The name "Blake Babies" was provided by the poet Allen Ginsberg; following a reading at Harvard University, the group (which had just begun to play together) raised their hands and asked him to name their band. Ginsberg's suggestion was likely inspired by the first half of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. The name proved quite apt in regard to what was perhaps the group's most distinctive aspect: the juxtaposition of Hatfield's pure, somewhat thin and childlike (yet forceful) vocal quality with often surprisingly acerbic lyrics.
Musically, the Blake Babies' songs are highly melodic, with instruments supporting rather than covering vocals; in this way, their music falls somewhere between pop and rock and could be described as "power pop". Songs are generally upbeat and the group's work features both female (Hatfield) and male (Strohm) vocals, often together in harmony or in octaves. Strohm's intricate guitar picking style and preference for a "clean" (as opposed to distorted) guitar tone owes much to R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, although Neil Young and punk rock are other important influences. Close listening shows that Hatfield's bass playing is particularly expressive, using octaves and sliding tones to create melodies as well as anchoring bass lines. Songs are carefully constructed, with sophisticated harmonic and dynamic shifts showing the results of the band members' training at the Berklee School of Music.
The Blake Babies toured the United States and Europe, eventually achieving a moderate amount of notice, particularly among listeners of college age who were appreciative of the group's "intelligent" brand of rock music. The band's music (released on the independent North Carolina-based record label Mammoth Records) received little airplay on commercial radio, instead being played primarily on college radio stations.
The group formally disbanded in 1991 but reunited briefly in late 1999, performing a few shows in 1999 and 2000 and embarking on one last U.S. tour in 2001.
Following the band's breakup, Hatfield went on to fame as a solo artist, and Strohm and Love continued to perform together in the Indiana-based group Antenna. Hatfield and Love have since worked together in the band Some Girls along with fellow musician Heidi Gluck.
Civil War
Blake Babies Lyrics
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It's funny when you realize that you are a clich? br> when you don't have anything to say you can make it up
There's only five emotions and they all can kill you
So I like to numb myself
It's quiet and familiar
When you don't have anything to say, you can make it up
When I get into bed
There's a war in my head and there's five hundred dead
The lyrics to Blake Babies' song "Civil War" are rife with themes of numbness and disillusionment. The first line, "I'd really love to turn it off, but they all know my name," expresses a desire to escape from the world and its problems, but the singer's reputation or sense of duty prevents them from doing so. The next line, "It's funny when you realize that you are a cliché," suggests a sense of self-awareness and perhaps even self-loathing - the singer recognizes how typical their feelings are but cannot escape them.
The third line, "when you don't have anything to say, you can make it up," speaks to a sense of emptiness or lack of purpose. The fourth line, "there's only five emotions and they all can kill you," acknowledges the destructive power of human emotion - even those that seem positive or innocuous, such as love or happiness, can lead to pain and suffering. The repetition of the phrase "when you don't have anything to say, you can make it up" emphasizes a sense of futility or aimlessness.
The last two lines of the song, "when I get into bed, there's a war in my head and there's five hundred dead," suggest that the singer's struggles are not limited to their daily life - even in sleep, they are haunted by past traumas or regrets. Overall, the lyrics to "Civil War" paint a bleak picture of a person struggling to cope with the realities of existence.
Line by Line Meaning
I'd really love to turn it off, but they all know my name
It's tiring being known and feeling like you can't escape the attention, even if you want to.
It's funny when you realize that you are a clich?,
It's ironic when you become what you never wanted to be and end up feeling fake.
when you don't have anything to say you can make it up
It's tempting to lie and fabricate stories to make yourself more interesting.
There's only five emotions and they all can kill you
The five basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise) can all have negative consequences in different ways.
So I like to numb myself
To avoid feeling overwhelmed by emotions, the artist prefers to be numb/detached.
It's quiet and familiar
The feeling of numbness and detachment becomes comfortable and almost routine.
When I get into bed
The singer is shifting focus to a specific moment when they struggle with emotions.
There's a war in my head and there's five hundred dead
The artist has a lot of conflicting emotions and thoughts that are causing them distress, to the point of using war as a metaphor.
When you don't have anything to say, you can make it up
Reiterating the idea that lying and inventing stories can be a way of coping or seeking attention.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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