Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
“If We Were Vampires” is the Grammy Award winning third single from the album Nashville Sound, and what NPR music critic Ann Powers dubbed a “marriage song.”
The song is about the wish to be able to be together forever, contrasted against the reality that one day one of them will die and the other...
[Verse 1]
It's not the long, flowing dress that you're in
Or the light coming off of your skin
The fragile heart you protected for so long
Or the mercy in your sense of right and wrong
It's not your hands searching slow in the dark
Or your nails leaving love's watermark
It's not the way you talk me off the roof
Your questions like directions to the truth
[Chorus]
It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone
[Verse 2]
If we were vampires and death was a joke
We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke
Laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn't me who's left behind
[Chorus]
It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone
It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone
If We Were Vampires was written by Jason Isbell.
If We Were Vampires was produced by Dave Cobb.
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit released If We Were Vampires on Thu May 18 2017.
Dave Cobb told Tennessean in an interview:
I was like, ‘Dude, please tell me you haven’t been watching Twilight.‘ Then I heard it and I was like, 'Who even thinks like that?’ He’s taken something that seems like it’s going one way and just flipped it completely.
When NPR released the single on May 18, Isbell tweeted, “Quite proud of this one. I think it’s likely as good as any song I’ve written.”
He talked about the process of writing this song in an interview with Paste Magazine:
I started to examine my own notions about mortality, when I realized that t...