Talk by Hozier: a masterclass in manipulation
During the album release party, Hozier described the protagonist as an “unreliable narrator” who has “not the best intentions in mind,” as well as being “quite pretentious”.
Talk, before a rich and explicit reference to the Greek myth, is the description of a young man, trying to seduce with lofty tales and romantic images his lover. These romantic myths are real only in his imagination but possess an intrinsic quality that draws people to listen to them. One of these tales is Orpheus and Eurydice.
The Myth
Orpheus was a poet, musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was said to be able to charm all living creatures with his music. Of course he was: his father is said to be Apollo himself and his mother muse Calliope.
One fateful day, as Eurydice danced through a sun-dappled glade, a viper, its venom dripping with envy, struck her delicate heel. With a cry of agony, she fell, her life fading like the whisper of a breeze. Orpheus, consumed by grief, vowed to defy the very laws of the underworld to reclaim his beloved.
Armed only with his lyre and a love, Orpheus descended into the shadowy realm of Hades, where the river Styx whispered secrets of sorrow and despair. His music, a lament woven from the threads of his sorrow, charmed even the shades of the dead, who paused in their eternal torment to listen.
Hades, moved by the plaintive melody, granted Orpheus an audience. With trembling hands and a voice laden with longing, Orpheus beseeched the god of the underworld to release Eurydice from the icy grip of death. Touched by Orpheus’s devotion, Hades relented — but with one condition: Orpheus must lead Eurydice out of the underworld without once looking back until they reached the world of the living.
With hope rekindled in his heart, Orpheus embraced Eurydice’s hand, her touch a balm to his shattered soul. Together, they embarked on the journey back to the land of the living. Each step was a battle against doubt, against the gnawing fear that she might vanish like a wisp of smoke if he dared to glance behind.
But as they neared the threshold of the world above, doubt whispered its poisonous song into Orpheus’s mind.
Was she truly there, or merely a specter of his longing?
Unable to resist the tormenting doubt, Orpheus turned, his eyes. In that moment, Eurydice, still bound by the laws of the underworld, vanished into the shadows, her voice a haunting echo of farewell.
Orpheus, bereft and broken, stood alone at the threshold, his tears mingling with the melody of his lyre. The world around him seemed colder, emptier, devoid of the warmth of his beloved. And so, with a heart heavy with regret, Orpheus wandered the earth, his music now a dirge for a love lost to the cruel hand of Fate.
Song Analysis
I’d be the voice that urged Orpheus
When her body was found (Hey, yeah)
I’d be the choiceless hope in grief
That drove him underground (Hey, yeah)
I’d be the dreadful need in the devotee
That made him turn around (Hey, yeah)
And I’d be the immediate forgiveness in Eurydice
Imagine being loved by me
The opening of the song is quite interesting: of course the mythological reference on which the song is bases is immediately mentioned but it si only used as a mean. A mean to seduce the woman with romantic language, vivid imagery and a confession to love. This interpretation of the song, told by Hozier, can also be found by the use of intruments. The music created not only is rhytmic but also sinister. The low sounds make the listener intend, just like in a mystery movie, something is not being said. Could that be the intentions told by the guttural voice not true?
I’d be the choiceless hope in grief
Virgil never explicitely says what urged Orpheus to go undergournd: did he onyl want to see Eurydice one last time or did he want to go beyond the limits of humankind, transgressing the natural order and sinning pof hybris? Was the grief so strong he got blinded by it?
Orpheus is presented as a desperate man, devoted to Eurydice. The sound is that of a romantic poet, struggling with life, a modern Shelley tormented by a love so strong and yet so toxic. In these words, that seems to be so true, so full of love, the music in the background is everything but similar.
It is the music that first reveal the hideous intention of this man, and only in the last line “imagine being loved by me” we perceive this sense of superiority and arrogance.
[Chorus]
I won’t deny I’ve got in my mind now (Hey, yeah)
All the things I would do
So I try to talk refined for fear that you find out (Hey, yeah)
How I’m imaginin’ you
The singer is breaking the 4th wall: he is no longer talking with the woman, he is talking to us, to the listener. Only the listener is able to hear the truth, only if he listens he knows that the singer wants to hide how he is imagining her, and how his ability as a seducer, as a talker comes in handy.
All this is very romantic and sweet, but then the chorus comes around and flips things by saying “I’ll talk refined in fear that you’d find out how I’m imagining you.”
The most interesting part of the song is not the words but the importance the music (and therefore the listener) has in unveiling the truth: it is a redeeming of music, a way to convey how much music, more than words, reveal one’s true self. Before the singer says a word, the seducer reveals its nature, the one who can listen, knows that some darker thought are not being said.
The second verse carries on with the romantic imagery. Through the explanation of suicide [the man drowns himself; “Before he feels alone one final time and marries the sea’‘], he gives a solution; he offers himself and boasts that he would be the end to all problems relating to love. He, and only he, is the way to find love and the last shred of truth. He is the one unveiling the world and all its power.
The sexual underton is however mentioned in “I’d be the sweet feeling of release” but his true intentions are still hidden behinf a flowery, rich, elevated language. “Imagine being loved by me” he says as he stops hiding his real thoughts.
[Chorus]
I won’t deny I’ve got in my mind now (Hey, yeah)
All the things I would do
So I try to talk refined for fear that you find out (Hey, yeah)
How I’m imaginin’ you
The song ends with the chours, the unveiling of the truth. It is also coherent with the theme of the song how Hozier is singing this part. He murmurs it, as if he is speanking to himself, as if he does not know we are listening.
Summarizing: the song is about a horny teenager trying to impress his date by using tricky and poetic language.
The myth in Art
Orpheus and Eurydice — Peter Paul Rubens (1636–38)
Rubens designs a very balanced painting. On the right are Pluto and Proserpina, whose gesture warns Orpheus of the conditions of their agreement. Below them is Cerberus, the dog who guards Hell. On the left, the deathly white body of Eurydice, still showing the serpent´s bite, contrasts with the living body of Orpheus.
He is depicted at the very moment when his feeling of love provokes him to look back at his beloved. This is just before she dissolves into smoke, coherently with the baroque movement who craved images such as this, painted in the clue moment, the climax of the story. Art, in this period, was meant to seduce the viewer, to involve him emotionally.
Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice — Poussin (1648)
The 17th century, in Art and literature, presents a moltitudes of shades. Thos who preferred find perfection in movement and passions, and those who craved a more traditionally beauty.
Poussin, in contrast with Rubens, chooses the latter. The landscape is meticouly painted and the colors are light, almost joyful. However, through his meticulous attention to detail and subtle expression of emotion, Poussin captures the profound sadness and despair inherent in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus’s anguished expression and outstretched arm convey his overwhelming grief and desperation, while Eurydice’s ghostly figure fading into the darkness evokes a sense of haunting beauty and tragic inevitability.
