Only If for A Night

Album: Ceremonials (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song was inspired by a dream Florence had in a camper van parked in a German wood while she was on tour with MGMT. "There's a song on it that's inspired by a visit [from] my dead grandmother — like, I had a really, really vivid dream about her and, um, she was giving me advice in this dream," she explained to Q magazine. "And it was really emotional, and I woke up crying. And there's one song that's inspired by that experience."
  • Joan of Arc also crops up on this song. For more tunes about the medieval French heroine, check out the pair of hit singles by OMD "Joan of Arc" and "Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)." Also Leonard Cohen featured a track called "Joan of Arc" on his 1970 Album, Songs of Love & Hate. If your music tastes extend to extreme heavy metal, you might want to give a listen to Cradle of Filth's "The Death of Love," which is about Joan being burned at the stake.

    Another Joan of Arc music connection is that Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Go's played the Hundred Years War martyr in the 1989 movie, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
  • The song begins with a church bell-like piano riff before Florence enters with her vocals. She told Spinner how producer Paul Epworth's instrumentation prompted her to write the lyrics about her grandmother. Florence explained: "When Paul sent me this track that had church bells on it in the beginning, these English church bells, it suddenly brought me back to being at my Grandma 's house and hearing them, and her funeral, and things like that."

Comments: 1

  • Philip from Akron, OhIf you're going to bring up Joan of Arc references, Kate Bush's song "Joanni" of the album _Aerial_ is about her.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Muhammad Ali: His Musical Legacy and the Songs he Inspired

Muhammad Ali: His Musical Legacy and the Songs he InspiredSong Writing

Before he was the champ, Ali released an album called I Am The Greatest!, but his musical influence is best heard in the songs he inspired.

Michael Sweet of Stryper

Michael Sweet of StryperSongwriter Interviews

Find out how God and glam metal go together from the Stryper frontman.

Devo

DevoSongwriter Interviews

Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale take us into their world of subversive performance art. They may be right about the De-Evoloution thing.

Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoungSongwriter Interviews

Dennis DeYoung explains why "Mr. Roboto" is the defining Styx song, and what the "gathering of angels" represents in "Come Sail Away."

Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins

Tom Bailey of Thompson TwinsSongwriter Interviews

Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.

Evolution Of The Prince Symbol

Evolution Of The Prince SymbolSong Writing

The evolution of the symbol that was Prince's name from 1993-2000.