Lay Me Down (2001) – Glen Hansard (The Frames)

Posted on March 3, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

Glen Hansard is no stranger to this blog. I saw him (The Frames) open for Bob Dylan in Melbourne August the 17th, 2007 (see set list) and on the February 24, 2008 Hansard and Markéta Irglová won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Falling Slowly which you can read about here. Today’s song Lay Me Down is by Irish band The Frames based in Dublin. Founded in 1990 by Glen Hansard, the band has been influential in the Dublin rock music scene. The group has released six studio albums.

Explain the way I’m thinking now
I, I will return to you
What I have taken long before
I, I will return again
When it gets dark and day is done

And lay me down
In the hollowed ground
Down by your side I will stay
So lay me down

The name The Frames arose from Hansard’s habit of fixing bicycles of his friends. The large number of bicycle frames lying around his house led neighbours to dub it the “house with the frames”. In a 2001 interview, Hansard said, “I worked in a bicycle shop for a little while, but the name came from … my back garden was so full of frames, my house became known as The Frames house, much to my mother’s distaste, she hated it‘.

Glen Hansard tells the darkly humorous story of Lay Me Down in the video below:

It turns out it’s actually cheaper to buy a grave…if you have a body and you are ready to go, it’s much cheaper. If you don’t have a body, it costs a lot more, because you’ve got to kind of book it….So I asked her to be buried beside me and she freaked out to be honest.

Reference:
1. The Frames – Wikipedia