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
Storytelling
Belle and Sebastian Lyrics
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Looks at all the people and take note of the setting behind
Listen, watch, and wait
A plot begins to take shape
There's a story
And then characters will come to you
Relating events as they choose to
If you're a storyteller you might think you're without responsibility
And you can lead your characters anywhere you want
You have immunity
Have you considered the way
People might react to all the things that your characters say?
And are their actions hand in hand with what you want to portray?
Are you sick?
Are you crippled? Insane?
Expressing the desires that daren't speak their name?
Are you the one to be blamed?
Now you're a storyteller you might think you are without responsibility
But in directions, actions and words
Cause and effect
You need consistency
How can you finish the tale?
Lives which have played a part
Are summarized from the very start
And episodes left out to make it all go our way
"It's a might big world
Some of it I've seen
But mostly I've only heard
And stories are all fiction from their moment of birth"
You're just a storyteller
You're not trying to escape responsibility
If we believe you then you're successful
But you don't make claims of verity
The lyrics of the song 'Storytelling' by Belle and Sebastian invites the listener to imagine a scene in their minds, noting down the people and setting. As they listen, watch, and wait, a story begins to take shape, and characters emerge who tell their stories as their creator chooses. However, the song points out that even though you are the storyteller, you hold responsibility for the tale you tell. You have created these characters, and their actions and words are from your mind. You have an obligation to maintain consistency in their actions and words and to consider how they will teach and influence the listeners. Lastly, the song ends with acknowledging the fact that storytelling is a mighty world, and stories are mostly fiction from their birth.
Line by Line Meaning
Picture a scene in your mind
Visualize a scenery in your imagination
Looks at all the people and take note of the setting behind
Observe all the characters in the scene and take note of the setting surrounding them
Listen, watch, and wait
Pay attention in audio and visual senses, and be patient
A plot begins to take shape
A storyline starts to form
There's a story
There is a narrative
And then characters will come to you
Characters will emerge in your mind
Relating events as they choose to
Characters dictate the events by their actions and decisions
But all their words and actions come entirely from you
However, you are the creator of their words and actions
If you're a storyteller you might think you're without responsibility
As a storyteller, you may feel that you are free from responsibility
And you can lead your characters anywhere you want
You have control over where the story leads
You have immunity
You feel protected from any consequences
Have you considered the way
Have you contemplated how
People might react to all the things that your characters say?
Readers or listeners may respond to the words of your characters
And are their actions hand in hand with what you want to portray?
Do their actions align with the message you intend to convey?
Are you sick?
Are you troubled or disturbed?
Are you crippled? Insane?
Are you limited or irrational?
Expressing the desires that daren't speak their name?
Expressing hidden desires
Are you the one to be blamed?
Are you responsible for the story's effects?
Now you're a storyteller you might think you are without responsibility
As a storyteller, you may believe that you hold no accountability
But in directions, actions and words
However, in controlling the narrative's course, events, and language
Cause and effect
Sequence of actions and consequences
You need consistency
You require coherence
How can you finish the tale?
How can you conclude the narrative?
Lives which have played a part
Lives that have contributed to the story
Are summarized from the very start
Are condensed from the beginning
And episodes left out to make it all go our way
And some parts intentionally removed to fit into the desired outcome
"It's a might big world
It's significantly immense world
Some of it I've seen
I've seen some parts of it
But mostly I've only heard
But mostly, I have heard about it from other sources
And stories are all fiction from their moment of birth"
And stories are fictional from the beginning of their existence
You're just a storyteller
You are only a narrator
You're not trying to escape responsibility
You are not attempting to evade accountability
If we believe you then you're successful
If the audience trusts you, then you are successful
But you don't make claims of verity
But you do not assert the truth of the story
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: CAMPBE, CHRISTOPHER GEDDES, ISOBEL CAMPBELL, MICHAEL COOKE, RICHARD COLBURN, SARAH MARTIN, STEPHEN JACKSON, STUART MURDOCH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind