This melancholy tale of an aging woman looking back on her life and loves came from an encounter vocalist Wesley Schultz had with a taxi driver in the Republic of Georgia. She related to him a tale of personal tragedy without a trace of self-pity. "As an American, a lot of what we do is tell the world how great our life is," said Schultz. "People create stories about themselves through social media which are completely disconnected from what we personally know about their lives. I felt cleansed to be around someone who was just telling me how it actually was for them."
Schultz combines the taxi driver's story with that of Cleopatra, the 'last Queen in Egypt'. After the death of her father, Ptolomeo XII Auletes, in 51 BC, Cleopatra was forced to marry her younger brother, Ptolemy XIV, according to the tradition of the Pharaohs. In the opening verse Schultz imagines how Cleopatra felt about having to wed her close family member.
The song is the title track of The Lumineers second album. The black and white photo on the record's cover depicts silent movie star Theda Bara in the 1917 production of Cleopatra. "It's such an arresting image, vulnerable but strong. I think a good song is like a beautiful woman and no matter whether she's wearing something crazy front of fashion or old sweat pants, you can still tell she is beautiful," said Schultz. "We want to focus on the core, not the illusion."
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.