Song To The Siren

"Long afloat in shipless oceans":

So begins ‘Song To The Siren’ whose lyrics were inspired by Homer's Odyssey and the story of the Sirens who lured unwitting sailors to their deaths on the rocks.

There is something so ancient and enchanting about the Siren that appeals to us.

For wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson listening to the song reinforced his belief that the eerie calls of seals at night, were in fact the original siren voices whose sound and shape convinced sailors that they were being called by strange mer-creatures.

His collaboration with poet Alec Finlay led to Chris recording two singers singing to each other across a bay in the North East of England "Here I am waiting to enfold you". Song To The Siren fills him with melancholy.

The image of lives lost at sea is one that Meg Bignell strongly associates with the song.

When a family friend drowned in the ocean surrounding her native Tasmania she was comforted by the version by This Mortal Coil and Elizabeth Fraser's haunting vocals.

Larry Beckett regrets the song's association with death as he intended the lyrics to tell a more hopeful story about love.

However Tim Buckley's death at 28 and the tragedy of his son Jeff's drowning in 1997 weigh Song To The Siren with a heavy sorrow that comforts those who have lost a loved one.

Former Olympic runner Anthony Famiglietti lost his childhood friend Rob in an accident when they were both 21.

Rob introduced Anthony to the music of John Frusciante whose version of Song To The Siren astounded him when he first heard it. It has a profound effect on him and it speaks to him of fathers and sons communicating across time and space, when one has passed on as in the case of Tim and Jeff Buckley, and Anthony's friend Rob and his father, the man who inspired Anthony's career as a runner.

When Director Zack Snyder lost his daughter he stopped working on his Justice League film but when he completed it four years on he wanted to include Song To The Siren.

Singer Rose Betts who recorded it for him explains how she immersed herself in the song to express the love, longing, grief and loss that it evokes.

Musician and singer Dominic Stichbury sets out the musical elements that make this such a simple yet devastatingly powerful song.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2021.