I’m in love with a ghost…

The narrator in The Indigo Girls’ “Ghost” takes out a letter from an ex-girlfriend from when they were together. Predictably, it sets her on a whirlwind of feelings, memories and emotions. She knows this is going to happen, but sometimes you just let your mind wander to your past.

The narrator is clearly still in love with her ex, even though the relationship is long over. This is not just a sorrow due to a relationship being over. She thought that this was ‘the one’ and she still feels this way.  Her ex-lover’s memory casts such a shadow on her current life that it is almost like she is living with a ghost.

This song is a great use of extended metaphor.  The ghost and the river are particularly powerful. Great writing.

“Ghost” a great example of a folk love song. There are finger-picking guitars, vocal harmonies and light percussion. At times it also borders on easy listening. Strangely, it never found a large audience. It is a true diamond-in-the-rough.

The Indigo Girl’s vocals and harmonies are particularly good. The lead vocal is delivered with conviction and we feel the agony in her voice.

Ghost Lyrics

There’s a letter on the desktop that I dug out of a drawer,
The last truce we ever came to
In our adolescent war.

And I start to feel the fever,
From the warm air through the screen,
You come regular like seasons
Shadowing my dreams.

And the Mississippi’s mighty
But it starts in Minnesota,
At a place that you could walk across
With five steps down.

And I guess that’s how you started
Like a pinprick to my heart,
But at this point you rush right through me
And I start to drown.

And there’s not enough room
In this world for my pain,
Signals cross and love gets lost,
And time passed makes it plain.
Of all my demon spirits
I need you the most,
I’m in love with your ghost.
I’m in love with your ghost.

Dark and dangerous like a secret, (don’t tell a soul)
That gets whispered in a hush.
When I wake the things I dreamed about you (don’t tell a soul)
Last night make me blush.

And you kiss me like a lover;
Then you sting me like a viper.
I go follow to the river,
Play your memory like a piper.

And I feel it like a sickness-
How this love is killing me.
I’d walk into the fingers
Of your fire willingly.
And dance the edge of sanity
I’ve never been this close,
In love with your ghost.

Ooh,
Unknowing captor:
You never know how much you
Pierce my spirit,
But I can’t touch you
Can you hear it-
A cry to be free?
Oh I’m forever under lock and key.
As you pass through me…

Now I see your face before me
I would launch a thousand ships,
To bring your heart back to my island,
As the sand beneath me slips.

As I burn up in your presence.
And I know now how it feels,
To be weakened like Achilles,
With you always at my heels.

My bitter pill I swallow
Is the silence that I keep.
It poisons me I can’t swim free
The river is too deep.
Though I’m baptized by your touch-
I am no worse than most.
In love with your ghost. (in love with your ghost)

You are shadowing my dreams!
(In love with your ghost)
(In love with your ghost)

Songwriters: Emily Ann Saliers