lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: prince of darkness

1989-09-17: indigo girls: personal yet pop, the orlando sentinel:

take saliers' "prince of darkness," a confessional song about family and redemption. like many of the duo's songs, it has religious overtones. saliers said that both she and ray grew up in the methodist church, and saliers' father was a professor of theology at emory.

the song "is about a combination of things," saliers said. "the influence my mom and dad had on my life is a very positive thing. i think the world of them and their values, but i went through a period of rebelling against those values; it was partly social pressure. the song is about coming back to those values and believing in them myself - not just because my parents gave them to me - about not giving in to seductive or darker forces. it's the end of the innocence but coming back to my own identity."

1991-01: the power of two, acoustic guitar:

when arranging vocals, the writer of the song typically sings lead, because it's written in her vocal range, explains saliers. then, sharing the same sensibilities on how to build a song dynamically, they look for where to use a call-and-answer line, a straight harmony, or which lines should be emphasized and sung together.

although they know some theory from years and years of church choir and high school chorus and occasionally work out parts that way, says saliers, most of the work is done by ear. saliers and ray credit their years of chorus - and the roches - for some of their vocal arrangements, such as lyrically contrasting lines. "prince of darkness on indigo girls and "pushing the needle too far" on their new record contain examples. not only does this technique expand the sound, but as ray points out, it's a sly way to stick in extra lyrics. "when you've got an extra verse and you really want to keep it, but you know it makes the song sort of drawn out, you just stick it under one of the choruses," she explains.

2006-12-07: emily saliers of indigo girls, song facts:

songfacts: one other song i'd like to ask you about is "prince of darkness." it seems a little out of place with some of your stuff. would you be able to tell me about that?

emily: yeah, that was written a long, long time ago. sometimes when i think about that song, it feels pretty adolescent to me. some of the images are overwrought. but it's sort of a testament to my parents, and to their love. which i know is kind of a rare thing in this world, because i know that a lot of people really struggle with their parents. but it was always my own constant battle with my inner darkness, and the prince of darkness, obviously, the diabolical force. so it's about light and darkness. and how darkness, you can feel sometimes like it almost is going to pull you under. but there are people in your life who can save you. and not just my parents, but friends or support systems. and it's like, in the end, it's an affirmative statement. i'm not going to be a pawn for the prince of darkness. you know, i have the strength to find my light rather than to dwell in my darkness.