The Lady of Shalott

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Story behind the song

I wrote "The Lady of Shalott" in 1993 after the death of my close friend Mark. We met in 1988, lived together for a time in Washington, D.C., and remained close throughout his illness. I was one of the few friends who stayed beside him during his final months, and after his death I served as the executor of his estate. Mark loved John William Waterhouse's painting The Lady of Shalott. A print of it hung above the fireplace in his apartment. After I had settled his affairs, closed the apartment for the last time, and handed back the keys, I left the painting exactly where it was. I knew someone else would eventually live there, but in my mind it has never left that wall. Although the song borrows its title and imagery from Tennyson's poem and Waterhouse's painting, it is rooted in those final days and in the experience of saying goodbye to someone I loved. The original demo was little more than piano and voice, almost like a funeral hymn. For this recording I preserved its slow, rolling character and the haunting quality of the Phrygian mode, which seemed to express grief more honestly than any explanation could. More than thirty years later, I hear the song not simply as a farewell, but as an act of remembrance—for a remarkable friend whose life, kindness, and courage continue to echo through my own.

Lyrics

"I'm so sick of shadows" You told me one day "The faces in my window panes They whisper to me from a place far away From memories, vague, of lost days" The Lady of Shalott Once hung from your wall A fair and imprisoned soul She told you her tale Her curse and her woe She scribbled your name on her boat "A curse is upon me," You said near the end "And Fate is not willing to bend. But now I can hear her song Drift through the wind The voice of a forgotten friend" The Lady of Shalott lies lost on the floor The last thing I see by your door Her dark eyes and longing Call me back once more Till over the mantle She hangs as before Some prisons are large and Some prisons are small But one thing I know is Love beckons us all And love's what she felt For those three steps around Threw open the door And the mirror came down The Lady of Shalott Still hangs on your wall She calls me with no voice at all "Remember my beauty And not my despair The sound of my song In the wide open air"

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