# Natalie Merchant

Natalie Merchant (born 26 October 1963) is an American singer, song-writer, musician and poet who first gained fame in the group 10,000 Maniacs which she co-founded in 1981.

## Quotes

* There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, "I disagree." We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President.
** The Nation (15 July 1991)
* I grew up as a TV baby, with my TV babysitter, up until I was about 10. Then my mother just ripped the thing out of the wall and put it in a closet, and we didn't watch it. I have that sort of ability to become addicted to it. And I'm just so fascinated by it once I turn it on, I'm not even that aware what's there. I'm just watching it. So I don't ever turn it on. I get my news from the newspaper. I don't want to watch the Hollywood news product on TV... There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV.
** Orlando Sentinel (6 November 1992)
* My drug period was between the age of 17 and 18. That was a time when I was experimenting with a lot of things, I was experimenting with sleep deprivation, fasting. The longest fast I ever did was 12 days. You go that long without food and you hallucinate. I would take this powder made out of guarana seed, my friend Mary would bake it up like cocoa in muffins and leave them on my doorstep. My drinking period was when I was 13, 14. Drugs fascinated me for a short period of time but not any more. A glass of wine puts me in a weird enough state.
** NME (1 July 1995)

### Quotes from NatalieMerchant.com

* It’s pretty obvious to everyone that the revolution has happened. The People can now easily cut out a hoard of middlemen (record companies, radio stations, music press and retail shops). With a series of computer strokes they can find the music they want to hear, become informed about the musicians who make it, find other people who share their interest and ultimately either buy, trade or steal that coveted sound.
* After spending nearly 20 years contracted to a major label, I have mixed feelings about their demise. These companies have profited immensely from your insatiable desire for listening and helped musicians for several decades to reach you. They grew fat and excessive. They exploited and they monopolized. They edited and censured. They’ve been rapidly losing their means of production, distribution and promotion to the internet. They have been economizing by dropping artists, cutting staff and folding into one another but they can’t keep up with the pace of disintegration. You might not have ever heard my name if Elektra Records hadn’t made me one of their artists for hire. I’m both grateful and resentful and you probably are too.
* I don’t listen to anything on the radio but NPR and occasional oldies programs. I can’t comment on the content or format of most commercial radio but I have read the statistics about the step-by-step deregulation of FCC rules that has allowed monopolies like Clear Channel to buy up massive shares of the airwaves. This has damaged our business (music) and our culture (American). The internet is offering bold alternatives but a transistor radio is only $25.00 and not everyone is hooked up through a computer and high speed connection.
* I don’t want to overdo discussing my experience of motherhood, its too private and profound to parade around. I will say that carrying a child, giving birth to a child and raising that child up has made me feel more engaged and connected to others. I have a greater understanding of people (living past & present). We all begin so pure, so innocent and so hungry for physical and emotional comfort. It’s so important that every baby be generously cherished, fed and comforted. I can see now how withholding these essentials can do irreparable damage. Now (post-baby) when I encounter a sad or aggressive character, I wonder what the first three years of his or her life were like. Imaging them alone, crying in their cribs has given me much more compassion.
* For the time being I am enjoying my chance to enjoy civilian life off the road. If I combined all the months that I have lived out of a van or tour bus it would amount to twelve solid years. That would be twelve years of driving or flying an average of 100 to 400 miles per day and sleeping in a different city every night. It was a very unique lifestyle that I adapted to and even enjoyed with it’s surreal pace. It’s also a lifestyle that can take a toll on the body and relationships with the people that you are constantly leaving behind.
* I think many people have been made curious about Henry Darger because of the song on my album Motherland. Henry Darger (1892-1973) was the author and illustrator of what could possibly be the longest unfinished fictional work of all time. His towering hand-bound manuscript of 17,000 pages was found in this obscure retired hospital janitor’s apartment after his death. Henry worked in obsessed isolation for six decades on his saga entitled, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.
* I saw my first Henry Darger collage/paintings in the early 1980’s when the tale of Henry’s life was just emerging through rumor and scattered fragments of his book. He lived and died a recluse in Chicago where no one knew of his writings or paintings. There was a folk art gallery in New Orleans that had acquired a small pile of Realms of the Unreal illustrations. I was on tour with REM at the time, Michael Stipe and I visited the gallery where we had a first look at these images of seven little horrified girls pursued by a purple and orange winged cats or evil professors on horseback or resting peacefully under giant sunflowers. I was completely captivated and intrigued.

## Song lyrics
### The Wishing Chair (1985)

* If I could calm or restrain you for the sake of pity save the pistol save the cynic's tongue save the cool white stare treat me to an honest face sometime
** "Scorpio Rising"

### In My Tribe (1987)
#### What's The Matter Here?

    Official video
* I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses he's their kid I stay out of it, but who gave you the right to do this?
* threats like, "if you don't mind I will beat on your behind" "slap you, slap you silly" made me say, "o, what's the matter here?"

#### City of Angels

* heaven, is this heaven where we are?
* see them walking, if you dare if you call that walking stumble, stagger, fall and drag themselves along the streets of heaven
* where is the halo that should glow 'round your face and where are the wings that should grow from your shoulder blades?
* these sobering sights I've seen in the City of Angels have all been one rude awakening that was due to me in this city of fallen angels

#### Like The Weather

    Official video
* the color of the sky as far as I can see is coal gray lift my head from the pillow and then fall again with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather a quiver in my lips as if I might cry
* what a cold and rainy day where on earth is the sun hid away?

#### Don't Talk

    Official video
* don't talk, I will listen don't talk, you keep your distance I'd rather hear some truth tonight than entertain your lies
* talk, talk, talk about it you talk as if you care but when your talk is over tilt that bottle in the air tossing back more than your share

#### Hey Jack Kerouac

    MTV Unplugged performance
* hey Jack Kerouac I think of your mother and the tears she cried, she cried for none other than her little boy lost in our little world that hated and that dared to drag him down her little boy courageous who chose his words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts they all spoke through you
* hey Jack now for the tricky part when you were the brightest star who were the shadows? of the San Francisco beat boys you were the favorite now they sit and rattle their bones and think of their blood stoned days

### Blind Man's Zoo (1989)
#### Trouble Me

    Official video
* trouble me disturb me with all your cares and you worries trouble me on the days when you feel spent
* speak to me don't mislead me, the calm I feel means a storm is swelling there's no telling where it starts or how it ends
* let me have a look inside these eyes while I'm learning please don't hide them just because of tears

### Our Time In Eden (1992)
#### These Are Days

    Official video · MTV Unplugged performance
* these are days you'll remember
* you'll know it's true, that you are blessed and lucky it's true, that you are touched by something that will grow and bloom in you
* these days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face and when you do you'll know how it was meant to be see the signs and know their meaning

#### Candy Everybody Wants

    Official video
* If lust and hate is the candy if blood and love tastes so sweet then we give 'em what they want Hey, hey, give 'em what they want
* So their eyes are growing hazy 'cause they want to turn it on so their minds are soft and lazy Well, hey, give 'em what they want

### Tigerlily (1995)
#### Carnival

    Official video
* I've walked these streets in the mad house asylum they can be where a wild eyed misfit prophet on a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me
* have I been blind have I been lost inside myself and my own mind hypnotized mesmerized by what my eyes have seen?

#### Wonder

    Official video
* doctors have come from distant cities just to see me stand over my bed disbelieving what they're seeing they say I must be one of the wonders of god's own creation and as far as they can see they can offer no explanation
* newspapers ask intimate questions want confessions they reach into my head to steal the glory of my story
* people see me I'm a challenge to your balance I'm over your heads how I confound you and astound you
* o, I believe fate smiled and destiny laughed as she came to my cradle know this child will be able laughed as she came to my mother know this child will not suffer laughed as my body she lifted know this child will be gifted with love, with patience and with faith she'll make her way

### Ophelia (1998)
#### Ophelia

    Official video
* Ophelia was a bride of god a novice Carmelite in sister cells the cloister bells tolled on her wedding night
* Ophelia was a circus queen the female cannonball projected through five flaming hoops to wild and shocked applause...
* Ophelia was a cyclone, tempest a god damned hurricane your common sense your best defense lay wasted and in vain
* Ophelia's mind went wandering you'd wonder where she'd gone through secret doors down corridors she'd wander them alone

#### Break Your Heart

    Official video
* people struggle, people fight for the simple pleasures in their lives but trouble comes from everywhere it's a little more than you can bear
* I know that it will hurt I know that it will break your heart the way things are and the way they've been and the way they've always been
* people ruthless, people cruel see the damage that some people do full of hatred, full of pride it's enough to make you lose your mind
* don't spread the discontent don't spread the lies don't make the same mistakes with your own life

#### My Skin

* take a look at my body look at my hands there's so much here that I don't understand
* your face saving promises whispered like prayers I don't need them
* contempt loves the silence it thrives in the dark with fine winding tendrils that strangle the heart they say that promises sweeten the blow but I don't need them no, I don't need them
* o, I need the darkness the sweetness the sadness the weakness I need this
* I need a lullaby a kiss goodnight angel sweet love of my life o, I need this

#### Kind & Generous

    Official video
* you've been so kind and generous I don't know how you keep on giving for your kindness I'm in debt to you for your selflessness, my admiration and for everything you've done you know I'm bound... I'm bound to thank you for it
* I want to thank you for so many gifts you gave with love and tenderness I want to thank you I want to thank you for your generosity the love and the honesty that you gave me

#### Life Is Sweet

    performance on VH1 Storytellers
* they told you life is hard it's misery from the start it's dull and slow and painful I tell you life is sweet in spite of the misery there's so much more be grateful
* who do you believe? who will you listen to who will it be? it's high time that you decide in your own mind

### Motherland (2001)
#### Motherland

    Celtic Connections performance (2010)
* where in hell can you go far from the things that you know far from the sprawl of concrete that keeps crawling its way about 1,000 miles a day?
* take one last look behind commit this to memory and mind don't miss this wasteland, this terrible place when you leave keep your heart off your sleeve
* motherland cradle me close my eyes lullaby me to sleep keep me safe lie with me stay beside me don't go, don't you go

#### The Worst Thing

* once I could love, I could trust, I could not doubt but that was just about the worst thing that I could do it was just about the worst thing that I could do
* once I was open, could hope, I had no doubt but that was the worst thing that I could do
* once I came close to that most elusive fire burning with hopeless love and desire but it was just about the worst thing that I could do it was just about the worst thing I could do

#### Henry Darger

    Album performance
* who'll save the poor little girl? oh, Henry... who'll tell the story of her? Henry Darger
* who will draw the calvary in risk his very own precious skin to make our Angelinia a free and peaceful land again? Henry who'll love a poor orphan child? Henry Darger

## External links

* NatalieMerchant.com (official site)
* Natalie Merchant at the Ectophile's Guide to Good Music
* Natalie Merchant on IMDb
* Natalie Merchant 119 (fan site)
* Natalie Merchant Online (fan site)