The band was originally formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1990 by friends Merritt and (percussionist/pianist/vocalist) Claudia Gonson. While 1991's Distant Plastic Trees and 1992's The Wayward Bus (now most easily available together as a compilation, The Wayward Bus / Distant Plastic Trees) are sung by Susan Anway (b. 1951 - d. 2021), all subsequent albums are principally sung by Merritt himself.
Longtime members include: Gonson, (cellist) Sam Davol, and (banjo player/guitarist) John Woo. Contributors include (but are not limited to) the singers Susan Anway, Dudley Klute, Shirley Simms, and LD Beghtol, and the accordionist/writer Daniel Handler (famous for writing the childrens' books A Series of Unfortunate Events under the alias Lemony Snicket).
Their most popular and best-selling album to date is 69 Love Songs issued on Merge Records as a triple album filled with many fairly short songs that are reminiscent of early Beatles productions.
The album is notable for its employment of many unorthodox musical arrangements and downright impressive quantity of material presented. Instruments used on this album include the ukulele, banjo, accordion, cello, mandolin, piano, flute, xylophone guitars, various percussion instruments, and a standard setup of synths and effects. It features several guest vocalists on several different tracks. The album is a three CD set, released in the US as three separate albums (also available as a boxed set) and in the UK as a triple album.
The album i (2004, Nonesuch Records) continues Merritt's fixation on the concept album, with each of the 14 songs beginning with the letter (and often the pronoun) "I".
The album Distortion, was released through Nonesuch on the 15th January 2008 and introduced noise pop to the array of styles utilized in their music. The album's release was followed by a sold-out U.S. tour starting in February. Additional albums followed in 2010, 2012, 2017, and 2020.
Stephin Merritt is involved in several other musical projects: The 6ths (featuring different guest performers on every track), The Gothic Archies (songs dealing humorously with dark themes) and Future Bible Heroes (with music written by Chris Ewen)
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I’ve Run Away To Join The Fairies
The Magnetic Fields Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
This mortal world has lost its charms
I'll be a flower for their garden
Never to hold you in my arms
They will enchance me and enslave me
And make of me their fool for fun
Upon my head they'll place an ass head
I loved you like I was your baby
Although you couldn't even fly
And though you held no eldritch secrets
All too enthralled to you was I
In yonder forest grows a toadstool
To make the mind of man grow small
They will mistake me for their changeling
I wasn't human after all
The Magnetic Fields's song "I’ve Run Away To Join The Fairies" is a song about escape, disillusionment, and the desire to escape from this world. In this song, the singer says he has "run away to join the fairies" because he has lost his taste for life in the mortal world. The fairy world, with its enchantments and enslavements, offers the singer a respite from the world of humans which has lost all its charm. The singer says he will become a flower for their garden, a passive participant in their world, and in doing so, he will never again be able to hold his lover in his arms. The singer is no longer interested in his former lover, he has been captured by the world of the fairies.
The fairies will enhance and enslave the singer, and make a fool of him for their own enjoyment. They will place an ass's head on his head, echoing the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" where the character Nick Bottom has an ass's head placed on him by the fairies. The singer, who once loved his former lover like a baby, now finds himself enthralled to the fairy world. To make matters worse, the fairies will mistake the singer for a changeling, a substitute for a fairy child thought to have been abducted by human beings. The singer has lost his humanity, as he is no longer a part of the mortal world.
Line by Line Meaning
I've run away to join the fairies
I have left this mundane world and joined the world of the magical and mystical creatures
This mortal world has lost its charms
I find no beauty or enchantment in this human world
I'll be a flower for their garden
I will become part of the fairy world's beauty and be nurtured by them
Never to hold you in my arms
I will never again experience physical intimacy with a mortal
They will enchance me and enslave me
The fairies will make me more magical but also have control over me
And make of me their fool for fun
The fairies will make me a source of entertainment as their puppet
Upon my head they'll place an ass head
They will also use me as a joke and humiliate me like they did to Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream
More or less as you've always done
Similar to how you treated me in the mortal world as a fool
I loved you like I was your baby
I loved you unconditionally and with a child-like affection
Although you couldn't even fly
Even though you lacked an essential quality that fairies inherently possess
And though you held no eldritch secrets
Even though you lacked the knowledge and power of the fairy world
All too enthralled to you was I
Despite these shortcomings, I was still captivated by you
In yonder forest grows a toadstool
There is a magical mushroom in the forest
To make the mind of man grow small
It has the power to shrink human consciousness and perception
They will mistake me for their changeling
The fairies may believe that I was switched with their own child and raised as human
I wasn't human after all
I never truly belonged in the human world and was meant to be in the world of the fairies
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: STEPHIN RAYMOND MERRITT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind