Album version 3:49 English 1988

Liner notes

Calligraphy by Brody Neuenschwander, edited by enya.sk

A song of a spirit travelling, of the dreaming of the same
dream, of…
notes by Roma Ryan
Only Time: The Collection, 2002

Quotes about the song

Enya: "Evening Falls is, believe it or not, a ghost story, and it’s about this lady who had kept dreaming about a particular house, and she was in America, and years later she and her husband were retiring in England, and she comes across the house that she’s been dreaming about, and when she goes up to have a look, the maid and the butler are very cold towards her, and very frightened of her, and she asks why, and they say that she has been walking around this house every night as she was dreaming about it. And it was Roma, on hearing the melody I had written, said this was perfect for the song Evening Falls…"
MuchMusic TV Interview, 1988
enyabookofdays.com

Enya: "Evening Falls on the other hand is based on a ghost story that Roma heard. A woman has recurring dreams about a house till the moment she one day sees the house, knocks on the door and finds out that the inhabitants are full of panic when they see her: she had haunted their house all the time. We made a musical interpretation without retelling it word for word. We keep the lyrics simple. Hopefully the listener evokes even greater and more beautiful images with our music than we had originally hidden in it. The mystery stays important."
Interview in Belgium, 1988
Enya unofficial homepage (no longer online)

Nicky Ryan: "In the same way, when we heard the ghost story — about a woman who keeps dreaming about a house, and when she comes upon it by accident, discovers that she’s been haunting it — I thought the piece of music that Enya had written, became ‘Evening Falls’, was really appropriate to that. It was at that stage that Roma write the lyrics."
Going with the Flow, Hot Press, 1988

Single

cover

01 Evening Falls…
02 Oíche Chiúin *
03 Morning Glory *

* previously unreleased tracks


Music Video

The video, directed by Michael Geoghegan, reflects the ghost story that inspired the song.

Performances

Venue Date Details
Late Late Show (Ireland) Oct 1988 Lip-synced


Lyrics

When the evening falls and the daylight is fading,
from within me calls – could it be I am sleeping?
For a moment I stray, then it holds me completely.
Close to home – I cannot say.
Close to home – feeling so far away.

As I walk the room there before me a shadow
from another world where no other can follow.
Carry me to my own, to where I can cross over..
Close to home – I cannot say.
Close to home – feeling so far away.

Forever searching; never right,
I am lost in oceans of night.
Forever hoping I can find memories,
those memories I left behind.

Even though I leave will I go on believing
that this time is real – am I lost in this feeling?
Like a child passing through, never knowing the reason.
I am home – I know the way.
I am home- feeling oh! so far away.

lyrics by Roma Ryan
EMI Music Publishing Ltd, 1988