Song to the Siren, a song of a generation

... or should I say a song of generations?
Here's the most known version of the Song to the Siren:

It was firstly known 40 years ago, after the releasing of the stunning cover by Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins for the British music collective This Mortal Coil in September 1983. Here's a previous version performed live by the Cocteau Twins:

The song was made by Tim Buckley (Jeff's father) over a poem from his friend Larry Beckett and firstly broadcasted 55 years ago, on March 25, 1968, in the final episode of The Monkees TV show. It was only released much later, in 1970 in Tim's album Starsailor.

After This Mortal Coil's version, Song to the Siren became a cult song included in many movie soundtracks like the David Lynch's Lost Highway and finally, it was covered by more than 60 artists, including John Frusciante, Sinéad O'Connor, Bryan Ferry, Robert Plant...
And also Larry Beckett, the writer of the poem, recorded a version with The Long Lost Band, presented in 2016.

song to the siren

(Continuing the last post) Some years later, Elizabeth Fraser met Tim Buckley's son, Jeff. It is public that they had an intense relationship. In 1994 Liz made a duet with Jeff to a Jeff's new song and they recorded an almost private rehearsal that has never released commercially. The song is called "All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun" and was 1st presented to my country by Ri.Ma. as I told here as acknowledgment to Ri.Ma. about this original post that he commented too. In 1997 Jeff fell deep in Mississippi waters near Memphis where he lived. He used to swim in the river but this time he was all dressed and with boots on a boat singing "whole lotta love" with some friends. His experience was not enough to take off the boots. No one will know if he found any siren to sing lotta love or even his father on a rock at the bottom of Mississippi waiting for his siren. What we know is that Liz and the Cocteau Twins with This Mortal Coil made the first and the most stunning version of a song born "folky". And it is this version of 1984 that David Lynch used in "Lost Highway" as some other filmmakers.

The original of Tim Buckley is posted here.

the premonition?

In early 80's the Cocteau Twins took part of another band, "This Mortal Coil". In 1983 the soprano voice of Liz showed to the world this treasure from Tim Buckley:

(to be continued)

cool siren cover