It’s an archaic, late-Victorian word some might imagine to be associated with pugilism, but more obviously, and yet poetically means the shimmeringly fragile and hopefully beautiful art of lamp care and decoration. It also contrasts nicely with last week’s shadowy word, murklins. While this adjective, or the noun lampist – someone who tend, or decorates said sources of light – is pretty much unknown in song lyrics, there’s still room to illuminate this with some lamp-related songs that shed some insight on their association and have a low-lit quality to them too.
Lamps have a variety of meanings in song, and perhaps one of the first is a religious one, as in Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, first recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1928, with many other versions coming later, including by Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi Fred McDowell:
Keep your lamp trimmed and a-burning
Oh See what the Lord has done
Also in the blues genre, but much later the Allman Brothers did a well-known version of Statesboro Blues, but more originally also did various blues forbears, but here's perhaps the earliest by Blind Willie McTell, again illuminating the past from 1928. It appears to be about a man looking to be let in the house, looking for warmth, light and perhaps a little bit more during challenging times. There’s also another great and later version that can be found by Taj Mahal.
Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low;
Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low.
You got no nerve baby, to turn Uncle John from your door.
I woke up this morning, I had them Statesboro Blues,
I woke up this morning, had them Statesboro Blues.
Well, I looked over in the corner, and Grandpa seemed to have them too.
The lamp is a source of atmosphere, especially in low light. Let’s get some late-night intimacy with an instrumental version of The Lamp is Low by the great Chet Baker.
The music, written in the 1930s by Peter DeRose and Bert Shefter often also comes with lyrics penned by Mitchell Parish. There are many covers of it, including by Sarah Vaughn, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, and others, but here's lovely low-lit early version by Mildred Bailey, capturing the romantic atmosphere bathed in gentle light:
Dream beside me in the midnight glow, the lamp Is low
Dream and watch the shadows came and go, the lamp Is low
While you linger in my arms, my lips will sigh "I love you so"
Dream the sweetest dream will ever know
Tonight the moon is high, the lamp Is low
Later on, Dusty Springfield sings a song that captures a lusty love state in a shady level of light, Don’t You Know:
Turn your oil lamp down low
I said, turn your lamp down low
Ow, turn it down
Yeah, turn your lamp down low
A-come on, baby
I know I'm in love with you so
On a more upbeat level, the lamp, or indeed lamp-post, is associated with love as famously sung by George Formby leaning and waiting for a certain little lady with what look like dubious motives, which they indeed are, or not, however you perceive them under the spotlight. Here's another nasal-voiced cover by Herman's Hermits:
I'm leaning on the lamp
Maybe you think I look a tramp
Or maybe you think I'm round to steal a car
But no, I'm not a crook
And if you think that's what I look
I'll tell you why and what my motives are
I'm leaning on the lamp post at the corner of the street
In case a certain little lady comes by
Oh me, oh my
I hope the little lady comes by
Steve Miller and his band aim for a bit on the side with the aid of the lamp switch:
Turn your lamp down low
Now honey won't you slip me a kiss
Turn your lamp down low
Babe you know I can't resist
From an eeny-weeny bit
Just a teeny-weeny bit of your love
But finally, let’s end with a more ethereally beautiful lamp song, courtesy of Donovan, and his Lady of the Lamp from the 1996 album Sutras. Does this shine any light on Florence Nightingale figure, tending not so much the lamp, as the bedridden patient and narrator?
In the night
In the dark night
There's a light
That shines on me
And the lady of the lamp she
Lies by me and holds on tight
In my mind
In constant mind
I am restless
Yet sincere
And the lady of the lamp fear
Nothing. She's the mystic kind
In this life
In this dark vale
One is rarely truly loved
And the lady of the lamp loves
Only me I am her grail
In the dawn
In the blue dawn
As the sun begins to rise
The lady of the lamp sighs
Darkness passed and gone
Darkness passed and gone
So then, care to shed any more light on the artistry or indeed musical lampistry of songwriting featuring this theme? Please feel free to share any further examples in songs, instrumentals, on albums, film, art or other contexts in comments below.
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