10,000 Maniacs

Released: October 26, 1993

Songwriter: Bruce Springsteen Patti Smith

Producer: Paul Fox

[Verse 1]
Take me now, baby, here as I am
Hold me close, and try and understand
Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe
Love is a banquet on which we feed

[Pre-Chorus]
Come on now, try and understand
The way I feel under your command
Take my hand, as the sun descends
They can't hurt you now
Can't hurt you now
Can't hurt you now

[Chorus]
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us

[Verse 2]
Have I doubt, baby, when I'm alone
Love is a ring, a telephone
Love is an angel disguised as lust
Here in our bed 'til the morning comes

[Pre-Chorus]
Come on now, try and understand
The way I feel under your command
Take my hand, as the sun descends
They can't hurt you now
Can't hurt you now
Can't hurt you now

[Chorus]
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us

[Bridge]
With love we sleep, with doubt the vicious cycle turns, and burns
Without you oh I cannot live, forgive the yearning Burning
I believe it's time, too real to feel
So take me now, take me now, take me now

[Chorus]
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Because the night belongs to lovers
And everybody says that it belongs to us

10,000 Maniacs (named after the 1960s low-budget horror film Two Thousand Maniacs) are a multi-platinum alternative folk-pop rock band formed in in Jamestown, NY. In 1981, high school friends John Lombardo and Robert Buck joined a band originally named Still Life, then invited Natalie Merchant, a local sixteen-year-old ‘timid hippie girl’, to jam with them at a party.

Within a few years, the band was packing hipster clubs along the US east coast, including the famous 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. Electra Records signed them, but their first album, written mainly by Lombardo, failed to make an impact. Their second album In My Tribe was written by the remaining members after Lombardo’s exit, and it gave the band their first mainstream success. “What’s The Matter Here?” and “Like The Weather” were minor US hits that eventually pushed the album to double platinum sales.

The follow-up Blind Man’s Zoo initially made a bigger impact than its predecessor in the US, reaching #13 and almost giving the band its first US top 40 hit with “Trouble Me” (also the band’s first UK hit), but was later called “a critical and financial disappointment” by Rolling Stone. Member Steve Gustafson later shared, “Most people around us thought that that was it, that it was over and we were never gonna make another record.”

From the albums

MTV Unplugged (1993)
Campfire Songs (2004)

10,000 Maniacs popular songs

Because the Night

Because the Night10,000 Maniacs

10,000 Maniacs