall in love
After all that's what you're looking for
The singer thinks that the person being addressed wants to find love
It's a currency unspoken of
Love is an unspoken currency
But it's hard to form a good opinion
The artist is finding it difficult to form an opinion of the person being addressed
Yet you're going to look at me that way
The person being addressed is going to look at the singer in a certain way
Don't touch me
The singer repeats to not touch them
If you touch me you can never go back
The result of being touched by the person being addressed is irreversible
Faith
The artist reiterates the importance of faith
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BOB KILDEA, CHRISTOPHER GEDDES, MICHAEL COOKE, RICHARD COLBURN, SARAH MARTIN, STEPHEN JACKSON, STUART MURDOCH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind