All Your Gold (song)

"**All Your Gold**" is the second track on Bat For Lashes' third album, *The Haunted Man*. It was released as the album's second single on 19 September 2012.

## Background

The song went through various different versions before the final studio version. Towards the end of *The Haunted Man*'s recording sessions, Natasha scrapped the initial version she was working on and rewrote it in a different key with a different chorus.

> "This song was a real pain in the arse. It was the troubled teenager of the album. I wrote it really early on and it was kind of like an En Vogue-style R&B tune. I loved it but didn't know what to do with it cos it wasn't quite right. I tried it a few different production things, but in the end I realised it wasn't the production - the songwriting wasn't up to scratch. So I rewrote it with just the main hook and changed the key and re-wrote the chorus. It's really simple and with [co-producer] Dan Carey on the MPC [*hip hop sampling machine*], we sampled old indian drums and took lots of electronic hip hop 808 sounds and put them through old amps. We used forks on glasses of water as well, so there's loads of layers of percussion that made it what it was. It's a song about the difficult choice that women have; the choice between the good new guy and the old bad guy. If you know someone's bad for you and you really want them, it's really hard when you get someone nice. Women are really bad for that. This album is me taking away all the glitter and the feathers and all the things that have become passé in a way and also for me I felt like I'd pushed those visual symbols to the extreme. The question was, If I strip it away, can I still convey something powerful? I embraced it and if it feels like less like a reinvention than it does peeling back the layers to get to the essence of what you're feeling like. For me, this album is going back to square one. It was exciting, but it was a long process."
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In another interview, she said:

> “‘All Your Gold’ was a complete different version for most of the making of the album and just sounded awful and I couldn’t… I knew it had something but I couldn’t get it. Then very close to the end I completely scrapped it and rewrote it in a different key, different timing with a different chorus, and it just suddenly became what it was supposed to be.”
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## Release

### 7"

All songs are written and composed by Natasha Khan.

### Development

The music video was shot at Botany Bay in Kent. The choreography was done in collaboration with Jorge Crecis and Katie Lusby "to develop a vocabulary of movement intrinsic to Natasha that expresses the themes of the album."

## Lyrics

Never see the big church steeple when I call you on the phone

Never feel the rush of angels, when we stay up late alone

Never whisper you a great love story, only scream and cry and moan

But you’re a good man, but you’re a good man

I keep telling myself to just let go

Oh, let go of the one who took all your gold

I get home and there’s a love note waiting

But only he is here tonight

And the words, the promises you’re making

Only echo all these lies

And for every sweet nothing you whisper

Why is goodbye my reply?

'Cos you’re a good man, 'cos you’re a good man

I keep telling myself to just let go

There was someone that I knew before

A heart from the past that I cannot forget

I let him take all my gold, and hurt me so bad

But now for you, I have nothing left of all my gold

A ghost from the past has turned my heart black

Am I ever gonna let him go? And get my gold back?

And today I was a dead girl walking, city light burnt through the tears

Heard you say my name and get to talking about the love and all the fear

And you saw all the pain I was holding, and yet still you hold me near

'Cos you’re a good man, 'cos you’re a good man

I keep telling myself to just let go

There was someone that I knew before

A heart from the past, that I cannot forget

I let him take all my gold, and hurt me so bad

But now for you, I have nothing left

Cause there was someone that I knew before

A heart from the past, that I cannot forget

I let him take all my gold, and hurt me so bad

But now for you, I have nothing left of all my gold

## References

1. ↑ "Bat For Lashes "All Your Gold" Song Breakdown". 20 September 2012. *YouTube*.
2. ↑ "Bat For Lashes - Natasha Khan's Guide To New Album The Haunted Man". 12 October 2012. *Q Magazine*.
3. ↑ "“I’ve become a woman through the making of this album…” : Best Fit speaks to Bat For Lashes". 2 October 2012. *The Line of Best Fit*.