Josh Ritter Plays 'The Curse' Live on Soundcheck

Josh Ritter's recently released sixth album, So Runs the World Away, was created after many transitions for the singer-songwriter. The Idaho-born 33-year-old got married to fellow singer Dawn Landes and moved to New York. Musically, he hit a writer's block unlike any he'd experienced before. He worked through it, and came up with an album inspired by science and history, nature and religion. Ritter joins us to perform a live acoustic set in the studio.

[Sophiaf-tbgm]

i CANT EVEN COMPREHEND HOW WONDERFUL THIS SONG IS.

[nobuckshot]

This song is about whatever the listener percieves it to be about. That is the beauty of real music.It can mean whatever you want it to mean!

[goneatlast]

Beautiful song beautifully constructed beautifully sung.
Josh Ritter shares his talents with joy. If you have yet to see his band and him in concert, wait no longer.

[MariaJesusLopezSuso]

Me gusta la canción y la voz de este chico. excelente!!!

[TexasTsunami]

See Soul Asylum 'String of Pearls' and the voice tempo and delivery are amazingly similar, although they are much different songs.
Bizarre!

[MegaSexytimes]

If this story was made into a film it'd be incredible. A historian/writer who falls in love with King Tut who secretly isn't dead? That's what you call originality.

p.s might have completely misunderstood the song

[brujarubio]

I think this song is an allegory and it is about a relationship. He feels "awakened" when he meets her, but as time goes by, her love made him stronger, but at the same time, he comes to need her less and less. In the end, he feels as his relationship with her is like he is just 'dragging her around'. Although he still loves her, he has outgrown their relationship. He meets other women and sees there are more opportunities out there. The relationship ends.

[feypunkd]

Of course this song is about a relationship, but it's not just a story of a man outgrowing a woman he used to need. It's about the selfishness of love. The pharaoh is cursed (a common mummy myth: touching them or kissing them will let them steal your life and vitality for themselves). He knows it, but she doesn't, and he avoids telling her because he wants so much to be with her. So he slowly kills her, feeding off her life by being around her, because he loves her too selfishly to warn her.

[hitmanhart]

I need this in MP3 format. beautiful song especially when performed acoustic

[kaycrocker]

no, its about how ones self is awakened by a beautiful woman and she teaches him things and as he does learn she gets older and the guys is supposedly immortal and the story ends with the girl dying although I'm terrible at explaining i do think its a very beautiful song.

[BaileyFlys]

i love how he's dressed as though he just walked off of the farm and threw on a clean shirt.

[thndrcat]

@brujarubio You right on some points, but I find that youre missing the point near the end. He doesnt out grow her, she dies, or gets sick, or passes on whatever you want to call it.
When he meets other women he STILL thinks/ talks about her from the past, bc HE hasnt moved on. Thats why he's "dragging her around like one of his old rags"...she's like his mental baggage. His heart's still attached to her.

[bradydc]

What an amazing song. The meaning? I thought the curse was that he had to watch his love die. I also like the idea Someone wrote on here about the mummy stealing her vitality.

[MrMatthewKerr]

3300 views.
33 people all pressing the reply button 100 times
just excellent

[BaileyFlys]

@brujarubio i know you posted this quite some time ago, but its interesting because you just explained my relationship with my daughters father exactly. i couldnt have said it better, which in a sense, i find quite humorous.

[SuperNoobTroll]

they need a 3's company reunion!!!!

[flower]

The song is about a mummy falling in love with his archeologist and she puts him in a museum and he becomes famous and she dies of a broken heart.

[Greenmoss]

What are the chords hes playing, it seems only to be like two chords

[thatguyoverthereFTW]

Maybe, and this is just a stab in the dark here,
maybe its a metaphor for a relationship that starts because one of them wants something from the other and ends up finding that the other means a lot more to them then they thought they would and can't simply leave after they've got what they wanted from the other....
Just a theory

[flower]

I think this guy watched Night at the Museum then wrote a song lol