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."
Sounds Expensive
Stephin Merritt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It was crafted many years before the ming
Since the story's far too sad to tell
I'll sing
It was made for the blind concubine lola li
Who was famous for being a little choosy
Her rejections were something no man could survive
It's a terrible tale, full of passion and gore
That sure sounds expensive!
We can't wait to hear more
In a few generations it came to a monk
Who said "things of this world
Are all baubles and junk."
So he gave it to lola lo
Some general's wife
Which was quickly discovered
He paid with his life
It's a tale of violence
A thing we deplore
But it sounds expensive!
What are you stopping for?
A bad playwright gave it to his new ingenue
The impossibly bad actress sweet lola lu
But the playwright said something
He shouldn't have said
And now both the playwright and
The actress are dead
It's a kind of thing no one can make anymore!
And it sounds expensive when it
Falls to the floor
The song "Sounds Expensive" by Stephin Merritt is about an emerald ring with a dark history. The singer is offering the ring to someone, but before giving it away, he wants to recount the story of its creation and provenance. The song seems to be modeled on the kind of romantic ballad that tells a story in verse, and Merritt has stated that he admires the work of Cole Porter and other writers who use clever, cynical lyrics to undercut sentimental melodies.
The story the singer tells is a grim one. The ring was crafted for a blind concubine named Lola Li, who was so difficult to please that the ring-maker who loved her ended up burying himself alive in despair. The ring passed through several hands, each of whom suffered a tragic fate, until it finally ended up in the possession of a bad playwright and his terrible actress girlfriend. When the playwright said something rude to his lover, they both wound up dead, and now the ring is all that remains of their tragic love affair. The refrain of the song, "It sure sounds expensive!" is a wry commentary on the way that objects can take on symbolic value, and the way that stories can raise the price of something beyond its material worth.
Line by Line Meaning
I would like fo you to have this emerald ring
I want to give you this emerald ring.
It was crafted many years before the ming
This ring was made a long time ago.
Since the story's far too sad to tell
The story of this ring is very sad.
I'll sing
I will tell you the story through song.
It was made for the blind concubine lola li
This ring was made for a blind concubine named Lola Li.
Who was famous for being a little choosy
She was known for being very picky.
Her rejections were something no man could survive
She rejected so many men that it was unbearable for them.
So the ring-maker had himself buried alive
The creator of the ring killed himself because he couldn't bear to see it rejected anymore.
It's a terrible tale, full of passion and gore
This story is horrifying and emotional.
That sure sounds expensive!
This story makes it seem like the ring is valuable.
We can't wait to hear more
We want to know what happens next.
In a few generations it came to a monk
After several years, the ring ended up with a monk.
Who said "things of this world, Are all baubles and junk."
The monk believed that material things were not important.
So he gave it to lola lo, Some general's wife
The monk gave the ring to a general's wife named Lola Lo.
Which was quickly discovered, He paid with his life
The general found out and killed the monk.
It's a tale of violence, A thing we deplore
This is a story of violence and we don't support it.
But it sounds expensive!
Despite the violence, the ring still seems valuable.
What are you stopping for?
Why did you pause your storytelling?
A bad playwright gave it to his new ingenue
Later, a bad playwright gave the ring to his new actress named Lola Lu.
The impossibly bad actress sweet lola lu
She was not a very talented actress.
But the playwright said something He shouldn't have said
The playwright said something offensive.
And now both the playwright and The actress are dead
The playwright and actress died because of their argument.
It's a kind of thing no one can make anymore!
This ring is so unique that no one can replicate it now.
And it sounds expensive when it Falls to the floor
Even the sound it makes when it falls seems valuable.
Contributed by Cole I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.