Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sister Mary started taking her to concerts by the then-unknown The Tragically Hip. At the age of 17, she was invited to join a Toronto band, The Saddletramps. For three years, she juggled The Saddletramps with her studies in philosophy and women's studies at Queen's University.
After leaving The Saddletramps, Harmer put together a band of her own with several Kingston, Ontario musicians, and settled on the name Weeping Tile. The band released its first independent cassette in 1994. Soon afterward, they signed to a major label, and the cassette was re-released in 1995 as eepee. The band quickly became a popular draw on the rock club circuit and on campus radio with their subsequent albums, but never broke through to the mainstream, and broke up in 1998 after being dropped from their label.
Also in 1998, Harmer recorded a set of pop standards as a Christmas gift for her father. After hearing it, her friends and family convinced her to release it as an album, and in 1999 she released it independently as Songs for Clem. Harmer quickly began working on another album, and in 2000, she released You Were Here.
A poppier, more laid-back effort than her work with Weeping Tile, You Were Here became Harmer's mainstream breakthrough, spawning the hits "Basement Apartment" and "Don't Get Your Back Up". The album also appeared on many critics' year-end lists, including TIME magazine, which called it the year's best debut album. It was eventually certified platinum for sales of 100,000 copies in Canada. Almost half of the album (including both of its major hits) consisted of songs she had previously recorded with Weeping Tile or The Saddletramps.
In 2004, she released All of Our Names. The album included the singles "Almost", which made the top 20 on Canadian pop charts, and "Pendulums". The album has a rustic earthy live-of-the-floor sound with some of the instrumentation, programming pre-production recording conducted in her home Northeast of Kingston, Ontario. The album was co-produced by Gavin Brown [Metric, Billy Talent, The Tragically Hip,]
Her fourth album, I'm A Mountain, was released in Canada on November 8, 2005. Sarah has performed and canvased in support of the NDP and Marilyn Churley, her friend in the fight for the protection of the Niagara Escarpment. The album states that it has been: "Engineered, mixed and produced by Sarah Harmer and Martin Davis Kinack at her house."
In 2010, Sarah released her fifth release, Oh Little Fire, which was co-produced by Gavin Brown, who assisted with her earlier All Our Names and features Neko Case on guest vocals.
Sarah, during her five year break between her last two recordings, appeared as a guest vocalist on other artists' albums, including Blue Rodeo, Neko Case, Bruce Cockburn, Great Big Sea, Rheostatics, The Skydiggers and The Weakerthans.
Discography
1999 - Songs for Clem
2000 - You Were Here
2004 - All of Our Names
2005 - I'm A Mountain
2010 - Oh Little Fire
Pendulums
Sarah Harmer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Our arms swinging at our sides
And I am a good little clock
Walking along power lines
I'm thinking like a swinging door
Hinging on these changing thoughts
Between the pull up to the shore
In the lines of footprints in the snow
All along the edges of the road
I haven't even walked my block
Since I moved out here years ago
The secret lives of twist ties
The hidden story in one line
In the lines of footprints in the snow
All along the edges of the road
I haven't even walked my block
Since I moved out here years ago
We are like pendulums
Our arms swinging at our sides
And I am a good little clock
I'm ticking off the time
The distant lights are twinkling
It means there is a wind
That blows the trees against themselves
And hard into this house I'm sleeping in
I'm sleeping in
The lyrics of "Pendulums" by Sarah Harmer are a reflection on the human experience and the passing of time. The opening lines, "We are like pendulums, our arms swinging at our sides," draw a parallel between human beings and the rhythmic, back-and-forth motion of a pendulum. The singer acknowledges her own place in that cycle, stating, "And I am a good little clock, walking along power lines." This suggests a sense of purpose and direction, as if the singer is driven by a force beyond her control.
As the song progresses, Harmer becomes more contemplative, questioning the nature of her existence and the changing thoughts that guide her. She compares herself to a swinging door, shifting between opposing forces: "Between the pull up to the shore, and the push off." The repetition of the lines, "In the lines of footprints in the snow, all along the edges of the road," further underscores her sense of being trapped in a cyclical pattern, unable to break free from her own routine.
Line by Line Meaning
We are like pendulums
We, humans are like pendulums - constantly oscillating between different emotions, thoughts
Our arms swinging at our sides
We are always moving, changing and never constant
And I am a good little clock
The singer is comparing herself to a clock - a reliable and consistent timekeeper
Walking along power lines
The singer is walking along power lines, serving as a metaphor for her life journey
I'm thinking like a swinging door
The singer's thoughts are constantly changing, like a swinging door
Hinging on these changing thoughts
The singer's decisions and actions are dependent on her thoughts
Between the pull up to the shore
The time when the singer needs to make a decision
And the push off
The action taken by the singer
In the lines of footprints in the snow
The singer is observing the traces left by humans in nature
All along the edges of the road
The traces are present all along the traveled paths
I haven't even walked my block
The singer hasn't even explored and experienced her own surroundings
Since I moved out here years ago
The singer hasn't explored her new environment since when she first arrived
The secret lives of twist ties
The singer is drawing attention to the unnoticed, trivial things around us
The hidden story in one line
There is often more than meets the eye, and the singer is challenging listeners to seek the deeper meaning
I'm ticking off the time
The singer is aware that time is passing and that she must use it wisely
The distant lights are twinkling
The singer is observing the beauty and mystery of the world around her
It means there is a wind
The twinkling lights suggest wind or movement
That blows the trees against themselves
The wind is forceful enough to push the trees against themselves
And hard into this house I'm sleeping in
The forceful wind is shaking the house where the singer is residing, making her aware of her own fragility
I'm sleeping in
The singer is highlighting the contrast between being inside and protected, and feeling the natural forces outside
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: DAMON BLACKMON, RICHARD FRIERSON, EARL SIMMONS, M ALEJANDRO, A MAGDALENA
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind