Not to be confused with the pubic wig worn by prostitutes of old and other diseased ridden individuals (the merkin – although there is a connection) this rare adjective from the 16th and 17th century simply means ‘in the dark’, an umbrella term to accompany much activity done at that time. To go murklins can therefore have a variety of associations – to hide from danger, to lurk unseen and get up to things in secret.
But where does it occur in song? Other than the Melbourne pop band Murklins, the hip-hop outfit MURKlins, the house and tech producer, Murklin’s Dushyant Goel, and a classical-style piece by the group Sleutelbos, titled Murklins, from their album A Refuge For Lost Souls, the actual word is hard to find in lyrics. However, there are of course thousands of songs that refer to activity after sundown and under cover of darkness. And they often come in the context of illicit and secret love. Here then are a few samples:
Let’s start with one of the original and great female country stars, Kitty Wells, and her song After Dark, about an illicit love affair:
After dark you come slipping back to me
From the one who shares your name but scorns your love
While the one who has your name from scandal is free
But the whole world my darling looks down on me
Don't you think I have no pride or shame
Don't you care that we're the gossips of the town
Does our love to you just mean a past time lark
Are you ashamed to be with me till after dark
An even more wary Lou Christie is once bitten, twice shy, in Watch Your Heart After Dark:
Watch your heart after dark
You, you after dark, how I love your Siamese lies
At night you come alive
Though you hold back
When you kiss, is that the way you get your kiss?
And this feeling is tearin' me apart
I get alone from my heart
Norma Jean, meanwhile from the Body And Mind album of 1968, finds a perfectly rhyming locations for a secret liaison In The Park After Dark:
I been meeting you here now a long time secretly
And words could never tell you how much you mean to me
For every time we kissed goodnight I hang my head in shame
And wonder if I'll ever wear your name
But in the park after dark...
You promised me so long ago that you would soon be free
And still I just keep hanging on and waiting foolishly
Though I may never call you mine you'll be mine while we cheat
The next day you don't know me when we meet
But in the park after dark...
Than in the park after dark six to nine
There are many goings on in the park after dark in the world of song. It’s a handy rhyme after all. One of the funkiest, and best is Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds, with Rock Creek Park:
The Rolling Stones 1983 hit Undercover Of The Night, from the Undercover album, captures more sinister goings on with, for the time, a notoriously violent video:
But one of the great post-dusk songs is by David Bowie’s great friend and guitarist Mick Ronson, Only After Dark, from his 1974 debut solo album Slaughter on 10th Avenue:
The Human League famously did an electronic pop cover of Ronson’s song on their 1980 Travelouge album:
And finally, keeping the Sheffield connection, here’s International Teachers of Pop, with their recent pop classic, After Dark:
So then, care to rival in the dark cupboards of your music collection for more murklins-related music? 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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