Scattering and Sailing

By the time Elvis Costello co-wrote “Departure Bay” with wife Diana Krall, it had been almost 20 years since he sang “Home isn’t where it used to be/Home is anywhere you hang your head,” on Blood and Chocolate. 

“Departure Bay” (from Krall’s 2004 album The Girl In The Other Room) is a song about “home,” refracted through various lenses of space and time. “Home” is a place–for Krall, that’s Nanaimo, British Columbia on Vancouver Island. The song itself was based on Krall sharing written remembrances and stories with Costello about her hometown. That’s a thick, soft foundation on which the song sets. 

“Home” is also a person, in this case Krall’s mother, whose death inspired the song. She’s a presence throughout the lyric; the first verse establishes a sense of place, and then the second verse establishes a sense of her. “Last year we were laughing,” Krall sings, “now her perfume’s on the bathroom counter/And I’m sitting in the back pew crying.” 

The third verse searches for a reconciliation between a warm, inviting past and what seems like a cold present. What is a place without the person who made that place worthwhile? What is “home” without that gravitational pull? 

When you’re alone, home may very well be anywhere you hang your head. It’s finding a new love, “skimming stones and exchanging rings,” that allows the singer to both reclaim and redefine her home. There’s a beautiful dissonance in just that phrase; “skimming stones” is an image of childhood, of rootlessness, of disconnection. “Exchanging rings” is what pulls the singer into the present, grounds her reality, connects her to a new someone and someplace. 

…and yet as I move to click “send” I think again about the title, and the way the chorus ends. It’s not “Arrival Bay,” although as the photo above proves, it’s not a fictional place either. Maybe to recognize and appreciate “home,” you have to eventually leave it. The love is in the leaving.

Listen to “Departure Bay” on the streaming service of your choice.