Early life
Born in Atlanta as Martha Kristin Hersh, she was raised in Newport, Rhode Island. She learned guitar at age nine from her father, and started writing songs soon after. As a teenager, she formed Throwing Muses in the early 1980s with stepsister Tanya Donelly and other high school friends that were subsequently replaced by bassist Leslie Langston and drummer David Narcizo.
Hersh has listed among her early musical influences The Raincoats, Talking Heads, Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, Dead Kennedys, Hüsker Dü, Velvet Underground, R.E.M., and X. She has said her parents' albums by Patti Smith, the Carter Family, Stevie Wonder, Robert Johnson, Talking Heads, The Clash, Steve Miller, The Beatles, Philip Glass, and traditional music influenced her when she was growing up.
Throwing Muses and early solo work
Hersh began singing and writing most of Throwing Muses' songs in changing tempos, with Donelly also singing and writing some of the songs. Early in the band's career, Hersh became friends with classic star Betty Hutton while both were students at Salve Regina University. Hutton attended several Throwing Muses concerts.
The group was signed by the British 4AD Records label in 1986 and, after one album, signed a U.S. deal with Sire/Reprise Records in 1987. They began touring around the U.S. and Europe while recording critically acclaimed rock albums, with Hersh writing most of the songs.
Throwing Muses became a trio when Donelly left the group after 1991's well received The Real Ramona. In 1994, Hersh began an additional career on Sire/Reprise and 4AD as an acoustic solo performer, beginning with Hips and Makers, an album sparely arranged around her vocals, guitar, and a cellist, in contrast to the volatile, electric sound of her band work. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. made an appearance on this first solo album.
Hersh's solo songwriting style focuses some of the relationship subject matter on her family. While Hersh's work reflects her personal experience, she has said that she writes from a point of view outside of her personality. Stating that "songwriting is about shutting up instead of talking", Hersh has said that songs that appeal to her are those that "say things that I don't know yet and tell stories I may not have lived yet".
The New York Times pointed to Hersh's explorations of "rage, aggression and mental chaos" as evidence that there were at least a few female rock music artists by the early 1990s pushing against gender role boundaries to express "more than simply vulnerability or defiance" in their work.
Hersh, whose early publicity at times portrayed her as a tortured artist "channeling" her songs from her psyche, has mentioned that the "angry young woman" fascination of some writers in reviewing the work of female performers has at times led to cartoonish stereotypes, rather than three-dimensional portraits respecting their intelligence. By the mid-1990s, journalists acknowledged that the breadth of her "fierce, quirky, and imaginative" lyrical style included explorations of "emotional and physical love" combined with "elliptical puzzlement".
After receiving some airplay and major media coverage for Throwing Muses album University in 1995, Hersh moved to Rykodisc for her 1996 Throwing Muses album, Limbo, and her 1998 solo album, Strange Angels. In order to better control her career and the distribution of her recorded material she created the ThrowingMusic label with husband/manager Billy O'Connell in 1996. This enabled her to co-release certain Hersh-related projects, including an ongoing download subscription service called Works in Progress (WIP) for releases available only through the Kristin Hersh website; which serves as a "listener powered" gateway to all of her projects.
Later career
In 1999, Hersh also participated in Throwing Muses drummer David Narcizo's Lakuna solo project album release, Castle of Crime.
In 2001, she released the Sunny Border Blue solo album, on which she again played nearly all instruments. She has described this album as having even more intensity than her previous works, as she continued her pursuit of songwriting as being in part a way to transform "ugly feelings" into art.
Hersh's recorded and live performances in recent years have occasionally included appearances with like-minded alternative artists like Vic Chesnutt, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Grant Lee Phillips, and John Doe.
In 2003, she released The Grotto, an acoustic solo album of song sketches with personal lyrics set in Providence, Rhode Island, with Andrew Bird on violin and Howe Gelb on piano. On the same date a self-titled album by her Throwing Muses group was also released, the first since Limbo. Both were recorded at Steve Rizzo's studio in Rhode Island.
Also in 2003, she formed a power rock trio 50 Foot Wave, when Narcizo was unable to tour on a full-time basis due to other commitments. Her touring appearances and recording efforts in 2004 and 2005 centered around both 50 Foot Wave and her solo career.
In 2005, Hersh recorded a cover version of the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation" for American Laundromat Records 80's film tribute.
In January 2007, Hersh released her first solo album in four years, entitled Learn to Sing Like a Star.
On November 26, 2007, Hersh announced the opening of CASH Music. The subscriber-based, direct-to-consumer model had its first year-long project in the form of what was supposed to be an album called Speedbath, which was released one song per month for free at Kristin's CASH website. 50 Foot Wave also released an EP titled Power+Light through the CASH organization. January 2009 began another series of one track per month for free on the website, and the tracks wound up cohering without the song "Speedbath" at all; the new record, Crooked, was released in 2010. It was available to buy as a hardback book which included essays on the songs and a link to download the album and related tracks.
Hersh has written and illustrated a children's book called Toby Snax.
In 2008, Hersh recorded a cover of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" for the American Laundromat Records charity CD "Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity".
A second collection of Appalachian folk songs, The Shady Circle, is expected to be released. Live recordings of the songs have been available since late 2008.
In 2010, Hersh released her memoir, Rat Girl, which covers events from early 1985 through early 1986, when she was in her late teens, and was referred to by Rolling Stone as "one of "The 25 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time". The UK version of the book, released in early 2011, is entitled Paradoxical Undressing. The book covers topics such as the meaning behind many of her songs and the early stages of the Throwing Muses.
Musical style
Hersh's music is known for its chords, sonic treatments, and a vocal style ranging from softly melodic singing to impassioned screaming. Some of her signature contributions to popular music include addressing the complexities of life through impressionistic, sometimes hallucinatory lyrics about everyday feelings and varying mental states. A few of her songwriting subjects have included childbirth ("Hysterical Bending"), love ("Tar Kissers", "Lavender"), surreal vignettes ("Delicate Cutters", "Fish"), death ("Limbo"), emotional anguish ("The Letter"), loss of custody of her first son ("Candyland"), and the shedding of a relationship's anxiety ("Snake Oil").
Hersh has used images such as apples, water, diamonds, eyes, the sea, snow, ice, rain, fire, the sun, parking lots, sand, and cowboys. On occasion she has used historical figures like anorexic suicide Ellen West as metaphors in depicting a state of mind. Eccentric characters encountered in her family's travels have made occasional appearances in songs such as "Ruthie's Knocking"; a 2005 live solo set list included a then-untitled song ("Under The Gun") about a "parrot lady" character she met while visiting Lake Michigan.
Some interviews have described Hersh's early drive to perform as due to hearing sounds in her mind so that her songs began to "write themselves", becoming at times their own separate presences in her life, inner voices haunting her. She has stated that hearing these "pieces of songs" clanging together in her mind compelled her to take the pieces apart and craft songs from them. "If I don't turn ideas into songs, they can get stuck in me and make me sick," she said in a 1995 interview with AOL's Critics' Choice electronic music magazine. "That's the way a song hits you right here, right here [she motions to the heart and gut] instead of in your brain because the words themselves are all real sweaty, color, action words, so they just go bangbangbang. They're not supposed to make you think and try to figure out some puzzle. People think that I'm trying to trick them, that I have some thing I could write down and I haven't done it and I've just given them a bunch of poetry instead. I find it to be the clearest way to talk. It's like the way little kids talk because they have no filler words and no overriding thoughts to color your impression of what's happening in a song."
Your Ghost
Kristin Hersh Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's too quiet,
So I Pad through the dark
And call you on the phone
Push your old numbers
And let your house ring
Til I wake you ghost.
Let him walk down your hallway
Slide down your receiver
Sprint across the wire
Follow my number
Slide into my hand.
It's the blaze across my nightgown
It's the phone's ring.
I think last night
You were driving circles around me.
I can't drink this coffee
Til I put you in my closet
Let him shoot me down
Let him call me off
I take it from his whisper
You're not that tough.
The song "Your Ghost" by Kristin Hersh is a hauntingly beautiful and sad meditation on lost love and the pain and loneliness that come with it. The lyrics conjure up images of a lonely narrator wandering down a dark hallway in the night, unable to sleep and trying to call up the memory of a past lover. The singer tries to reach out through the telephone, pushing old numbers and waiting for the ghost of her former love to answer. She longs to hear his voice and to feel his presence once more, recalling the blaze across her nightgown and the phone's ring. As the song progresses, the singer seems to become increasingly desperate and lost, unable to drink coffee or do much of anything without the comfort of her lost love's memory.
The chorus of the song is where the most powerful and poignant lyrics emerge, as the singer speaks directly to her lost love and recognizes the pain that she feels. She longs to be with him once more, to share in the joy and love that they once knew. But she knows that he is gone, and that she must find her way through the darkness alone. The image of her taking a gunshot and being called off only adds to the sense of loneliness and despair that pervades the song.
Overall, "Your Ghost" is a powerful piece of music that speaks to the pain and isolation that can come with love and loss. It is a testament to the human spirit, to the strength and resilience that we all possess in the face of even the greatest challenges.
Line by Line Meaning
If I walk down this hallway, tonight,
As I make my way through this hallway tonight,
It's too quiet,
I can’t help but notice how quiet it is.
So I Pad through the dark
Walking softly through the darkness,
And call you on the phone
I dial your number
Push your old numbers
I push the buttons that form your number
And let your house ring
I let the phone ring until the answering machine picks up
Til I wake you ghost.
I wait for your voicemail recording to start playing
Let him walk down your hallway
I imagine your ghost walking through your hallway
It's not this quiet
The silence has been filled by the ghostly presence
Slide down your receiver
I picture the ghost slipping through the phone line
Sprint across the wire
The ghost moves quickly across the phone line
Follow my number
The ghost follows the call to my phone
Slide into my hand.
I feel the ghostly touch
It's the blaze across my nightgown
I feel the heat of the memory of you on my nightgown
It's the phone's ring.
Your ghost is the one causing my phone to ring
I think last night
I remember something from last night
You were driving circles around me.
It seems like you were causing chaos in my life
I can't drink this coffee
I can't take care of myself right now
Til I put you in my closet
Until I lock away the thoughts of you
Let him shoot me down
Let the ghost end my life
Let him call me off
Let the ghost make me give up
I take it from his whisper
I get a message from the ghost in a faint voice
You're not that tough.
The ghost reassures me that I'm not weak
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: KRISTEN HERSH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@hiteshthakur1848
If I walk down this hallway
Tonight it's too quiet
So I pad through the dark
And call you on the phone
Push your old numbers
And let your house ring
'Til I wake your ghost
Let him walk down your hallway
It's not this quiet
Slide down your receiver
Sprint across the wire
Follow my number
Slide into my hand
It's the blaze across my nightgown
It's the phone's ring
I think last night
You were driving circles around me
I think last night
You were driving circles around me
I think last night
You were driving circles around me
I can't drink this coffee
'Til I put you in my closet
Let him shoot me down
Let him call me off
I take it from his whisper
You're not that tough
It's the blaze across my nightgown
It's the phone's ring
You were in my dream (I think last night)
You were driving circles around me
You were in my dream (I think last night)
You were driving circles around me
You were in my dream (I think last night)
You were driving circles around me
You were in my dream (I think last night)
You were driving circles around me
You were in my dream (I think last night)
You were driving circles around me
@gbytAxs0
f I walk down this hallway, tonight,
It's too quiet,
So I Pad through the dark
And call you on the phone
Push your old numbers
And let your house ring
Til I wake you ghost.
Let him walk down your hallway
It's not this quiet
Slide down your receiver
Sprint across the wire
Follow my number
Slide into my hand.
It's the blaze across my nightgown
It's the phone's ring.
I think last night
You were driving circles around me.
I can't drink this coffee
Til I put you in my closet
Let him shoot me down
Let him call me off
I take it from his whisper
You're not that tough.
@caseymolina-covey3985
This about when she was a teenager struggling with early schizophrenia. She set her night gown on fire trying to make the noise stop. Michael represents the voices that don't stop. She's such an amazing poet.
@tomteanders1357
Any sources 4 that interpretation?
IMHO it doesn't make sense, sorry...
@davidsroczynski665
@@tomteanders1357 it’s not an interpretation, I read also she was diagnosed once with schizophrenia, she started hearing voices after an accident and I’m not saying she is schizophrenic, this is the interpretation of psychiatrists
@secretlifeofa1926
@@tomteanders1357 I agree with you. They told her she had schizophrenia, but what also happened was a head injury. Diagnoses of mental illness are often, frequently, given to people who are perceiving the world in a way that makes others uncomfortable.
@Pieterneldisveld
@@tomteanders1357 i agree!
@GCKelloch
The way she describes the state she goes into on stage makes me think it's more of a traumatically induced coping mechanism than Schizophrenia. The voices after the head injury could be unrelated. She definitely has a uniquely brilliant perspective.
@derwolf9670
3 Chords and Michael's voice (which gives me the goosebumps) made this
one of the most beautiful songs ever...
@crose7412
@Oliver Dahl What are the chords?
@derwolf9670
@@crose7412 Am - G - D
@taverhamdave
Late to this, I know, but just came back to listen to this song again, and the thing I noticed about the chords is, each line starts on a different chord each time, like a polyrhythm. Really haunting and original