Possession by Sarah McLachlan: Not A Love Song
May 26th 2008 10:03
When I first heard this song upon its release in the mid-90s I thought it was haunting love song. Listen and think about what it means to you. I'll print the lyrics and discuss below.
Listen as the wind blows
From across the great divide
Voices trapped in yearning
Memories trapped in time
The night is my companion
And solitude my guide
Would I spend forever here
And not be satisfied?
And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I’ll take your breath away
And after I wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes dear
Through this world I’ve stumbled
So many times betrayed
Trying to find an honest word
To find the truth enslaved
Oh you speak to me in riddles and
You speak to me in rhymes
My body aches to breathe your breath
You words keep me alive
Into this night I wander
It’s morning that I dread
Another day of knowing of
The path I fear to tread
Oh into the sea of waking dreams
I follow without pride
Nothing stands between us here
And I won’t be denied
I'll hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breathe away
And after I wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes...
Possession was the lead single from Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan's third studio album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy released in October 1993. The haunting music and Sarah's angelic, emotive voice make the song read like a love story about undying, passionate love. But it is not.
Like The Police's Every Breath You Take, it is actually a tale told from the perspective of a stalker. McLachlan wrote the song after having being stalked by Uwe Vandrei, an obssessed fan from Ottawa for three years. She eventually took out a restraining order against him and wrote Possession shortly thereafter, using his letters as the basis of much of the lyrics. Incredibly Vandrei filed a lawsuit against her claiming "breach of confidence" and laid claim to a share of the songwriting credits. The case never made trial as Vandrei committed suicide in December 1994.
In a 2003 VH1 Storytellers special McLachlan said that she was shocked but allured by the intensity of Vandrei's obsession with her and wrote the song in an attempt to understand how someone could write such intimate things to someone that they didn't even know. And in a 1997 interview with Rolling Stone, she stated "And this one person wasn't the only guy ... there were a lot of letters from other people saying the same kind of thing ... Writing the song Possession was very therapeutic."
To borrow from McLachlan's lryics, this song takes my breathe away, even after discovering the truth of its meaning. I will admit I felt a little cheated when I discovered what the lyrics really meant and that it wasn't the sweet little love song I thought it was, but when you adjust to the intent behind the lyrics and her motivation for writing it, it becomes a tale of a real human tragedy, taking the listener into the mind of obsessed admirer and a human being divorced from reality but stubbornly clinging to the most impossible of dreams.
Her voice perfectly captures the desperation and yearning of her subject. The lyrics are exquisite melancholy. It remains my favourite song by this amazingly talented singer songwriter.
The video clip above, directed by Sarah and featuring her friends and band members was the official version released in Canada and the world apart from the USA. The record company thought that the imagery of a bound McLachlan combined with the Biblical references and physical intimacy was too controversial for the apparently thin-skinned, conservative American public and a new video was recorded. This time it featured McLachlan and her full band performing the song in a giant, empty cathedral and was directed by Julie Hemerlin. The embedding for this version is disabled but I will provide a link if you want to check it out:
Sarah McLachlan Possession (1994)
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Comment by Ayda
Phantasmelodia
Thank you for shedding light on some really interesting facts, Ruby.
The stalker commits suicide in the end? An ending almost fit for a movie.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
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Artist Quirk
ive never heard this song before and all i know of her is that Felicity from the TV show Felicity used to listen to her songs over and over when she was sad . . . hence i never really investigated because i thought she would be a bit too mopey and feminine for me
i had to say i dont like the song or the film clip but the story of the stalker is interesting and a great read!
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
But if you look closely at the lyrics "the night is my companion and solitude my guide"
that's someone on the fringes of society
and
"you speak to me in riddle and you speak to me in rhymes"
that's the stalker claiming that she was writing songs with secret messages for him
"nothing stands between here and I won't be denied"
that's delusion and obsession.
It's amazing what she was able to turn it all into.
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I do love this song but I agree with you about the video.
It's actually pretty representative of low budget clips from the early-mid 90s- cheap sets, community theatre type performances, bliblical and literal references.
It kinda reminds me of REM's Losing My Religion, though that was a superior video.
I do think the imagery of Sarah bound up and swinging through the air is interesting though. It represents her stalker's desire to own and control her specifically and more generally the way in which women are to a large degree still restricted by men.
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
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Padsoc
Interesting choice, I like a few of Sarah's songs and this one isn't bad in melody but not my favourite... the themes make me think of Eminem's Stan, a very powerful song.
I'm a bit disturbed that she plagiarised her own stalker though!
Comment by Jeff Musall
Secular Humanity