Having disbanded in 1998, they reunited briefly in 2005 for a world tour and reformed in 2011, releasing a new album (Anastasis) and embarking on several tours.
Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne, Australia in August 1981 with Paul Erikson on bass guitar, Lisa Gerrard (ex-Microfilm) on vocals, Simon Monroe (Marching Girls) on drums and Brendan Perry (also of Marching Girls) on vocals and guitar. Gerrard and Perry were a couple who met as members of Melbourne's little band scene. In May 1982, the band left Monroe in Australia and moved to London, England, where they signed with alternative rock label 4AD. With the duo, the initial United Kingdom line-up were Paul Erikson and Peter Ulrich.
The group's debut album, Dead Can Dance, was released in February 1984. The artwork, which depicts a ritual mask from New Guinea, "provide a visual reinterpretation of the meaning of the name Dead Can Dance", set in a faux Greek typeface. The album featured "drum-driven, ambient guitar music with chanting, singing and howling", and fit in with the ethereal wave style of label mates Cocteau Twins. They followed with a four-track extended play, Garden of the Arcane Delights in August. AllMusic described their early work as "as goth as it gets" (despite the group themselves rejecting the label), while the EP saw them "plunging into a wider range of music and style".
A shift in sound followed for the Spleen and Ideal album, with more emphasis on strings, brass and drones being used. A quasi spiritual element also emerged on this album, notably on the opening tracks "De Profundis" and "Ascension". Its worth noting that around this time Lisa and Brendan had been doing tours of European Cathedrals, absorbing the ambience which in turn was reflected in the work.
The highlights of the bands career followed with the genre defining album Within The Realm of a Dying Sun, featuring fan favorite "Cantara", which is where the bands Arabic and World music influences began to appear, and the double whammy of "Summoning of the Muse" and "Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers)." Critics at the time were undecided about the album, mainly due to the fact that the pieces were split according to the vocals. Brendan had the first side of the album, where Lisa took over for the latter half.
The Serpent's Egg was the next album and built on the premise set by the previous album, although the album is slightly uneven in quality and a short listen at around 40 minutes. The album is redeemed by the opening and closing pieces "The Host of Seraphim", and Perry's epic "Ullyses".
For the next album Aion, the band slipped back several centuries and recreated working medieval instruments such as the Sackbut, Viol and Hurdy Gurdy for the distinctly Medieval flavor. Included on the album is "Song of the sibyl" a text from 14th century Spain and now a live favorite. Another text appears in the song "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book".
Into the Labyrinth was the follow up album and was the album that saw Brendan mastering the use of samples and synthesizers and also the album that brought the band's music to American audiences selling over a million copies worldwide. The track "The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove" was played across on college radio and was instrumental in the albums success.
Spiritchaser was the seventh studio album for the band and brought about an abrupt upturn in musical style, instead of drawing on the historical past the band drew upon South American and African influences which gave the album a very rhythmic ambience. Considered by some to be the bands weakest album, it features highlights such as the percussive "Nierika" which was the most played track on American college radio for that year, and the epic 9 minute trance inducing "Indus".
A 3 CD retrospective simply called 1981-1998 was issued by 4AD and compiled a comprehensive overview of the bands career, and provided diehard fans with the only finished track from the Spiritchaser follow-up sessions called "The Lotus Eaters".
As a live band is probably where Dead Can Dance have gained their reputation. To put it simply, they were phenomenal. The concerts often featured many improvised pieces that to date have never been recorded in the studio. A live album entitled Toward the Within was released in 1994 and allowed fans unfortunate enough to have not attended concerts the chance to hear a few of these songs. A companion video/DVD of the concert was also released allowing people to see these highly ethereal concerts.
After Dead Can Dance ceased to be a functioning band both Perry and Gerrard embarked upon solo careers. To date, Brendan has released one solo album The Eye of the Hunter and has completed work on a new album, 'Ark', to be released in June 2010, whilst Lisa has been more prolific but with mixed results, releasing two solo albums The Mirror Pool and The Silver Tree. Lisa has also collaborated with other artists, namely Pieter Bourke of the band Soma and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy on the respective albums Duality and Immortal Memory. Lisa has also become a sought after soundtrack artist too after a wave of publicity for the Ridley Scott film Gladiator and continues to release work on a regular basis including soundtrack work on Ali, Layer Cake, and Whale Rider. Peter Ulrich, former percussionist of the band has also released two solo albums, Pathways and Dawns and more recently, Enter the Mysterium.
A series of 31 reunion concerts took place in 2005 in both Europe and North America including two memorable sell out concerts at The Hollywood Bowl and Radio City accompanied by 40 piece orchestras. Many of these concerts were professionally recorded and released as a double CD.
In late 2011, the band announced a reunion World Tour, in order to promote their new album, fittingly titled Anastasis, as it was released on August 9, 2012, 16 years after the group's previous album. Anastasis was well received by critics and is also the first album of the band not released by 4AD Records.
The name "Dead Can Dance" is often misleading. Although this group is quite popular among the goth sub-culture with the name appearing to be inspired by the Danse macabre allegory, it should instead be interpreted as 'giving life to something that was previously inanimate' as Perry said:
"The album artwork [of our self titled first album], a ritual mask from New Guinea, attempted to provide a visual reintrepretation of the meaning of the name "Dead Can Dance." The mask, though once a living part of a tree is dead; nevertheless it has, through the artistry of its maker, been imbued with a life force of its own. To understand why we chose the name, think of the transformation of inanimacy to animacy.... Think of the processes concerning life from death and death into life. So many people missed the inherent symbolism, and assumed that we must be 'morbid gothic types,' a mistake we deplored and deplore...".
http://www.deadcandance.com
http://www.facebook.com/DeadCanDanceOfficial
https://twitter.com/DCDmusic
Yours
Dead Can Dance Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And will lie there forever
With your hands held in mine
I'd be sure, we'd not sever
My apple tree, my brightness
'Tis time we were together
For I smell of the earth
When my family thinks
That I'm safe in my bed
From night until morning
I am stretched at your head
Calling out to the air
With tears both hot and wild
Oh, I grieve for the girl
That I loved as a child
The priests and the friars
Behold me in dread
Because I still love you
My love and you're dead
I would still be your shelter
From rain and from storm
And with you in your cold grave
I cannot sleep warm
The song "I Am Stretched on Your Grave" by Dead Can Dance is a poignant and melancholic interpretation of a 17th-century Irish poem. The opening line, "I am stretched on your grave," sets the tone for the song as a lamentation for lost love. The singer speaks from the perspective of someone who is lying on the grave of their beloved and will stay there forever. In this sense, the lyrics convey both physical and emotional attachment to the deceased, and suggest that the singer's love is so intense that they cannot bear to be separated from their beloved.
The second stanza of the song is particularly touching. The singer addresses their loved one by referring to them as "my apple tree, my brightness," and declares that it is time they were together because the singer is "stained by the weather" and "smell[s] of the earth." In this way, the singer is equating their own mortality to that of their beloved, and expressing a desire to be reunited with them in death. The third stanza adds another layer to the singer's emotional state, revealing that they are not at peace even when they are not lying on their loved one's grave. Instead, they are constantly calling out to the air with "tears both hot and wild," grieving for the girl they loved as a child.
Overall, the song is a deeply emotional and poignant exploration of love, loss, and the ties that bind us to those we have loved and lost.
Line by Line Meaning
I am stretched on your grave
I am lying on your grave, my beloved; perhaps literally, perhaps metaphorically, but I am holding tight to our connection.
And will lie there forever
I plan to stay here forever, never leaving your side or forgetting about you.
With your hands held in mine
I am imagining holding your hands tightly as we lay here together, united even in death.
I'd be sure, we'd not sever
I am confident that our love would endure beyond death and that we would never be separated.
My apple tree, my brightness
You were my source of nourishment, my reason for living, and my brightest light in this world.
'Tis time we were together
It's time for us to be reunited, even if it means being together in death rather than life.
For I smell of the earth
I have spent so much time next to your grave that I am starting to smell like the soil underneath it.
And am stained by the weather
The elements have taken their toll on me, just as they have on your grave, and I am physically marked by this connection.
When my family thinks
Although my family may believe
That I'm safe in my bed
That I am safe and sound sleeping in my own bed at night,
From night until morning
Throughout the night and into the morning,
I am stretched at your head
I am actually lying stretched out next to your grave, not sleeping soundly in my own bed.
Calling out to the air
Shouting to the empty sky,
With tears both hot and wild
Crying bitterly and uncontrollably, consumed by grief and despair.
Oh, I grieve for the girl
I feel overwhelming sadness and sorrow for the young woman that you once were.
That I loved as a child
Whom I loved so deeply and completely when we were young and innocent.
The priests and the friars
Even the religious leaders,
Behold me in dread
Look at me with fear and suspicion,
Because I still love you
Because I still feel this deep and powerful love for you, even though you have passed away and are no longer here with me.
My love and you're dead
Despite the fact that you are dead and gone, my love for you has not diminished or disappeared.
I would still be your shelter
If you were still alive and with me, I would continue to offer you protection and refuge, keeping you safe from harm.
From rain and from storm
Even in the harshest weather conditions, I would do whatever I could to shield you from the elements.
And with you in your cold grave
Even though you are no longer living and are buried in this cold earth,
I cannot sleep warm
I am unable to find any warmth or comfort in my own life without you here by my side.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Oliver Cant
Sometimes I have to stop listening to them, because I'm always on the edge of bursting into tears. It's almost too beautiful.
inlakesh555
So burst, man.
EnosEverything
This is one of the songs played at the recent funeral of my dear friend Michel Faber's wonderful wife Eva who died due to a debilitating cancerous disease called myeloma... It is a deeply moving and spiritual song and is fitting to celebrate the life of a wife who gave him so much for the twenty-five years they spent together... I wish I could be in Scotland now to offer Michel my personal condolences... R.I.P.Eva
whatistube
I never get tired of hearing this song. Each time I get taken to a different place.
Nele2911
i am absolutly sure that dead can dance is so much more than music. they touch a point very deep in my heart and my soul and sometimes i only can cry because of this perfection. I love my cool parents for show me wonderful music like this, since i was a baby i fall asleep to this
Caslav Jestratijevic
you and your parents are beautiful people...reading your comments and explanations automatically creates a kind of respect in me...all the best
Pajonear
that is glorious
Nadia Petra Günthard
Nele1208 and they dont even need words to do so
Jean Boileau
This is the most amazing piece of music.
pete stone
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful......the video goes perfectly with the sentiments of the music, and the whole piece together is just sublimely haunting.