Downhome Aphrodite
What do people think it's about?
"You find goddesses in the strangest places nowadays." -- Mars.
"Love is divine, and a hell of a lot more complicated than just one god can handle sometimes." -- Chris.
"Mythology geeks can be romantics too. Alternately: 'The Greek Mythos is sexier than the Cthulhu Mythos. Look, see? Proof!'" -- Shawn.
When presented with this question, what does Seanan say it's about?
"Every man in love is looking at a goddess; every woman in love is looking at a god. And everyone's looking for their own way into Olympus, however strange those ways may seem. That's the thing. We all get to define our own versions of heaven."
What is it actually about?
'Downhome Aphrodite' is a love song, basically; it's a song about being in love, about wanting to be in love, about hoping the person you're in love with will love you back. All you need is love. It's also a song about Greek mythology, written partially because I just love being clever with my obscure gods.
This song was originally written for someone I had a major crush on. They know who they are.
Genesis of the song.
To be quite sadly honest, I don't really remember all that much about how this song was written. If you check the date at the bottom of the page, you'll see that 'Downhome Aphrodite' was originally penned in August of 2000 -- over seven years ago. This makes it the oldest song on the album that was actually written by me ('Still Catch the Tide' takes the award for actually oldest song, having been written in 1991), and, in fact, the second-oldest of my songs ever to be recorded. (The oldest of my own songs I've recorded as of Stars Fall Home is 'Modern Mystic', which appears on Pretty Little Dead Girl, and was originally written in 1998.)
I wrote 'Downhome Aphrodite' while I was working for SBC Internet in San Francisco, California. Much like my current job, my job at SBC had me walking up a large hill to get to work, and down it again to go home at the end of the day, and -- much as I do now -- I had a tendency to sing while I walked, and to turn those snatches of random melody into songs. I had a fairly major crush on a co-worker in the later part of 2000, and 'Downhome Aphrodite' was my fumbling little mythology-geek way of saying 'hey, I like you, and if you liked me back, maybe we could have a thing'.
I do remember being quite excessively pleased with some of the lyric twists and turns I managed in course of writing the song, most especially the line about Diana on her knees. This proves that mythology is eternal. It also proves that I'm an enormous nerd.
That's all.
Story of the Song.
'Downhome Aphrodite' isn't all that deep, story-wise; it's a song about liking someone, wanting them to like you back, and trying to make them see that you could be the perfect compliment to all the wonders they possess. Nothing deeper or more complex than that.
...wow. I wrote something simple. And all it took was a bunch of gods nobody's ever heard of before.
Arranging the Song.
'Downhome Aphrodite' was the second song on Stars Fall Home tagged to go to England to have keyboards recorded by the fabulous Mich Sampson. Why? Well, because much like 'Take Advantage of Me', it's a torch song, and there's something about a good torch song that just begs for a good piano line to go along with it. What made this interesting was that, originally, we weren't planning to put any guitar on the song at all; it was just going to be keys and voice (more on this later). But how were we supposed to make sure that the guide vocal I provided to her was reliable?
Simple: we'd just do it over and over again, and let the irregularities of the song come out as they would. We sent a scratch to Mich in the UK, and she responded by sending back something that was sweet and sad and full of loss and longing, and was really pretty much exactly what I hadn't known I'd wanted all along. The funny thing is that, well, it really sounded like it was the base track for a Tori Amos song. You could stick the piano line, alone, in the middle of a medley of her hits, and no one would know the difference. Keen.
We tossed me in front of a microphone, and, after a few false starts, hit on a low, sultry, close-in feel for the song, something that sounded like muttering retreats and smoke-filled bars with oyster shells on the floor. Oh, do not ask what is it. At this point in the arrangement of the song, we were actually intending to get the fabulous Sabre into the studio to do a backing vocal line. Timing didn't work out, unfortunately, and I wound up coming to Kristoph with the song naked in my hands, saying 'We don't have time for backing vocals -- what does it need to have added to make that okay?'. It's a good thing I trust my recording engineer, really.
Kristoph thought about the song for, oh, a good fifteen minutes, and then proceeded to design the most utterly lovely electric guitar line I could have imagined. This is the oldest song on the album, and the arrangement it finally settled into was one of the sweetest surprises I could have asked for. Sure, it's simple compared to some of the others, but sometimes, simple is the best choice of them all.
Seven years, and I'm still thrilled.
Mythology of the Song.
People who aren't up on their Greek mythology -- and even people who are -- sometimes get confused about the sheer number of gods, goddesses, and demi-deities mentioned in the lyrics of 'Downhome Aphrodite'. The following is an attempt to make things seem a little more, well, sensible, although I'll be frank: the Greek gods were never all that interested in making sense.
She was a downhome Aphrodite and her eyes were like the sea... Aphrodite was the classical Greek goddess of love, lust, and beauty. She also governed sexual rapture, and really liked to have a good time. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus, who was re-immortalized in the Bananarama song of the same name. Myrtle, doves, sparrows, and swans are sacred to her. Oh, and she rose fully-formed from the sea, having grown from the testicles of Uranus. Those Greeks sure knew how to bring the wacky.
I said "let me be your Vulcan", she said "honey what's your angle?" Okay, I cheated here -- I was actually referring to Hephaestus, the Greek god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals and metallurgy, and fire. Only 'Hephaestus' really doesn't scan very well. Despite being lame and fairly unattractive, Hephaestus managed to marry Aphrodite, and they were generally very happy together. Which just goes to show you that happy endings are for everyone, if they're lucky.
Call her Venus on the mountain -- and there's that Bananarama song again. Behold my eighties-era nerdiness in full display!
Amphitrite by the sea... Ah, Amphitrite. Originally a sea-goddess in her own right, once the Olympian pantheon really came into power, she was reduced to being merely the consort of Poseidon. Poets tended to use her as a symbolic representation of the sea, thus reducing her power still further. Probably my favorite sea-goddess.
She's Hera in the wedding bed... Hera, wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage and the hearth, jealous as all get-out when given the opportunity. And Zeus, being Zeus, gave her lots of opportunities. Really, Hera was responsible for a lot of young maidens finishing out their days as linden trees.
Diana on her knees... Cheating again. I lapsed into Roman myth whenever it was necessary for the sake of my scansion; think also 'Artemis'. Now, here's the fun part. This line makes a lot of people wince, since Diana was the virgin goddess of the hunt. Only the thing is, if you look back at the original Greek? She's never called a virgin, past a certain point; she's just allowed to remain free and unmarried, by godly decree. There are, in fact, implications of lovers. So she's not necessarily the prude a lot of modern myth wants her to be. She just didn't want to do anybody else's laundry.
Persephone in darkness... I love Persephone. She's my favorite goddess-turned-Snow White archetype, and I have a lot of fun with her, and with her children (who are often removed from modern myth, much like Diana's love life). Married to Hades against her will, Persephone really came to embrace her role as goddess of the dead, and truly seemed to love her husband. She's one of the few Greek gods never known to stray. I respect her for that.
Demeter in the light... Persephone's mother, Zeus's sister, goddess of the harvest and all growing things, and massive co-dependant whose lack of coping skills created the winter. She's a nice enough lady, even if she could probably benefit from therapy. Then again, most of the Greek and Roman gods could use a little therapy.
Athena in the woods... Athena! Goddess of wisdom and the companion of heroes. Also the goddess of heroic endeavor, which means she's the one who saves your bacon if you really, really get into a hydra or other monster-related scrape. Her companion beast was an owl, which was really my only excuse for sticking her in the woods. This should probably have been 'Artemis', or maybe Kore. Oh, well. Too late now.
She's Circe when you're bad... Circe isn't actually a goddess, for all that she crops up in Greek mythology quite a lot; she was a sorceress who had a tendency to turn men into pigs when they annoyed her. And she was more than a little easy to annoy.
And she'll be Iris if you're good... Iris is the personification of the the sun and messenger of the gods, working most specifically for Zeus and Hera. She's also seen as the goddess of the rainbow, which is a bit of an upgrade for her. Generally a sweet lady, as Greek gods go.
Cassandra for your future... Poor Cassandra made the big, big mistake of catching Apollo's eye, and then refusing to love him. He gave her the 'gift' of prophecy, and cursed her so that no one would ever believe the things she saw. It kinda sucked to be Cassandra.
Clio for your past... Clio, Muse of History. This one explains itself, I think.
Factual Bits and Bobs.
Written on: August 11th, 2000.
Structure: Verse/Chorus/Verse/Bridge/Verse/Chorus/Bridge.
Arrangement: Vocals, keyboard, electric guitar.
Tempo: Torch song.
Length: 3:27.