Mumford & Sons have released four studio albums: Sigh No More (2009), Babel (2012), Wilder Mind (2015), and Delta (2018). Sigh No More peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 in the US, with Babel and Wilder Mind both debuting at number one in the UK and US, the former becoming the fastest-selling rock album of the decade and leading to a headline performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2013. The band has also issued two live albums: Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire (2011) and The Road to Red Rocks (2012).
Mumford & Sons were formed in December 2007 by multi-instrumentalists Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane. Band members play acoustic guitar, drums, keyboard instruments, bass guitar, and traditional folk instruments such as banjo, mandolin and resonator guitar. The band name originates from the fact that Marcus Mumford was the most visible member, organizing the band and their performances. Lovett indicated that the name was meant to invoke the sense of an "antiquated family business name".
A handful of similar bands were increasing their visibility in West London around the same time, giving rise to the label "West London folk scene". Mumford downplays that characterisation as an exaggerationβMumford & Sons and a few other folk acts just happened to be operating in the same general area at the time. In an interview with the Herald Sun, Marcus Mumford said, "It's not folk really. Well, some of it is, and it's certainly not a scene. Someone got over-excited about a few bands who live in a hundred-mile radius and put it in a box to sell it as a package. It's a community, not a scene. It's not exclusive." Having developed in the same musical and cultural environment, Mumford & Sons' sound has been compared to that of artists such as Noah and the Whale, Johnny Flynn and Laura Marling, whose backing band had included Marshall, Mumford, and Dwane.
In early 2008 the band began working with manager Adam Tudhope, who, as part of management company Everybody's, also represents Keane and Laura Marling. It was through Tudhope's connection that Mumford & Sons were exposed to their future A&R at Island, Louis Bloom, who began monitoring the band. Bloom told HitQuarters that they were still at a fledgling state and not yet ready for a label deal: "There was no one there for it, just a few friends, and they needed time to develop. Over the next six months I kept going to see them and they were literally picking up fans every time."
In February 2008, the band completed an extensive UK tour with support from Alessi's Ark, Sons of Noel and Adrian, Peggy Sue and others. June 2008 marked the band's first appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. They also toured Australia with Laura Marling, whose disinclination to interact with audiences encouraged Mumford into the spotlight. The experience helped inform his attitude towards Mumford & Sons audiences, which is to interact frequently and to try to create a comfortable, casual atmosphere. Mumford & Sons' first project was an EP entitled Love Your Ground which took a year to complete and was released in November 2008 on Chess Club Records.
The band began by using bluegrass and folk instrumentation, with the core instruments of acoustic guitar, banjo, piano and a double bass, played with a rhythmic style based in alternative rock and folk. In the documentary Big Easy Express, Marcus Mumford recognizes the Old Crow Medicine Show influence: "I first heard Old Crowβs music when I was, like, 16, 17, and that really got me into, like, folk music, bluegrass. I mean, Iβd listened to a lot of Dylan, but I hadnβt really ventured into the country world so much. So Old Crow were the band that made me fall in love with country music." Mumford acknowledges that "the band inspired them to pick up the banjo and start their now famous country nights in London." Ketch Secor, Old Crow front-man, concurs: "Those boys took the message and ran with it.
Much of Mumford & Sons' lyrical content has a strong literary influence, its debut album name deriving from William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The track "Sigh No More" includes lines from the play such as Serve God love me and mend, For man is a giddy thing, and One foot in sea and one on shore. The title of the song "Roll Away Your Stone" is an allusion to Macbeth; the song includes the line Stars hide your fires/ And these here are my desires which borrows and pares down Macbeth's line in act 1, scene 4: Stars, hide your fires,/ Let not light see my black and deep desires. Additionally, "The Cave" includes several references to The Odyssey, in particular the sirens that Odysseus encounters on his journey home. The song also contains many references to G.K. Chesterton's book, St. Francis of Assisi, in which Chesterton uses Plato's Cave as a way of explaining how St. Francis views the world from God's perspective. "Little Lion Man" appears to be a retelling in dramatic monologue form of Chretien de Troyes' Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, which is the story of a knight who goes mad after betraying a promise to his wife to return to her. Both "Timshel" and "Dust Bowl Dance" draw heavily from the John Steinbeck novels Of Mice and Men, East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath.
The band's change in sound on their third album was described by Lovett as a "natural departure." At the end of the Babel tour Winston Marshall traded his banjo for electric guitar in sound checks and Mumford started playing more drums as the band jammed on heavy instrumentals and even some Radiohead tunes. Banjo does not feature on the record, an instrument that had become synonymous with the band. NME reported that the band's sound is "More expansive than ever and decidedly heavier, thanks to the shift in instrumentation." The group also employed a full drumkit instead of kick drum. "We've had our standard line-up of instruments for the last six years and we felt like that was our palette, [but] we started picking up other stuff," said Lovett. "It's a very natural departure from some of that rootsier stuff."
Lovett told NME that working with James Ford for Wilder Mind was part of trying something new. "We felt a need for change. Not from Markus [Dravs], but he was so closely attached to those first two records that as we had taken that time off, we wanted to try doing something new. It felt like, if we do our third record with Markus, does that mean we do our ninth and 10th records with Markus? At some point you have to try different things, as we collectively felt like it was time to try other stuff. Markus knows that we might well make the next record with him. We definitely haven't broken up [with Dravs], we're just playing the field!".
The band have won a number of music awards throughout their career, with Sigh No More earning the band the Brit Award for Best British Album in 2011 and six overall Grammy Award nominations. The live performance at the 2011 Grammy ceremony with Bob Dylan and The Avett Brothers led to a surge in popularity for the band in the US. The band received eight total Grammy nominations for Babel and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The band also won the Brit Award for Best British Group in 2013.
31. Little Lion Man
Mumford & Sons Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You'll never be what is in your heart
Weep little lion man,
You're not as brave as you were at the start
Rate yourself and rake yourself,
Take all the courage you have left
Wasted on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear?
Tremble for yourself, my man,
You know that you have seen this all before
Tremble little lion man,
You'll never settle any of your scores
Your grace is wasted in your face,
Your boldness stands alone among the wreck
Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear?
The lyrics of Mumford and Sonsβ βLittle Lion Manβ present the internal struggle of a man who has screwed up his own life, constantly reprimanding himself for his inability to be the person he wants to be. The song opens with βWeep for yourself, my man, youβll never be what is in your heart,β which sets the tone for the rest of the lyrics. The singer is stuck in his head, consumed by thoughts of what he isnβt and what he should have done differently. The second verse approaches the theme of self-reflection more directly, repeating the line βtremble for yourself, my man,β drawing attention to the self-sabotaging behavior the character exhibits.
The chorus, however, offers a glimpse of self-awareness from the character, with lyrics that reveal his guilt and fallibility. Admitting that βit was not your fault but mineβ the singer begins to show an understanding of his role and responsibility for the struggles in his life, and the pain heβs caused others. The rest of the lyrics continue to bring attention to the singer's inner struggles, a battle between his heart and his mind, and his difficulty learning from his past.
Line by Line Meaning
Weep for yourself, my man,
Feel sorry for yourself, man,
You'll never be what is in your heart
You'll never achieve what you truly desire or aspire to be
Weep little lion man,
Cry, brave man,
You're not as brave as you were at the start
You're not as courageous as you were when you began
Rate yourself and rake yourself,
Judge and criticize yourself,
Take all the courage you have left
Use all the courage you have left
Wasted on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head
But now it's all lost in solving the problems you created in your mind
But it was not your fault but mine
But the mistake was not yours, it was mine
And it was your heart on the line
And your emotions were at stake
I really fucked it up this time
I made a huge mistake this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I mess up, my love?
Tremble for yourself, my man,
Be frightened for yourself, man,
You know that you have seen this all before
You've experienced this all before
Tremble little lion man,
Tremble, brave man,
You'll never settle any of your scores
You'll never resolve any of your disputes
Your grace is wasted in your face,
Your elegance is meaningless in your appearance
Your boldness stands alone among the wreck
Your courage is the only positive attribute amidst disaster
Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck
Learn from your mother or else live with the consequences
Lyrics Β© Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BENJAMIN WALTER DAVID LOVETT, EDWARD JAMES MILTON DWANE, MARCUS OLIVER JOHNSTONE MUMFORD, WINSTON AUBREY ALADAR MARSHALL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@robahaa3334
Weep for yourself, my man,
You'll never be what is in your heart
Weep little lion man,
You're not as brave as you were at the start
Rate yourself and rake yourself,
Take all the courage you have left
Wasted on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear?
Tremble for yourself, my man,
You know that you have seen this all before
Tremble little lion man,
You'll never settle any of your scores
Your grace is wasted in your face,
Your boldness stands alone among the wreck
Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my dear?
@LionTroy
This song saved my life.
I left the love of my life because I didn't think I was enough for her. I left her in another country. I came back... absolutely nothing for me here. I sat in the city, no food or money, just waiting to die.
A few days passed and this this song came on. A construction crew just a door down had this playing.
I cried. Cried unlike I ever have or would again. It reached me like no song ever could.
I got up. I came home. I could move on.
Thank you. I think you saved my life.
@kurthodges85
8 years without my little brother. We played this at his funeral. His son has loved this song his whole life.
@euan8589
I'm so sorry for your Loss π Bless you
@gay_jayden9617
I'm so sorry for your loss...
@craigjohnson7120
Sorry for loss
@richardj9513
Sorry for your loss brother x
@alberteinstein2121
all my love
@Ramari888
I will never forget the first time I heard this song, I was getting into my truck after being told by doctors that I had miscarried, the radio turned on and the first thing I heard was "It's not your fault but mine...It was your heart on the line"...every time I hear this song I think of my sweet angel baby, and I wish I could know her.
@isaiahmcloughlinmell4250
im so sorry u had a miscarriage!
@alvaromiguel7422
I'm so sorry darling..
@farin2650
so sorry, i couldn't imagine what that would feel like.