Anna McGarrigle and Kate McGarrigle were born in Montreal of mixed Irish- and French-Canadian background, but lived their childhood in the Laurentian Mountains village of Saint-Sauveur-des-Monts, northwest of Montreal, where they learned piano from village nuns. In the 1960s, in Montreal, while Kate was studying engineering at McGill University and Anna art at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, they began performing in public and then began writing their own songs. From 1963 to 1967 they teamed up with Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon to form the folk group Mountain City Four. Into the twenty-first century, Kate and Anna McGarrigle continued to write, and recorded and performed music, with assorted accompanying musicians including Gerry Conway, Pat Donaldson, Ken Pearson, Michel Pépin, Chaim Tannenbaum and Joel Zifkin.
Their songs have been covered by a variety of artists including Maria Muldaur, Nana Mouskouri, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Billy Bragg, Chloé Sainte-Marie, Judy Collins, Anne Sofie von Otter and others. The covers of their songs by well known artists led to the McGarrigles getting their first recording contract in 1974. They created ten albums from 1975 through 2008.
Although associated with Quebec's anglophone community, the McGarrigles also recorded and performed many songs in French. Two of their albums, Entre la jeunesse et la sagesse (also known as French Record) and La vache qui pleure, are entirely in French, but many of their other records include one or two French songs as well. Most of their French songs were co-written by Philippe Tatartcheff, with occasional input from Kate McGarrigle's son, Canadian-American solo artist Rufus Wainwright. Rufus and his sister Martha Wainwright, also a singer, are the children of Kate and her former husband (married 1971, separated 1976, divorced 1978), singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III.
They have performed or recorded with the Irish group The Chieftains, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on their No More Shall We Part album, Emmylou Harris on her albums Bluebird, Wrecking Ball, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, Light of the Stable, Stumble into Grace, and All I Intended to Be, Lou Reed on his concept album The Raven, Joan Baez on her live recording Ring Them Bells, Gilles Vigneault on “Charlie-Jos” on his album C’est ainsi que j’arrive à toi, and Robin Holcomb on her 2002 album The Big Time.
Their version of Wade Hemsworth's song, "The Log Driver's Waltz" grew famous as the soundtrack for a 1979 animated film by Canada's National Film Board. They provided backing vocals on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds's 2001 album No More Shall We Part. They appeared on the children's TV show Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show in Season 4, episode 50 entitled "Sibling Rivalry".
They were appointed Members of the Order of Canada in 1993 and received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2004.
Another sister, Jane McGarrigle, is a film and television composer who wrote and performed several songs with the duo, but was not a regular collaborator.
Kate died January 18, 2010 at the age of 63 after fighting a rare form of cancer.
Counting Stars
Kate & Anna McGarrigle Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Seems like so much more
Time goes by than that
Hard to believe it's all real time
I'm sorry I can't be there with everyone on Christmas
To help bring in wood for the fire
And carry a stack of warm plates
I got in damned trouble again
It's like every year I get in trouble at Christmas time
Is to where I expect in the rain and the darkness of November
Leaves me feeling lost and hopeless
So I went to a bar by myself to try and forget
That I had nothing and no one
And I got into a fight with a big loud jock
He left me counting stars on the floor
Every damn year is the same
I say I'll come home
Once I got a little more to show for myself
Than just getting in trouble
We were counting stars on the ski slopes
Wearing all our clothes up against winter's snap
Scampering up hell to steal a run
On the Mohawk toboggan
And later on we watched the hockey game
With beer and cigarettes
And finally we lay down to sleep
In the small beds of our childhood
Counting stars with the wavy glass
Of the old storm windows
On the big, long, crazy
Mohawk toboggan
The song "Counting Stars" by Kate & Anna McGarrigle is a melancholic reflection of a man who is away from home during the Christmas season. The first verse suggests that the passage of time feels longer when you’re not at home. The singer is sorry that he can't be with everyone on Christmas, and he longs for the familiar traditions such as carrying a stack of plates to the table where the goose is served. However, he can't be there because he has gotten himself into trouble yet again. He feels lost and hopeless because of the situation he's in, so he goes to a bar to try to forget, and ends up getting into a fight with a jock, and is left counting stars on the floor.
The second verse takes the listener on a nostalgic journey to the singer's childhood, where he and his friends were counting stars on the ski slopes and scampering up hell to steal a run on the Mohawk toboggan. They also watched the hockey game with beer and cigarettes before finally going to sleep in their small childhood beds, counting stars with the wavy glass of the old storm windows on the Mohawk toboggan. This contrast between the happy memories and the current situations the singer finds himself in leaves him yearning for home, for that sense of belonging and comfort that can only be found amongst family and friends during the holiday season.
Line by Line Meaning
Every year I think about coming back
I reflect on returning every year
Seems like so much more
It feels like much more time has passed
Time goes by than that
Time passes quicker than expected
Hard to believe it's all real time
It's difficult to accept that time actually goes by
I'm sorry I can't be there with everyone on Christmas
I regret not being able to celebrate Christmas with everyone
To help bring in wood for the fire
To assist in gathering wood for the fireplace
And carry a stack of warm plates
To hold a pile of heated dishes
To the table where the goose is served
To deliver the plates to the table where the roasted goose is served
I got in damned trouble again
I found myself in trouble once again
It's like every year I get in trouble at Christmas time
It seems like I run into trouble every Christmas
Is to where I expect in the rain and the darkness of November
I find myself in this situation in November, amidst the gloomy weather conditions
Leaves me feeling lost and hopeless
It makes me feel defeated and driftless.
So I went to a bar by myself to try and forget
I went to a pub alone in an attempt to escape it all
That I had nothing and no one
I had no possessions and nobody around
And I got into a fight with a big loud jock
I ended up fighting with a boisterous and brawny person
He left me counting stars on the floor
He knocked me out, resulting in me counting stars as I lay on the ground
Every damn year is the same
Each year is a repetition of its predecessor
I say I'll come home
I promise to return home
Once I got a little more to show for myself
When I have something more to showcase about myself
Than just getting in trouble
Rather than just getting into trouble
We were counting stars on the ski slopes
We were admiring the stars while skiing down the slopes
Wearing all our clothes up against winter's snap
We were wearing all our warm clothes to withstand the cold winter weather
Scampering up hell to steal a run
We were quickly scaling up the slope to take a speedy slide down the hill
On the Mohawk toboggan
We were riding the Mohawk type of sledge
And later on we watched the hockey game
Later on, we watched one of the ice hockey matches
With beer and cigarettes
We had beer and were smoking cigarettes while viewing the game
And finally we lay down to sleep
And at last, we settled down to retire
In the small beds of our childhood
We rested on the little beds of our younger years
Counting stars with the wavy glass
Gazing up at the starry sky through the undulating glass of the windows
Of the old storm windows
Of the ancient windowpanes that hold up against rough weather
On the big, long, crazy
On that large, long, and peculiar
Mohawk toboggan
Mohawk-style sled
Contributed by Carter I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
joelz
on Song For Gaby
Added the first vocal line which was missing
joelz
on Why Must We Die?
We are meat. We are spirit
We have blood and we have grace
We have a will and we have muscle
A soul and a face
Why must we die
We have eyes and intuition
A DNA code and a name
Some tend to logic, some superstition
We have an aura and a frame
Why must we die
We are human, we are angel
We have feet and wish for wings
We are carbon, we are ether
We are saints, we are kings
Why must we die
Why must we die
We are men of constant sorrow
We′ll have trouble all our days
We never found our Eldorado
Where we were born
We are meat, we are spirit
We have blood and we have grace
We have a will and we have muscle
A soul and a face
Why must we die
Why must we die
We are men of constant sorrow
We'll have trouble all our days
We never found our Eldorado
Where we were born
We are men of constant sorrow
We′ll have trouble all our days...