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."
In the Almsyard
Stephin Merritt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Out in the almsyard, tots with hair of gold romp
And frolic, twitter twitter, gaily clad
Yet all their carefree laughter makes her sad.
Those babes would play elsewhere
Did they but know about the tiny girl who lies below--
Buried alive years ago by unknown knave--
Seduced with toys and candy to her grave.
The lyrics of Stephin Merritt's "In the Almsyard" depict a woman who never leaves the almshouse due to her advanced age. She watches as children play in the almsyard with innocent laughter and happiness. However, the woman's mind is transported back in time by the sight of the children, and she is reminded of a tragic event that occurred when she was a child. A tiny girl was buried alive by an unknown person, who had lured her to her grave with toys and candy. The old woman is saddened by the thought of the innocent child's murder and mourns that the children playing in the almsyard are unaware of the tiny girl's tragic fate.
The song touches on themes of innocence, ignorance, and tragedy. The children playing in the almsyard represent innocence and happiness, while the old woman represents knowledge and sorrow. The tragic fate of the tiny girl buried in the almsyard is a metaphor for the inevitable corruption of innocence and the harsh reality of the world we live in. The song's sombre tone and haunting lyrics evoke an eerie and melancholic atmosphere and leave the listener with a sense of melancholy and reflection.
Line by Line Meaning
She never leaves the almshouse--she's too old.
The old woman always stays in the almshouse because she is no longer capable of going out.
Out in the almsyard, tots with hair of gold romp
Young children with golden hair play and run around in the almsyard.
And frolic, twitter twitter, gaily clad
The children are full of joy and energy, happily dressed in their clothes.
Yet all their carefree laughter makes her sad.
Despite their happy laughter, the old woman feels sad.
Those babes would play elsewhere
The children would play somewhere else if they knew the story of the buried girl.
Did they but know about the tiny girl who lies below--
If the children knew about the buried girl lying beneath them,
Buried alive years ago by unknown knave--
The young girl was buried alive by an unknown person many years ago,
Seduced with toys and candy to her grave.
She was lured to her death with promises of toys and candy.
Contributed by Aria I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.