Return To Summerisle

Album: Love and Murder (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Summer Isles is an archipelago close to the coast of Scotland, but Summerisle is an entirely mythical island which featured in the cult low budget British psychological horror/suspense film The Wicker Man.

    "Return To Summerisle" was written by Troy Southgate, composed by Butow Maler, and recorded between England and Germany between 2007 and 2009. In a June 2010 interview with Songfacts, Southgate said of this song it "is just a fantasy about the character in The Wicker Man played by Britt Eckland. The comment about her face is just an echo of what was, a memory."

    The character alluded to is also the subject of "The Landlord's Daughter" and "Willow's Song." The principal - and doomed - character of The Wicker Man is David Howie, a police officer who is lured to the island on the pretext of investigating a crime, but in reality he is to be sacrificed by being burned alive inside the Wicker Man. This thoughtful song is written from his perspective, or possibly from the perspective of his ghost. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

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