I Will Follow You into the Dark
Encyclopedia
"I Will Follow You into the Dark" is a song by Death Cab for Cutie
and the third single from their fifth album Plans
. It is a solo
, acoustic
ballad written and performed by frontman Ben Gibbard
and was recorded in monaural
with a single microphone and little editing. The song details the singer's promise to a loved one to remain by his or her side even after death. Two music video
s—one appearing on Directions: The Plans Video Album
—have been made to the song.
, nearing age 29, wrote "I Will Follow You into the Dark", he had never lost anyone really special in his life. Growing older during an ideal and comfortable time of his life led him to begin obsessing over death, the afterlife, and the weight of his relationships. He started to take stock of the importance of the people in his life and felt a need to say something about it. He wrote the song to deal with his problems of focusing on life by expanding his scope to include death and what comes afterward.
. Producer and guitarist Chris Walla
told Gibbard to take a break while the issues were being addressed. Gibbard picked up his Stella
guitar and began playing "I Will Follow You into the Dark", originally planned to be recorded later in the sessions. Gibbard's playing was still going through the vocal microphone while playing, and Walla was impressed by the sound, leading him to suggest they do a quick tracking of the performance. It was this mono recording that appears on the album Plans, with the only editing being mild compression and de-essing
. Due to the impromptu
nature of the recording, the vocals are much louder than the guitar, and you can also hear Gibbard breathing in the beginning of the song.
playing the song while sitting on his bed when he notices a hole in the wooden floor. Gibbard goes about daily activities while avoiding the constantly expanding hole. He eventually rolls out of bed into it, hanging on by his fingertips before finally letting go, only to land on solid ground within the void about as deep as his height. There, he gets electrocuted. The song ends with Gibbard walking into the darkness. The camera then pans to show the entire room again with the floor restored to its original, intact state. This music video was filmed in Romania
and was directed by Jamie Thraves
.
An alternative video directed by Monkmus appears on the band's DVD Directions: The Plans Video Album
. In this video, a picture-book takes up the center of the video frame, and the pages turn as the song progresses. Within the book, two rabbits meet and fall in love. Time passes until one of the rabbits apparently dies. There are other references to death throughout the video, such as a rotten bowl of fruit and an elderly man who appears to die, leaving his grandson behind. The video ends with a picture of the two rabbits together, presumably in eternal happiness together.
-exclusive, colored vinyl
7" releases with B-side
s recorded as part of the band's Rolling Stone
originals session. The part-one release is printed on teal vinyl with "Photobooth" from The Forbidden Love EP as the B-side, and the part-two release is printed on clear orange vinyl with a B-side of "Brothers on a Hotel Bed". The CD single was also only released in the UK and contains the same "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" B-side.
selected the song as his "choice cut", Pitchfork Media
called it the album's "quiet centerpiece" and praised its "unexpected turns of phrase", PopMatters
called it "one of the best written pop songs of the year – if not of the past five years", and Tiny Mix Tapes
stated that it was "one of the band’s best songs to date." Rolling Stone
however, said that the song "demonstrates how wise Gibbard is to let the band mess with his pristine melodies, which would sound wispy and ignorable on their own."
The song was nominated for the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
, but lost to "My Humps
" by The Black Eyed Peas
. By being nominated this category, instead of for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
, it thus credits the entire band for Gibbard's solo performance.
episode "My Last Words
," while J.D. and Turk are spending time with a terminal patient named George Valentine.
It was also the title of an episode of Grey's Anatomy
in the fifth season, originally airing on March 12, 2009. It was also featured on the soundtrack of the 2007 remake of the film, The Invisible
, and again in the 2008 television series 90210
in the episode "That Which We Destroy". It was also used in the 2011 Nikita
episode "Into the Dark", of which it was also the namesake. It was also used in the 2011 film "Friends With Benefits".
of The Dresden Dolls
recorded a cover of the song during the recording sessions for Who Killed Amanda Palmer
. It appears on the limited edition 'Alternate Tracks' release as well as a Brainwashed Records compilation entitled 'Peace (for mom)'
Canadian singer Amy Millan
recorded a cover of the song. An audio sample can be heard on her official MySpace
page.
Bluegrass band Cadillac Sky recorded a cover of the song. It is included on the band’s self-produced EP/CD, Weary Angel.
Andrew Belle recorded a cover of the song on his Sundays At Rockit album.
Everclear
covered this song on their Return to Santa Monica album.
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....
and the third single from their fifth album Plans
Plans (album)
Plans has received positive reviews. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album has a score of 66 out of 100, indicating "Generally favorable reviews."-Track listing:-Personnel:*Ben Gibbard – vocals, guitars...
. It is a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
, acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
ballad written and performed by frontman Ben Gibbard
Ben Gibbard
Benjamin "Ben" Gibbard is an American musician known as a member of several successful indie rock bands. He is the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, and is also known for his project ¡All-Time Quarterback! and his first band, Pinwheel.-Personal life and career:Gibbard was...
and was recorded in monaural
Monaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
with a single microphone and little editing. The song details the singer's promise to a loved one to remain by his or her side even after death. Two music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s—one appearing on Directions: The Plans Video Album
Directions: The Plans Video Album
Directions: The Plans Video Album is a Grammy-nominated video album from Death Cab for Cutie, corresponding to their major-label debut album Plans. It was released on April 11, 2006 on Atlantic Records/WEA Records...
—have been made to the song.
Concept and creation
When Ben GibbardBen Gibbard
Benjamin "Ben" Gibbard is an American musician known as a member of several successful indie rock bands. He is the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, and is also known for his project ¡All-Time Quarterback! and his first band, Pinwheel.-Personal life and career:Gibbard was...
, nearing age 29, wrote "I Will Follow You into the Dark", he had never lost anyone really special in his life. Growing older during an ideal and comfortable time of his life led him to begin obsessing over death, the afterlife, and the weight of his relationships. He started to take stock of the importance of the people in his life and felt a need to say something about it. He wrote the song to deal with his problems of focusing on life by expanding his scope to include death and what comes afterward.
Recording
While tracking the vocals for a different song, technical issues arose with one of the headphonesHeadphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user's ears and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable Media Player. They are also known as stereophones, headsets or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear...
. Producer and guitarist Chris Walla
Chris Walla
Christopher Walla is an American musician and music producer, most notable for being the guitarist for the band Death Cab for Cutie. He is also a former DJ of KCWU, 88.1 The Burg...
told Gibbard to take a break while the issues were being addressed. Gibbard picked up his Stella
Stella (guitar)
Stella was a brand of guitars. The Stella brand was owned by the Oscar Schmidt Company and was founded around 1899. Stella produced low-mid level stringed instruments. Stella guitars were played by several notable artists including Leadbelly and Charlie Patton. Doc Watson began playing on a Stella...
guitar and began playing "I Will Follow You into the Dark", originally planned to be recorded later in the sessions. Gibbard's playing was still going through the vocal microphone while playing, and Walla was impressed by the sound, leading him to suggest they do a quick tracking of the performance. It was this mono recording that appears on the album Plans, with the only editing being mild compression and de-essing
De-essing
De-essing is any technique intended to reduce or eliminate excess sibilant consonants such as "s", "z" and "sh" in recordings of the human voice. Excess sibilance can be caused by compression, microphone choice and technique, and even simply a singer's mouth...
. Due to the impromptu
Impromptu
An impromptu is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ex tempore improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano...
nature of the recording, the vocals are much louder than the guitar, and you can also hear Gibbard breathing in the beginning of the song.
Music videos
The main music video features Ben GibbardBen Gibbard
Benjamin "Ben" Gibbard is an American musician known as a member of several successful indie rock bands. He is the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, and is also known for his project ¡All-Time Quarterback! and his first band, Pinwheel.-Personal life and career:Gibbard was...
playing the song while sitting on his bed when he notices a hole in the wooden floor. Gibbard goes about daily activities while avoiding the constantly expanding hole. He eventually rolls out of bed into it, hanging on by his fingertips before finally letting go, only to land on solid ground within the void about as deep as his height. There, he gets electrocuted. The song ends with Gibbard walking into the darkness. The camera then pans to show the entire room again with the floor restored to its original, intact state. This music video was filmed in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and was directed by Jamie Thraves
Jamie Thraves
Jamie Thraves is a British film writer and director.Jamie Thraves began making early short experimental films in 1989 at Hull University, having previously studied illustration . His graduation film Scratch and The Take-Out both went on to win numerous awards at short film festivals worldwide...
.
An alternative video directed by Monkmus appears on the band's DVD Directions: The Plans Video Album
Directions: The Plans Video Album
Directions: The Plans Video Album is a Grammy-nominated video album from Death Cab for Cutie, corresponding to their major-label debut album Plans. It was released on April 11, 2006 on Atlantic Records/WEA Records...
. In this video, a picture-book takes up the center of the video frame, and the pages turn as the song progresses. Within the book, two rabbits meet and fall in love. Time passes until one of the rabbits apparently dies. There are other references to death throughout the video, such as a rotten bowl of fruit and an elderly man who appears to die, leaving his grandson behind. The video ends with a picture of the two rabbits together, presumably in eternal happiness together.
Release
"I Will Follow You into the Dark" has two separate United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-exclusive, colored vinyl
Unusual types of gramophone records
The overwhelming majority of records manufactured have been of certain sizes , playback speeds , and appearance...
7" releases with B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
s recorded as part of the band's Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
originals session. The part-one release is printed on teal vinyl with "Photobooth" from The Forbidden Love EP as the B-side, and the part-two release is printed on clear orange vinyl with a B-side of "Brothers on a Hotel Bed". The CD single was also only released in the UK and contains the same "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" B-side.
Critical reaction
Critical response to "I Will Follow You into the Dark" was generally positive. In their reviews for the album Plans, Robert ChristgauRobert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
selected the song as his "choice cut", Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
called it the album's "quiet centerpiece" and praised its "unexpected turns of phrase", PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
called it "one of the best written pop songs of the year – if not of the past five years", and Tiny Mix Tapes
Tiny Mix Tapes
Tiny Mix Tapes is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, as well as its mix tapes generator.-History:Originally called Tiny Mixtapes Gone to Heaven and...
stated that it was "one of the band’s best songs to date." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
however, said that the song "demonstrates how wise Gibbard is to let the band mess with his pristine melodies, which would sound wispy and ignorable on their own."
The song was nominated for the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
, but lost to "My Humps
My Humps
"My Humps" is the third single by The Black Eyed Peas from their fourth album, Monkey Business. It samples a section of the song "I Need a Freak" by Sexual Harassment, as well as the 1989 song "Wild Thing" by Tone Lōc and "It's Automatic" by Freestyle. Released in 2005, it reached number three in...
" by The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
. By being nominated this category, instead of for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
, it thus credits the entire band for Gibbard's solo performance.
Media
This song was also used in the ScrubsScrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
episode "My Last Words
My Last Words
"My Last Words" is the 152nd episode of the television series Scrubs, and the second of its eighth season. The episode first aired on January 6, 2009 on ABC, following the show's departure from NBC. It immediately followed "My Jerks", the first episode of the 8th season. The episode was written by...
," while J.D. and Turk are spending time with a terminal patient named George Valentine.
It was also the title of an episode of Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
in the fifth season, originally airing on March 12, 2009. It was also featured on the soundtrack of the 2007 remake of the film, The Invisible
The Invisible (film)
The Invisible is a 2007 American supernatural thriller teen film starring Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Chris Marquette, Marcia Gay Harden, and Callum Keith Rennie...
, and again in the 2008 television series 90210
90210 (TV series)
90210 is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, and the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. 90210 is the first series produced by CBS Productions under the company's re-launch, but is now produced by CBS...
in the episode "That Which We Destroy". It was also used in the 2011 Nikita
Nikita (TV series)
La Femme Nikita is a Canadian action/drama television series based on the French film Nikita by Luc Besson. The series was co-produced by Jay Firestone of Fireworks Entertainment and Warner Brothers. It was adapted for television by Joel Surnow...
episode "Into the Dark", of which it was also the namesake. It was also used in the 2011 film "Friends With Benefits".
Chart positions
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
66 |
| U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot Modern Rock Tracks |
28 |
Cover versions
Amanda PalmerAmanda Palmer
Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer , sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls...
of The Dresden Dolls
The Dresden Dolls
The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione...
recorded a cover of the song during the recording sessions for Who Killed Amanda Palmer
Who Killed Amanda Palmer
Who Killed Amanda Palmer is the first solo album by American musical artist Amanda Palmer.The album was largely recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, with collaborator Ben Folds and was released on Roadrunner Records...
. It appears on the limited edition 'Alternate Tracks' release as well as a Brainwashed Records compilation entitled 'Peace (for mom)'
Canadian singer Amy Millan
Amy Millan
Amy Millan is a Canadian indie rock singer and guitarist. She records and performs with the bands Stars and Broken Social Scene as well as having a successful solo career. Her second solo album, Masters of the Burial, was released by Arts & Crafts Records in September 2009.- Early life :Amy Millan...
recorded a cover of the song. An audio sample can be heard on her official MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page.
Bluegrass band Cadillac Sky recorded a cover of the song. It is included on the band’s self-produced EP/CD, Weary Angel.
Andrew Belle recorded a cover of the song on his Sundays At Rockit album.
Everclear
Everclear (band)
Everclear is a rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1992 best known for their radio hits spanning more than a decade. For most of its existence, Everclear has consisted of Art Alexakis , Craig Montoya , and Greg Eklund . Eklund replaced original drummer Scott Cuthbert in 1994...
covered this song on their Return to Santa Monica album.
External links
- Official music video
- Lyrics to songs from Plans