Give Away Your Heart

Album: Last (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song from North East England folk group The Unthanks' fourth album, Last was written by a local songwriter. Co-vocalist Rachel Unthanks explained to Spinner: "That was written by a man called Jon Redfern. When we first started out he supported us a few times and we played with him. His album is absolutely beautiful, arrangements and singing so beautiful and heartfelt and interesting."
  • On first listen this appears to be a bleak love song, but it actually has a different meaning. "We thought it was just a love song," Rachel explained to Spinner. "[It] could be seen as that, but it's actually about his reaction to the Iraq war. The story is that he was living in Manchester at the time and there was a protest march going past his window and he questions why he wouldn't go to war for his country. He felt it wasn't the right thing to do."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Adele

AdeleFact or Fiction

Despite her reticent personality, Adele's life and music are filled with intrigue. See if you can spot the true tales.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.