Bluebeard

You think your dating prospects are bad? In "Bluebeard," Cocteau Twins frontwoman Elizabeth Fraser compares hers to a pirate that seduced and butchered multiple wives in his castle's torture basement. Yours looking a bit better, now? Folk tales about the mythical Bluebeard go back at least as far as 1697, when the first known version of the tale was published in France. Since then, multiple variations have been told, but at their core they're always about young women seduced by a wealthy man with a penchant for luring love-sick ladies into his castle for some horror-movie hijinks. Outside of the title, Fraser never mentions such gory details. The death she's contemplating is more of a psychological or spiritual one. She's trying to figure out if her man is bringing healthy or harmful things into her life. Are you the right man for me? Are you safe? Are you my friend? Or are you toxic for me? Will you betray my confidence?

The timing of the song has led to the interpretation that "Bluebeard" is about Elizabeth Fraser's broken relationship with Cocteau Twins co-founder Robin Guthrie. The two started a romance when Fraser joined the band in 1981 (Guthrie and Will Heggie founded Cocteau Twins in 1979). They had a daughter named Lucy Belle in 1989. Things got rocky, partially due to Guthrie's substance-abuse issues. By 1993, Guthrie was in rehab, Fraser was dealing with extreme stage fright (among other things) and was in therapy, and their relationship had dissolved.

The song's timing spun off a camp that holds that the song is about '90s alt-icon Jeff Buckley. This is possibly true. The song's lyrics seem to be about someone new and uncertain in Fraser's life, not someone old and well-known, and the song was recorded around the time when Fraser and Buckley met. They were two of their generation's most mysterious stars as well as two of its most distinct voices, skirting mainstream success while cultivating passionate cult followings. They made a fast connection that was uncommonly (some might say "weirdly") deep, going so far as swapping diaries and reading each other's deepest, secret thoughts. We also know that, as intrigued (and, later, enamored) as Fraser was with Buckley, she initially felt he was something of a stalker and was unnerved by him. Those feelings certainly seem to fit the uncertainty expressed in "Bluebeard." For his part, Buckley was guarded about his relationship with Fraser, as he was about many things. He'd long claimed the two never recorded together, but then "All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun" emerged to disprove him. Regardless, the relationship was clearly intense in Fraser's heart, and it makes sense that "Bluebeard" could be about Buckley. We do have some forensic evidence to weigh in on this. In an October 1993 interview with Max Bell of Vox, Guthrie and Fraser commented on "Bluebeard." There is also the relatively lighter, if still odd, side of these Cocteaus in a song called 'Bluebeard.' According to legend, Mr Blue Beard had several - indeed, many - wives and murdered them all. His new wife Fatima discovered the room where they lay slain, awash with blood, but she got away. Gruesome stuff, especially as this Bluebeard character is Robin. "Are you the right man for me?" sings Liz insistently. Is she trying to tell him something? "If I were writing the lyrics, they wouldn't be so one-sided. Is she the best babe for me? I think she's a bitch as well." "And we all laughed," replies Liz darkly. Here, however, we imagine Fraser's position as she gave that interview. Her 13-year-relationship with Guthrie had fallen apart, with both of them wounded but still performing together on tours. It must have been a profoundly difficult situation emotionally. It seems unlikely that Fraser would own up to having feelings for another man at that time. As hard as it would be to say it was about Guthrie, one imagines it many orders of magnitude to say it was about another man - a musician, nonetheless. Whatever the case, it's always good to remember that, as artists continually remind (reprimand?) fans and analysts, the creative mind doesn't work like the mathematical mind. It rarely transcribes personal experiences directly and literally. Rather, it takes experiences, connects them to things more universal, and spits out something independent of the original experience's limits. So, even if inspired by Guthrie or Buckley, the song isn't necessarily "about" either.