Songfacts®:

• "Joan In The Garden" finds The Decemberists taking a pilgrimage to the Hundred Years' War. The sprawling, 19-minute prog-rock epic closes out their ninth album, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, and marks a departure from their usual brand of whimsical folk-rock (the closest relative is probably their 2010 rock opera The Hazards of Love).
• Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, takes center stage here. Joan of Arc (c. 1412 – 1431) was the real-life warrior queen who rose from French peasant stock to become one of France's patron saints. Fueled by angelic visions and unwavering faith, she donned male dress, rallied the French army, and dealt a major blow to the English during the bloody Hundred Years' War. Victories at Orléans and Patay paved the way for the coronation of King Charles VII, with Joan by his side. But her meteoric rise was tragically cut short. Captured by the Burgundians and handed over to the English, she faced a rigged trial and was burned at the stake on trumped-up charges of witchcraft. Joan of Arc became a martyr, a symbol of French resilience and an inspiration for centuries to come.
• The original seed for the song was planted back in 2018 during sessions for the I'll Be Your Girl album, inspired by writer Lidia Yuknavitch's 2017 sci-fi reimagining of her story.
  
  "I wanted to make my own version of Joan," said frontman Colin Melroy, "but the song that came was as much about the creative process as it was about the actual woman, about angelic visitation and creative visitation and the hallucinogenic quality of both."
• The idea was further crystallized by an 1879 oil painting by Jules Bastien-Lepage which hangs at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York. It depicts the moment the saints Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret the Virgin, and the archangel Michael appeared to Joan of Arc in her parents' garden in Domrémy, encouraging her to fight the English.
  
  "That visitation was as beautiful as it is terrifying," said Meloy to UK newspaper The Sun. "Now we know how the human mind works, we might think, 'Is that mental illness? Is it a psychedelic trip?'"
• Colin Meloy wrote the song himself. Tucker Martine, the husband and producer of singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, co-produced the track with The Decemberists.
  
  Adding to the epic feel is Mike Mills of R.E.M., who lends his talents on piano and backing vocals.
• The album title comes from this song.
  
  As it ever was
  So it will be again, again
  Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna yeah
  
  "'As it ever was, so it will be again' is the last line of 'Joan In The Garden,' which is a triumphal moment, but I also think it's about returning and about permanence or how we perceive permanence," Meloy told Billboard. "I think there's a lot of things to unpack at that."
• The track throws down a gauntlet of fuzzed-out guitars, bombastic drumbeats, and a swirling storm of chimes and careening synths. It all culminates in a breathless, breakneck finale that wouldn't be out of place headbanging alongside a vintage Black Sabbath record. Meloy told The Sun that bassist Nate Query "was watching Iron Maiden videos while trying to figure out how to play that quickly."
  
  "And the vocals are probably the most challenging I've ever written," he added.
• Colin Meloy spoke to Uncut magazine about the recording process for the As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again album:
  
  "We had a bit of a false start. The idea was to experiment without a specific record in mind, while also considering producing it ourselves. Everyone was excited by the song fragments in the moment, but it wasn't particularly productive.
  
  We were working in Tucker Martine's studio, but at first, we hesitated to have him produce, fearing it might feel like going backwards. But reconnecting with Tucker after so many years got me excited about reviving that creative partnership. We had fun in the studio, but this record is a very crafted and curated piece."