Santa Maria
From The Frames
Glen explained the origin of “Santa Maria”, from The Frames’ “For the birds” album, in a 2005 interview:
"I was trying to write a song about Egon Schiele, and about him and his girlfriend, while they were both dying from Spanish flu. I wanted to think about what that must have felt like, ‘cause they were both young, and both passionate. There would have been a lot of madness. Also, knowing that he was a great painter, and wondering was he aware of his own legend at that point? Whether his art would live on? I was just trying to get into his head, ‘cause I'd just finished a book about him. Then the Santa Maria chorus fell out of my mouth, and I knew it worked. We wrote it in Ventry Harbour in Dingle, and weeks later I found out that there had been a Spanish ship called the Santa Maria that got trapped in the bay and couldn't dock, so maybe a hundred Kerry people in the early 1900s would have seen a Spanish ship rocked back and forth by the waves for two days, killing everybody on board. The house we were recording the album in sat at the mouth of the bay."
