Lanegan began his musical career in 1984 with Screaming Trees, with whom he released seven studio albums and five EPs before their disbandment in 2000. During his time with the band, he also started a solo career and released his first solo studio album, The Winding Sheet, in 1990. He subsequently released a further 10 solo albums, which received critical recognition but only moderate commercial success. Following the end of Screaming Trees, he became a frequent collaborator of Queens of the Stone Age, and was a full-time member between 2001 and 2005 during the Songs for the Deaf and Lullabies to Paralyze eras.
Lanegan collaborated with various artists throughout his career. In the 1990s, he and Kurt Cobain recorded an album of Lead Belly covers that was ultimately never released. He also joined Layne Staley and Mike McCready in the band Mad Season, and formed the alternative rock group The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003, as well as contributing to releases by Moby, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers, Tinariwen, The Twilight Singers, Manic Street Preachers, and Unkle, among others.
Lanegan struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol throughout his life, but had been sober for over a decade at the time of his death. Encouraged by his friend Anthony Bourdain, he released the memoir Sing Backwards and Weep in 2020. He followed this up in 2021 with the memoir Devil in a Coma, which focused on his near-death experience with COVID-19. He and his wife Shelley Brien left the U.S. in 2020 and settled in the Irish town of Killarney, where he died two years later at the age of 57. No cause of death was revealed.
Studio albums
The Winding Sheet (1990)
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost (1994)
Scraps at Midnight (1998)
I'll Take Care of You (1999)
Field Songs (2001)
Bubblegum (2004)
Blues Funeral (2012)
Imitations (2013)
Phantom Radio (2014)
Gargoyle (2017)
Somebody's Knocking (2019)
Straight Songs of Sorrow (2020)
Miracle
Mark Lanegan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And it will be done
Upon this one last disappearing
Bells toll, new lands and I look up
Sometimes
To see this old black Mary
Reach down for me
I need someone for my plaything
You baby, go straight to my head
And make it seem like a miracle
And make it something beautiful
Something beautiful
The song Miracle by Mark Lanegan has a dark and enigmatic tone, reflecting on the singer's feelings of loneliness and desperation. The lyrics "promise you a miracle" suggest that the singer is seeking something beyond the ordinary, and he believes that he has found it in someone else. The line "upon this one last disappearing" implies a sense of finality - the singer may feel that this is his last chance to find happiness, and he must seize it before it disappears again.
The imagery of "old black Mary" reaching down for the singer creates an eerie and ominous atmosphere, as though the singer is being pulled down into the depths of despair. The line "I need someone for my plaything" suggests that the singer may be using this other person for his own purposes, rather than truly caring about them. Despite this, the singer is desperate for connection and affection, as the line "so lonesome in my playground" suggests.
Overall, the song is a haunting exploration of isolation, longing, and the quest for something extraordinary in an ordinary world.
Line by Line Meaning
promise you a miracle
I assure you that I will perform something extraordinary
And it will be done
I will indeed get it completed
Upon this one last disappearing
As soon as the last event vanishes
Bells toll, new lands and I look up
Hear the ringing of bells and I look towards a new path
Sometimes
Occasionally
To see this old black Mary
To see an aged statue of Mother Mary
Reach down for me
Extending her hand towards me
I need someone for my plaything
I require someone to toy with
So lonesome in my playground
Feeling very lonely in my place of amusement
You baby, go straight to my head
You, my dear, intoxicate my mind
And make it seem like a miracle
And make it look like a divine intercession
And make it something beautiful
Turn it into something aesthetically pleasing
Something beautiful
A thing of beauty
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: MARK LANEGAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind