He briefly used the name The Baudelaire Memorial Orchestra as an attribution for a song written for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, entitled "Scream and Run Away". Further music was recorded for the audiobook versions of the series and is attributed to The Gothic Archies.
Under his own name, he recorded and released the soundtracks to the films Eban and Charley and Pieces of April. The soundtrack to the late Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete featured many of his songs.
He and director Chen Shi-Zheng have collaborated on three pieces of musical theatre; Orphan of Zhao (2003), Peach Blossom Fan (2004), and My Life as a Fairy Tale (2005). Select tracks from these works have been released on Nonesuch Records under the title Showtunes.
Merritt is openly gay. His lyrics are known for bending and blurring the gender line; examples include the song When My Boy Walks Down The Street, sung by a male vocalist, which contains the lyric "and he's going to be my wife". He is fascinated with the undead, often making veiled or explicit references to vampires. Other frequent motifs in his lyrics include trains and railroads, the moon, dancing, eyes, and, of course, love.
Merritt has a Chihuahua named Irving, after Irving Berlin. He was raised Buddhist by his counter-culture mother. He attended the progressive Massachusetts high school, The Cambridge School of Weston and briefly attended NYU before moving back to Boston. He is a smoker, and is known to light a cigarette while performing on stage. He has worked as a copy editor for Spin Magazine and Time Out New York.
One of Merritt's most notable quirks is that, when interrupting his speech for thought, he does not use linguistic placeholders such as "uh" or "er" to indicate that he is not done speaking, but instead simply stops speaking. This leads many interviewers unfamiliar with this behavior to cut him off before he has finished answering a question.
In a September 2005 interview conducted by The Onion's AV Club, alternative rock musician Bob Mould was reminded of an interviewer who once referred to Mould as "the most depressed man in rock." Mould's response was, "He's never met Stephin Merritt, obviously."
Come Away with Me Now
Stephin Merritt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Little bird, it's not safe here.
We'll escape, and here's how:
My carriage is waiting; if we drive all night
We can get to the river and get a boat by light.
Hey, come away and be mine and you'll never be lonely.
You'd be mad to decline.
When a house is on fire, one simply can't stay;
Please come away.
The lyrics of Stephin Merritt's "Come Away with Me Now" are packed with symbolism and metaphor. The singer implores a "little bird" to escape with him, promising safety and companionship. The "carriage" represents the vehicle to leave their current situation behind, while the "river" symbolizes the escape to a new life. The urgency in his voice is palpable, as he compares their current situation to a burning house that they must flee.
However, the singer's promises of safety and comfort may be misleading. The constant repetition of "hey, come away with me now" sounds somewhat sinister, and the repeated pleas for the little bird to agree to his offer could be interpreted as coercive. The song could be seen as a cautionary tale about the dangers of blindly following someone who promises an escape from a dangerous situation without questioning their motives.
Overall, the lyrics of "Come Away with Me Now" are open to interpretation and leave room for the listener to draw their own conclusions about the story being told.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey--come away with me now.
Greetings, let us depart forthwith.
Little bird, it's not safe here.
Dear companion, this place is perilous for us.
We'll escape, and here's how:
We will depart from this predicament in this manner:
My carriage is waiting; if we drive all night
My vehicle is prepared; if we drive throughout the night
We can get to the river and get a boat by light.
We can arrive at the river and obtain a watercraft before sunrise.
Hey, come away and be mine and you'll never be lonely.
Greetings, accompany me and be my beloved and you will never experience solitude.
You'd be mad to decline.
You would be irrational to refuse.
When a house is on fire, one simply can't stay;
When a dwelling is ablaze, one must leave immediately;
But you haven't said yes yet.
But you have not accepted my proposal yet.
Please come away.
I implore you to depart with me.
Contributed by Leah B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.