The pair had previously been musical collaborators for several years. As a teenager growing up in rural England, Harvey contributed saxophone, guitar and backing vocals to Parish’s band Automatic Dlamini before forming her own band in 1991. Parish later served as co-producer, guitarist, percussionist and keyboard player on Harvey’s 1995 album To Bring You My Love and was featured heavily on her 1998 album Is This Desire?.
On Dance Hall at Louse Point, Parish wrote and played the music, while Harvey sang vocals and wrote the lyrics. The album was viewed by many of Harvey's fans as a minor side project, perhaps due to the top billing accorded the more obscure Parish and her own accreditation as Polly Jean Harvey rather than the more widely recognised PJ Harvey name. Consequently, it sold more poorly than any of her solo releases, entering the UK charts at #46 and barely denting the U.S. Billboard charts at #178.
It yielded only one single, That Was My Veil, which spent a week at #75 in the UK charts. Harvey later admitted that she let Parish handle all promotional duties for the record because she was exhausted following a year of intense promotional activity for To Bring You My Love in 1995. Reportedly, bosses at Harvey’s Island Records label feared that the avant-garde venture was “commercial suicide”, despite it winning generally positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly opined, “This is 'deep' music in every sense; total immersion is recommended.” Musician reckoned “The results are as engaging as they are disturbing....full of strange moves and unusual textures.” Logo felt it was “thrillingly sinister”, while Q magazine praised its “polecat scat and brooding rural blues," adding that it felt "more a series of themes and word paintings.”
Speaking about the album to NME in 1998, Harvey explained "I just really wanted to learn different things, and a lot of learning comes from working with other people. I tend to place more importance on lyric writing than music, and I wanted to somehow bring the music to a similar level with that, but I didn’t feel confident in myself as a musician to do it. I know John can write demanding and intellectual music – much more than mine, which is very simple. So it was really just to test my lyric writing." In 2001, she told Chicago Sun-Times, "People don't even count that, yet that's the record I'm really proud of. It was an enormous turning point. Lyrically, it moved me into areas I'd never been to before. Faced with John's music, which is so different to my own, it just made me write lyrics in a very different way and structure songs in a different way."
Parish and Harvey did a brief UK club tour with the Mark Bruce Dance Company in early 1997, performing the album’s experimental songs with a group of interpretive ballet dancers onstage.
Twelve years later, the duo released A Woman A Man Walked By, also on Island. The album, which was recorded in Bristol and Dorset and mixed by Flood, was released on March 30, 2009 on Island. It consisted of 10 new songs, including an instrumental. All the music was written by Parish, who also played most of the instruments. The lyrics, once again, were by Harvey.
The first single from the album was "Black Hearted Love," which is described as having "anthemic grunge-pop guitars." The track debuted on the Zane Lowe Show on March 2.
The album was described by journalist John Harris, as "...mischievous, deadly serious, elegant and poetic, and possessed of a brutal power – it is doubtful that you will hear a record as brimming with creative brio and musical invention this year." In a track by track synopsis on their website, The Fly described the album as "a body of folk tales, funeral songs and trapped, tangled love songs... brilliant."
Black Hearted Love
John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I move in closer beneath your windows
Who would suspect me of this rapture?
And who but my black hearted love
And who but my black hearted love
When you call out my name in rapture
I wish this moment here forever
And you are my black hearted love
And you are my black hearted love
In the rain, in the evening I will come again
I'd like to take you;
I'd like to take you to a place I know
My black hearted
I'd like to take you;
I'd like to take you to a place I know
My black hearted
I'd like to take you;
I'd like to take you to a place I know
My black hearted
I'd like to take you;
I'd like to take you to a place I know
My black hearted
The lyrics to John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey's song Black Hearted Love are hauntingly beautiful, describing the intense and often dangerous passion of a black hearted love. The singer is consumed by their desire for someone and sees them in the shadows, moving closer to their windows. They know that this love is not healthy, but they cannot resist the rush of feelings that come with it. The chorus asks who else but their black hearted love would feel such rapture and be willing to volunteer their soul for murder. This kind of intense passion is fleeting, and the singer wishes they could hold onto these moments where they feel so alive forever.
The final verse describes the singer's desire to take their love to a place they know, a place that seems to reflect the intensity and darkness of their feelings. The repetition of the line "My black hearted" at the end of each verse is both eerie and captivating, emphasizing the obsession the singer has with their love. The song leaves the listener feeling both enamored and disturbed by the intensity of the singer's emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
I think I saw you in the shadows
I believe I caught a glimpse of you lurking in the darkness
I move in closer beneath your windows
I sneak in closer to your home, directly below the windowpane
Who would suspect me of this rapture?
Who could possibly imagine that I'm experiencing such intense emotions?
And who but my black hearted love
Only my love that is as dark as ebony could ignite such passionate feelings
When you call out my name in rapture
When you ecstatically cry out my name
I volunteer my soul for murder
I'd give up my own soul just to please you
I wish this moment here forever
I want this moment to last forever
And you are my black hearted love
You are the object of my love that is as dark as coal
In the rain, in the evening I will come again
I will return to you in the rain, in the evening
I'd like to take you;
I'd love to whisk you away
I'd like to take you to a place I know
I want to take you to a place that I'm familiar with
My black hearted
My love that is as dark as pitch
I'd like to take you;
I'd love to take you
I'd like to take you to a place I know
I want to take you to a location I recognize
My black hearted
My love that is as inky black as can be
I'd like to take you;
I'd love to take you
I'd like to take you to a place I know
I wish to take you to a place I'm familiar with
My black hearted
My love that is as dark as the night sky
I'd like to take you;
I'd love to take you
Lyrics © RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: JOHN PARISH, POLLY JEAN HARVEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@maxtalley6710
What a monster guitar riff on intro and choruses, and PJ has the power to rise up and scream with it. This reminds me of the Scary Monsters album by Bowie. Artists at the top of the game, not settling for the comfortable, but pushing farther, into the mystic, into the uncomfortable, and sending us back radio waves of euphoria from far out on their journey.
@the2ndcoming135
Ah you noticed🤣
@evastrickman7038
We are so lucky to be alive at the same time as PJ Harvey.
@myowncelestial5017
I feel the same way.
@mattinfinity1623
This comment is cliched and copied for so many artists videos on YouTube is there not another way to show admiration? Perhaps in a less worshipy obsessive way? I mean she is good but not as if we need to find the well she drinks from and get down on our hands and knees yeah?
@Missjunebugfreak
PJ Harvey is undoubtedly one of the coolest people in music. A true artist.
@whitechalk8190
Pj is obviously the dreamcore queen
@darkcnotion
Yes
@Ireneseesthru28
2022 and still love this song...will I stop listening....no...never!
@alejandrovenegasheresi2697
same here. Still listening in 2022. I mean the whole album is fucking fantastic.