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ABOUT THE
SONG
‘Hand of Love’ was originally released in Ireland in 1990 by Conor Goff and Christy Dignam (1960 – 2023). Christy Dignam had achieved success previously with his group Aslan and was a noted songwriter in his own right.
'Hand of Love’ gained resonance for with us when Christy announced in 2022 that he was receiving palliative care; it became a meditation on life and loss, “people I’ve loved and people I’ve lost, and those I never need to know.” A song we had known for thirty years had matured emotionally, gaining depth and a whole new perspective, so we felt that a cover by Arracht was appropriate. The structure of the song always invited a bigger musical arrangement, and offered us the chance to explore the tension of a fellow artist who, wishing to live on, was being given end of life treatment.
Deaglán never met Christy and our personal connection with him was entirely through Switch who met him fleetingly in Spain once when he played some of his songs in a local bar. It was really Switch's sister Ruth who knew him best from her time as a backing singer in a nascent Aslan. The Arracht cover differs from the original both in Switch’s arrangement for it and the interplay of our vocals, but we stuck to the structure and arc of the song as Christy intended.
LYRICS
A lone candle on a wooden table flickers in the night
And wild shadows dancing on my bedroom wall never seem quite right
All I think of all night long are the places we used to go
People I’ve loved and people I’ve lost, and those I never needed to know
Scared at the thought of you leaving, thoughts of being alone
Sorrow I felt is never fading, just bruising my soul
Like the hand of love
(Can you feel the pain?) And it’s burning me up
(Can you feel the pain?) And it’s burning me up
(Can you feel the pain?) And it’s burning me up, so when I’m here with you
I will never know, when I’m here with you
I’ll just never know, when I’m here with you
I can feel no pain, I feel no pain, I feel no pain, I feel no pain
A lone candle on a wooden table whispers out your name
And wild shadows dance across my bedroom wall, naked as a flame
All I think of all night long are the places we used to go
People I’ve loved and people I’ve lost, and those I never needed to know
Scared at the thought of you leaving, thoughts of being alone
Sorrow I felt is never fading, just bruising my soul
Like the hand of love
(Can you feel the pain?) And it’s burning me up
(Can you feel the pain?) And it’s burning me up
(Can you feel the pain?) And it’s burning me up, so when I’m here with you
I will never know, when I’m here with you
I’ll just never know, when I’m here with you
I can feel no pain, I feel no pain, I feel no pain, I feel no pain
I feel no pain, I feel no pain, I feel no pain