Henry was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, but grew up in the Detroit area where he met Melanie Ciccone, Madonna's sister, whom he married in 1987. In 1985 he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he played at small clubs. His debut album Talk of Heaven came out in 1986. He signed to A&M Records and released two albums, Murder of Crows (1989) and Shuffletown (1990)
After Henry and his wife moved to Los Angeles in 1990, he left A&M in 1992 to join the independent label Mammoth, located in North Carolina. He released Short Man's Room and Kindness of the World, on which members of the Jayhawks provided instrumental backing.
In the mid-1990s Henry decided "to do something decidedly more eclectic" instead of continuing with country-rock. He turned to producer Patrick McCarthy, in making his next album Trampoline (1996). Trampoline also employed metal guitarist Page Hamilton, who demonstrated his own eagerness to stretch by collaborating on the album.
Asked to contribute a song to a benefit album for singer Vic Chesnutt in 1996, Henry also collaborated with his famous sister-in-law on a cover of Chesnutt's "Guilty by Association" (Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, The Songs of Vic Chesnutt, 1996).
In 1999 Henry released the experimental album Fuse with trip hop shadings. His eighth album, Scar, followed in 2001. The band on the record consisted mainly of jazz musicians (Marc Ribot, Brian Blade and Brad Mehldau among others) and Jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman guesting on the track "Richard Pryor Addresses a Tearful Nation".
In 2001, Henry sang on the song "Alleluia" from Julia Fordham's album, Concrete Love. His self-produced album Tiny Voices appeared on Epitaph's Anti label in 2003.
Henry produced Teddy Thompson's 2000 album Teddy Thompson, a critically acclaimed album from the son of British folk legends, Linda Thompson and Richard Thompson. Henry also produced Solomon Burke's 2002 album Don't Give Up On Me, which won Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2003 Grammy Awards. 2005 releases produced by Henry include Ani DiFranco's Knuckle Down, Aimee Mann's 1970s concept album The Forgotten Arm, and Bettye LaVette's I've Got My Own Hell to Raise.
He also produced the multi-artist album I Believe to My Soul, which featured Allen Toussaint, Mavis Staples, Ann Peebles, Irma Thomas and Billy Preston.
In 2006, Henry teamed with Toussaint, producing his collaborative album with Elvis Costello, The River in Reverse.
In September of 2006, Henry and his longtime hero Loudon Wainwright III began composing the music for the Judd Apatow movie Knocked Up. Snippets of instrumentals were used as background score for the film, but the full versions of the songs make up Wainwright's 2007 album Strange Weirdos. Henry produced Mary Gauthier's 2007 album Between Daylight and Dark.
Henry's 10th album, "Civilians," was released in 2007 on the Anti label. His 11th album, Blood From Stars, followed in 2009, and his 12th, Reverie, was released in 2011.
http://www.joehenrylovesyoumadly.com/
Sign
Joe Henry Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A winter's slip that bloomed in fall
Due my father's lot in life,
I got his name and I killed his wife
As if her blood I'd broken through
Had never been enough for two…
So I was sent out early on
To cutting black ice on the pond,
Whatever might rise up to me
I held my tongue for seven years,
Fluttered my hands, closed my ears—
As if deaf to every word,
Refusing every song I heard
That might connect me to this ground,
And hold me should I speak its sound;
So silence spoke for me instead,
And hovered like the passing dead
Whose prayer is but a laugh unfurled
Above this lost edge of the world
When I was twelve my father fled
He left me all he was and had—
His hammer and a dying fire,
An empty vein, and one desire:
To lead my pony from the mines
And ride him hard beyond the time
Of broken, long-forgotten souls
Who become their fathers in these holes
That spark and fume and smoke and seethe
And claim these hills but can't claim me
I was wild at twenty-three,
My burning mind turned to the sea,
And a sour engine room
Of a war ship, hoping war came soon—
I spent my rage in tiny towns
Wherever we might run aground;
And every face that met my eye
Was calling on some wish to die,
But if I stood and drank alone
Then that wish became my own
The years ran as if for their lives.
I, the shameless beau of a governor's wife—
Standing just outside of view
Holding hats and coats and shoes…
Then running guns for a lost decade,
Posing as a doctor's aide—
I pushed pins in maps to show
How to stop a plague or make it go;
And then they took me out in chains
When a secret shared had changed the game
But, all those days have fled somehow
And nothing occupies me now—
Except for this strange thought of you
Who sat before me back in school,
And trailed a rope of braided hair
Across the back rail of your chair
And learned to sign your name in air,
And read from lips –oh, I might've dared
To simply move my own so you
Could read please love me, and might have too
The lyrics of Joe Henry's "Sign" tell a powerful and poignant story of a man's life, marked by violence, isolation, and a sense of being disconnected from the world. The song begins with the singer describing his early childhood in Montreal, marking the moment of his birth as a cold and lonely one. He recounts the violent death of his mother, killed by his father, and a sense of guilt that he carries with him as a result. The singer speaks of his early years spent cutting black ice and learning to survive in a harsh and unforgiving environment. He describes a period of silence and isolation, where he refused to connect with anyone, living in his own world of pain and guilt.
The song then moves on to describe the singer's adolescence and young adulthood, marked by a sense of restlessness and longing for something greater. He speaks of his father's departure, leaving him with a sense of abandonment and a few meager possessions. The singer then describes his time on a warship, feeling both excitement at the prospect of war and a deep sense of loneliness and disconnection from the world around him. He recounts a time spent running guns and posing as a doctor, feeling at times like he is doing something important, but ultimately unable to escape the sense of isolation and longing that defines his life.
The song's final verse is perhaps its most poignant. The singer speaks of a person he knew in school, someone he felt a deep connection to but was unable to express it. He recalls her braided hair and the way she learned to sign her name in the air. The singer seems to regret not telling her how he felt, and the song ends with a sense of longing and loss, a reminder of the ways in which our lives can be defined by the things we can't quite express.
Overall, "Sign" is a powerful and moving song, marking the experiences of a life defined by violence, isolation, and longing. Its haunting lyrics and melancholic tone capture the sense of emotional weight that can come with living in a world that feels largely beyond our control.
Line by Line Meaning
I was born in Montreal,
I came into existence in a cold place, which became alive when the winter turned into fall
A winter's slip that bloomed in fall
I was born when snow was falling, but the world around me came alive when the snow started melting into a spring-like feeling
Due my father's lot in life,
Because of my father's fate or destiny,
I got his name and I killed his wife
I inherited my father's name, but I also caused the death of his wife, my mother
As if her blood I'd broken through
It seemed as if I had broken something by taking my mother's lifeblood from her
Had never been enough for two...
But even two people sharing the same blood were not enough to fix whatever was broken between them
So I was sent out early on
Therefore, I was sent away early in my life to start a new journey
To cutting black ice on the pond,
My new journey involved cutting through the darkness and uncertainty of frozen water
To lying flat and pulling free
I had to lay low and reclaim my freedom by any means necessary
Whatever might rise up to me
I had to face any and all challenges that came towards me
I held my tongue for seven years,
I kept quiet for a really long time
Fluttered my hands, closed my ears—
I tried to distract myself with my physical movements and ignored everything around me
As if deaf to every word,
It was as if I was deaf to anything that might affect me
Refusing every song I heard
I refused to listen to any melodies that life had to offer
That might connect me to this ground,
As they would have made me feel attached to this world and my surroundings
And hold me should I speak its sound;
And would have trapped me if I decided to choose this lifestyle
So silence spoke for me instead,
Therefore, silence became the only language for me
And hovered like the passing dead
And it was like a reminder of something that's been lost or gone forever
Whose prayer is but a laugh unfurled
It was like a prayer of those who were lost and have accepted their fate, even if it seems ridiculous to others
Above this lost edge of the world
This prayer echoes through the edge of the world, where there's nothing left to discover
When I was twelve my father fled
When I was twelve, my father ran away from everything
He left me all he was and had—
He left me with everything he had and everything that defined him
His hammer and a dying fire,
His most treasured possessions: a tool and a flickering light
An empty vein, and one desire:
But he also left me with nothing in my veins and only one goal
To lead my pony from the mines
To take his horse and ride away from everything that kept him trapped
And ride him hard beyond the time
He rode his horse as fast as he could, to leave that old life behind
Of broken, long-forgotten souls
Of those who were left behind, broken and forgotten
Who become their fathers in these holes
Who, just like their fathers, were trapped in mines and unable to escape their own fates
That spark and fume and smoke and seethe
The mines that were full of fire, heat, and smoke
And claim these hills but can't claim me
The hills may belong to the mines, but I am not claimed by them
I was wild at twenty-three,
I became restless when I turned twenty-three
My burning mind turned to the sea,
I became obsessed with the thought of being on the sea
And a sour engine room
I worked in a bitter and unpleasant room with heavy engines and machines
Of a war ship, hoping war came soon—
I was on a warship and wished for a war to happen soon so I could unleash my anger and violence
I spent my rage in tiny towns
I took out my anger on small and vulnerable towns
Wherever we might run aground;
These towns were where we stopped our ship and became stranded
And every face that met my eye
Every face that I looked at
Was calling on some wish to die,
Seemed as if they had already given up on life and were just waiting to die
But if I stood and drank alone
But if I stood by myself and drank
Then that wish became my own
Then I also started to wish for my own death
The years ran as if for their lives.
The years seemed to have flown by so quickly
I, the shameless beau of a governor's wife—
I became the lover of a governor's wife without feeling any shame about it
Standing just outside of view
I always kept my distance and stayed out of sight
Holding hats and coats and shoes…
I held onto the material things that belonged to other people
Then running guns for a lost decade,
Then I was involved in illegal gunrunning for ten years
Posing as a doctor's aide—
I pretended to be a doctor's assistant
I pushed pins in maps to show
I put pins on the maps to mark the locations for illegal transactions
How to stop a plague or make it go;
I was also involved in scheming to create or stop widespread problems
And then they took me out in chains
Then I was caught and taken away in chains
When a secret shared had changed the game
When a person with whom I shared a secret changed the situation for the worse
But, all those days have fled somehow
But all those days are gone now
And nothing occupies me now—
And now nothing is occupying my time anymore
Except for this strange thought of you
Except for this unusual thought of a person from my past
Who sat before me back in school,
This person used to sit in front of me in school
And trailed a rope of braided hair
And had a long braid of hair that they used to play with often
Across the back rail of your chair
They would always let their braid fall on the back of their chair
And learned to sign your name in air,
They even knew how to sign their own name in the air
And read from lips –oh, I might've dared
They could even read lips, which means I might have dared to talk to them more
To simply move my own so you
I could have moved my own lips to be more understandable to them
Could read please love me, and might have too
And asked them to please love me, and they might have loved me back
Contributed by Gavin K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Sean L.
The fact that Joe Henry is so little known just goes to show (I believe) the state of the music industry today.
Mike
A new Joe Henry song is always a reason to celebrate.
krnhersh
love this one too- the melody-it sticks I my head- sometimes brings tears- touches down deep-
what an amazingly talented and gifted artist-!!!!!!!
Darryl Smyers
as always amazing. I kind of miss the "jazz" stylings on scar, tiny voices and fuse
launderground
we love joe henry.
Rockyoumentally
A great artist.. Music worth sharing.
Peter Williams
This is a wonderful film that plays in my head when I hear it. Sad and beautiful.
stefs001
He's a poet, a thinker, a guitar player, first class writer. Just got to know him, took my breath. He's more of a thinker than Tom Waits, equal to Leonard Cohen. Human, here and now. I take my hat of...
Nick Corcodilos
See you in Philly, Joe! Seems you rolled this one safely off the truck, all parts intact and it just works!
Germain Barrett
Sublime