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."
The Little Maiden Of The Sea
Stephin Merritt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Was not at all like you and me
Where we have legs she was a fish
And she could only say:
"I wish...
I wish I were not incomplete
I wish I had some dainty feet,"
You see, one day she'd met a prince
And she'd been pining ever since
(the little maiden of the sea)
She'd gain her own immortal soul
If she became the prince's wife
She autovivisected
Whole, she walked! each step was like a knife
A knife into her dainty feet
And she could neither speak nor sing
But surely, now she was complete
Her prince would think of marrying
The little maiden of the sea
He married someone else, of course
And, saying nothing, she went home
Then something turned, by mystic force
The little maiden into foam
The Little Maiden of the Sea by Stephin Merritt is a poetic take on the classic fairy tale of The Little Mermaid. The song portrays the little maiden as a fish with no legs who wishes she could walk on dainty feet just like humans. She meets a prince and falls in love with him, hoping to gain an immortal soul by becoming his wife. In a desperate attempt to win his love, she cuts off her tail and accepts the pain of each step as a knife into her new legs. Despite her transformation, the prince marries someone else, and the little maiden returns home as a mute and incomplete being. The song ends with her transformation into foam, suggesting that her desire for love and wholeness led to her destruction.
This song highlights the universal human desire to be loved and accepted, even if it means sacrificing parts of ourselves that we hold dear. The little maiden’s transformation symbolizes the fear of change and the consequences of wanting to fit into a mold that doesn’t belong to us. The ending is a sad reminder that sometimes, love and acceptance are not always attainable, and that the cost of trying to achieve them may be greater than the reward.
Line by Line Meaning
The little maiden of the sea
A fish-like creature who lived in the sea
Was not at all like you and me
Different from humans in physical traits
Where we have legs she was a fish
Had fins instead of legs like humans
And she could only say:
Limited ability to communicate
"I wish...
Desire for change in her physical state
I wish I were not incomplete
Wanted to have human-like attributes
I wish I had some dainty feet,"
Wanted to have attractive feet like humans
You see, one day she'd met a prince
Encountered a human prince and fell in love
And she'd been pining ever since
Remained in love with the prince
(the little maiden of the sea)
Reiteration of the artist
She'd gain her own immortal soul
A human-like soul was perceived as superior
If she became the prince's wife
Marriage to the prince was deemed as salvation
She autovivisected
Self-mutilated
Whole, she walked! each step was like a knife
Walking on human-like feet was painful
A knife into her dainty feet
Foot pain was excruciating
And she could neither speak nor sing
After the transformation, she lost her ability to communicate
But surely, now she was complete
Having human-like feet, she thought she was now whole
Her prince would think of marrying
Hoping that the prince would finally consider her as a wife
The little maiden of the sea
Reiteration of the singer
He married someone else, of course
The prince chose another as a wife instead of the artist
And, saying nothing, she went home
Without expressing her disappointment, she returned to the sea
Then something turned, by mystic force
A supernatural power transformed her
The little maiden into foam
She was turned into sea foam, probably as a means of coping
Contributed by Elizabeth J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.