Lyrics

Listen as the wind blows from across the great divide
Voices trapped in yearning, memories trapped in time
The night is my companion, and solitude my guide
Would I spend forever here and not be satisfied?

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I’ll take your breath away
And after, I’d wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes dear

Through this world I’ve stumbled
So many times betrayed
Trying to find an honest word to find
The truth enslaved
Oh you speak to me in riddles
And you speak to me in rhymes
My body aches to breathe your breath
Your words keep me alive

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I’ll take your breath away
And after, I’d wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes dear

Into this night I wander
It’s morning that I dread
Another day of knowing of
The path I fear to tread
Oh into the sea of waking dreams
I follow without pride
‘Cause nothing stands between us here
And I won’t be denied

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I’ll take your breath away
And after, I’d wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes…

 

Appears on

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993)
Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff (1996)
Mirrorball (1999)
Mirrorball: The Complete Concert (2006)
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy: Legacy Edition (2008)
Closer: The Best Of Sarah McLachlan (2008)
The Essential Sarah McLachlan (2013)

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Live DVD (1994)
Video Collection 1989-1994 (1995)
Mirrorball DVD (1999)
Video Collection 1989-1998 (2000)
VH1 Storytellers (2004)
Afterglow Live DVD (2004)

Possession (single)
I Will Remember You (single)
Building A Mystery (single)
Murmurs 1
Murmurs 7

 

Versions

Album Version
from “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy”
Track length: 4:41

Piano Solo
from “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” (hidden track)
Track length: 3:57

Live: Acoustic
from “Murmurs 1”
Track length: 4:36

Live: London, 19 Heathmans rd.
from “Murmurs 7″
Track length: ???

Live: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Live
from “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Live DVD”
Track length: 5:00

Live: Mirrorball
from “Mirrorball”
Track length: 5:14

Live: Mirrorball The Complete Concert
from “Mirrorball: The Complete Concert”
Track length: 5:13

Live: Afterglow Live
from “Afterglow Live DVD”
Track length: ca 6:30

Single Version
used for the Canadian music video
Track length: 4:38

John Fryer Mix/Version II
from “Possession” (CAN Single)
Track length: 5:01

Extended Remix
from “Rarities, B-Sides & Other Stuff”
Track length: 5:51

Dance Mix
from “Possession” (12″ Promo)
Track length: ???

Fear Of Possession Dub Mix
from “Possession” (12″ Promo)
Track length: 7:32

Fear Of Possession Dub Mix / Possessed By Fear
Combo of the two songs, from Rabbit In The Moon Remixes (12″ Promo) / “Possession” (12″ Promo)
Track length: ???

Rabbit In The Moon Mix
from “Rabbit In The Moon Remixes” (12″ Promo)
Track length: 7:20

 

Compilations

Credits

Guitar, Vocals: Sarah McLachlan
Drums: Ashwin Sood, Lou Shefano
Drum Machine, Keyboards: Pierre Marchand
Guitars: Bill Dillon
Bass: Brian Minato
Hammond B-3: David Kershaw

 

Collaborations

–

 

Trivia/Notes

– “Posssession” was used in the Due South episode “Victoria’s Secret” and appears on Due South: The Original Television Soundtrack.
– In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #910, The Final Sacrifice, an altered version of “Possession” (“And I will be the one / To hold Larry Csonka down / Kiss him so hard / I’ll take Larry Csonka’s breath away”) was sung by Tom Servo as part of a running gag alluding to Troy’s obsession with Larry Csonka.

 

Sarah says

“I think Possession was a very important song for me, for a lot of reasons. It really sort of…it was one of the first songs that got me quite a bit of radio play, within America, and it was also a rather controversal song because the reason I wrote it was because I was being stalked. And instead of running and hiding I chose to face it, head on, and to try and put myself into the shoes of the stalker, why were they doing this to me? And it was a really good lesson. We’ve all been obsessed to greater or lesser degrees about someone or something and by putting myself into those shoes I could find a place for it and put it away and not let it, you know, take over my life. And it was interesting, when I chose to talke about it. My brother said ‘you shouldn’t take about it, because it’ll just give him more power’. But I think it was really important to, because every person I talked to, wether it’s a female journalist or a Radio DJ, and it’s particularly women…It was never talked about yet. It was something that we all constantly delt with, anybody in the public eye[…]”
– iTunes Originals

McLachlan has tried to fight sexism with the tools available to her, like her videos. The promo clip for “Possession” (recently nominated for three MTV video awards) is replete with witches, Salomes and other female archetypes.
“It’s a reaction to the totally sexist videos most men produce and it was also a reaction to the song itself,” she says. “Without being too literal, I was trying to find a different angle, like different archetypes through historical references of famous paintings. It’s the way people look at a picture and develop a whole belief on who you are and what you are and it’s so false. In this I’m saying ‘Hey! We’re much more than that two dimensional picture.’ All women possess all the archetypes, we’re not just one or the other.”
– Words & Music, October 1994 (on the Possession video)

“Some of the letters were really over the top, in terms of what they expected and demanded from me,” Sarah McLachlan says cautiously. “The song is written from the point of someone who’s so obsessed with another person that they might become violent in order to obtain that person.”
– Detroit News, 13 June 1996

 

Music Video