Natalie Merchant - Sister Tilly

Song Exploder

Natalie Merchant reflects on her song 'Sister Tilly,' a tribute to the activist women of the 1960s and 70s who shaped her life, inspired by

Key takeaways

• Sister Tilly is a composite character representing multiple influential women from Merchant's youth.
• The song was born during pandemic isolation, inspired by the absence of communal mourning after friends' deaths.

Main topics

• Eulogy for a lost generation of women
• Influence of 1960s-70s feminism on personal identity

Notable quotes

I just said, oh, Miss Tilly. She just came out of my mouth, and that doesn't happen very often.

Every day we're losing more of these women.

Conclusion

Sister Tilly becomes a living memorial to a generation whose sacrifice

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh Hirway. Speaker 1 (0:10) When I heard the news about Dolly Parton's death a few weeks ago, and then a few days after that, heard about Gloria Steinem's death, I thought about this song that Natalie Merchant wrote called Sister Tilly. It's about losing a generation of activist women who did so much in their lifetimes. So I wanted to go back and revisit that song and Natalie Merchant's beautiful story about what the song means to her. Also, in the show notes, I'm including links to donate to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which mails free books to children, and to the Women's Media Center, a nonprofit that Gloria Steinem co-founded. Okay, here's the Natalie Merchant episode, which originally came out in June 2023. Speaker 1 (0:53) Natalie Merchant is an award-winning singer and songwriter from upstate New York. She was the lead singer of the band 10,000 Maniacs until she left in 1993. And then, as a solo artist, she's put out nine albums over the last 30 years. Between 10,000 Maniacs and her solo work, she's had multiple multi-platinum records. In April 2023, Natalie put out her first album of new songs in nine years. It's called Keep Your Courage. And for this episode, she talked to me about the song Sister Tilly. It's a eulogy for a fictional character, a woman who represents the generation of women who influenced her, women who were activists in the 1960s and 70s when she was growing up. Speaker 3 (2:05) My Speaker 2 (2:06) name is Natalie Merchant. About three years before I wrote Sister Tilly, I went to a funeral for a beloved librarian in my small town. The memorial was so large that we had to have it in a school auditorium. Her husband came up to me before the memorial because I was running the sound. And he said, when I give you the signal, play this song as loud as you can. And he gave me the signal, and it was Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks. It was her favorite song. And the entire group of people in the room started weeping and laughing, and everyone stood up, and I was one of the people laughing and crying at the same time. Speaker 3 (2:51) Millions of people, swarming like flies down Speaker 2 (2:55) Waterloo Underground. Speaker 2 (3:00) Fast forward three years in the middle of the pandemic lockdown, I had a couple other friends of that same generation pass away and we weren't able to have any memorials. One was Sally Grossman, who was a local legend in upstate New York. So between those two experiences of being at a memorial with a full room of people all celebrating this woman of that generation, and then poor Sally passing away and no one could gather for her. I had them in mind and how I wanted to celebrate the lives of these women and so many others of my mother's generation. I was just sitting at my piano. I wasn't really writing with the aim of making an album. I hadn't done that in almost 10 years. And I came up with the chord progression that made Sister Tilly appear. Speaker