Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down - Interpol

Listening to Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down from Interpol reminds of of living in New Orleans. I was working at Tower Records in the French Quarter when Turn on the Bright Lights first came out. There was a huge goth scene in the French Quarter but they actually called it Darkwave. Darkwave encompassed Goth, New Wave, Industrial, Punk and everything in between.

I recall when Interpol first dropped that there were the proverbial comparisons to Joy Division. Back then it was all you read about how Paul Banks at times sounded like Ian Curtis.

There was this one customer Frankie, a traditional Goth, a nice girl with whom I would see around the Quarter and in the store but never really talked to. She's the kind of girl who seemed cool but way into Goth like it was her kind of religion. You may have known someone like this, and it's not this girls but maybe a guy who resembles this type of goth.

Frankie became aquainted with my good friend Lisa. Lisa would always talk about how much fun she had hanging out and drinking with Frankie. I knew from Lisa that Frankie was a big fan of Joy Division so one day when she came in looking for videos to rent I suggested the Interpol album. After our short conversation she bought the album. A few days later she came back in and thanked me for recommending the Interpol disc.

I'd see her in passing at work and on the street .We'd wave and say hello but that's it. A few months later I found out from Lisa that Frankie had killed herself. I was shocked. I barely knew her but Frankie's death affected me. I wrote a poem about her passing, imagining her walking from pub to pub paying off her bar tabs. And there was a line in that same poem as an ode to the Interpol, Frankie was a diver and she was always down.

There is one part which I will share from the poem, called Bartender Sleeping, Girl Drowning.

"We'll never hear
those fatal footsteps
like whispers
when she finally
made it home,
alone again.
The loneliest sound,
key inside the lock
and no arms around
to hold you. Climbing
into bed with only
cold pillow lips
to kiss goodnight.
We all know the
aftertaste of Soft
Emptiness. Is this
the last thing she
felt before finally
floating away?"

I thought about this poem today and have been playing Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down ever since. It reminds me of this girl I barely knew. Will anyone else remember her? I'll continue playing this song in her honor.