As fans and music lovers, we often question ourselves about the inspiration or the reason behind the songs we love, and the lyrics we most often relate to. Ville Valo has been asked about this a zillion times, but today I found an interesting articlewritten by Niki Phaser , about the inspiration behind one of HIM’s underated songs. I say underated because I personally enjoy listening to it when I feel like a lonely little helpless child in need of mommy’s or daddy’s lap:) I like to call it HIM’s lullaby…and I guess I’m not the only one. According to thisarticle, Dark Light was inspired by a book with the same title, written by author Mette Newth. It is “a dense, unusual novel about Tora, 13, who is dying of leprosy in a hospital in 19th- century Bergen, Norway. When Tora contracts the horrible disease, she is yanked from her family’s farm and sent to spend the remainder of her life at a leper hospital in Bergen. It’s a wretched place, where the ill wail in agony from sores and lost limbs, and cry out at night in desperation and hunger(…)” (Kirkus Reviews, Amazon.com)
Niki was kind enough to send me the video where Ville speaks about this:
“Dark Light”
Shivers run through the spine
Of hope as she cries
the poison tears of a life denied
In the raven black night
Holding hands with
Dark light
Come shine in her lost heart tonight
And blind
All fears that haunt her
With your smile
Dark Light
In oblivion’s garden
Her body’s on fire
Writhing towards the angel defiled
To learn how to die
In peace with her God
Dark light
Come shine in her lost heart tonight
And blind
All fears that haunt her with
Your smile
Dark Light
We all know Ville Valo enjoys reading and there are many references to the books he has read in many of his songs. It would be interesting to see how many we can find:)
From the top of head, I can remember references to:
- Charles Bukowski: “Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame”;
- Edgar A. Poe: “A Dream Within a Dream” and also the cover of Dark Light kind of reflects Poe’s poem “The City and the Sea”
- Dante’s Inferno in Venus Doom?
Have you found any references to books in HIM’s songs?
