John Parish and PJ Harvey have made two albums together: 1996's Dance Hall … Read Full Bio ↴John Parish and PJ Harvey have made two albums together: 1996's Dance Hall at Louse Point and 2009's A Woman A Man Walked By.

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."

Sixteen Fifteen Fourteen
John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Erica, Erica
Is watching
Danielle, Danielle
Is hiding
Erica, Erica
Is counting

Sixteen, fifteen, fourteen

Twelve, eleven, ten, nine

Erica, Erica
Is counting
Sun is setting, see
In the garden it's starting to rain
The trees are trembling
Erica's repeating

Erica, there is no laughter in the garden [repeat]

Erica is feeling something
Danielle is hiding
She's counting

Sixteen, fifteen, fourteen,
Thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten,
Nine, eight

Sun is leaving the scene
Took a look and turning away

The trees are trembling
Erica's repeating

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of 'Sixteen Fifteen Fourteen' by John Parish and Polly Jean Harvey centers around the emotions of Erica and Danielle. Erica is watching while Danielle is hiding, and she is also counting. The lyrics switch from Erica to a countdown: 'Sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine.' In the following verse, Erica continues to count while the sun sets and the garden becomes rainy. The trees are trembling, and Erica repeats, 'Erica, there is no laughter in the garden.'

As the song progresses, Erica is feeling something while Danielle continues to hide, and Erica keeps counting. This time, her count goes past nine as she counts down from sixteen. The sun is now completely gone, the trees are still trembling, and Erica repeats her refrain. The song's lyrics are cryptic and ambiguous. It is unclear who Erica and Danielle are, as well as what Erica is counting down for.

Fact 1: 'Sixteen Fifteen Fourteen' is from the album 'Dance Hall at Louse Point,' a collaboration between Parish and Harvey.
Fact 2: The album features Harvey on vocals and Parish on guitar and drums.
Fact 3: The album was released in September 1996.
Fact 4: The album was not a commercial success.
Fact 5: The album inspired several international tours.
Fact 6: The album's sound is difficult to define but was generally classified as avant-garde.
Fact 7: Harvey wrote the album's lyrics and Parish composed the music.
Fact 8: 'Sixteen Fifteen Fourteen' is noted for its hauntingly dissonant harmonies and unconventional guitar playing.
Fact 9: The album garnered mixed reviews upon its release.
Fact 10: The album is considered one of Harvey's experimental works.

Chords: Unfortunately, the chords for this song are not readily available.

Line by Line Meaning

Erica, Erica
Erica is the name of the person being addressed multiple times

Is watching
Erica is observing something

Danielle, Danielle
Danielle is the name of another person being referred to

Is hiding
Danielle is concealing herself from view

Erica, Erica
Erica is still the person being addressed

Is counting
Erica is keeping track of something

Sixteen, fifteen, fourteen
Erica is counting backwards from 16 to 14

Twelve, eleven, ten, nine
Erica continues counting backwards from 12 to 9

Erica, Erica
Erica is repeated again as the person being addressed

Is counting
Erica is still keeping track of something