Background and Lyrics
The song "Allan" was chosen as the first single from the 1989 concert before the live album En Concert was released. Unlike Farmer's previous singles, the B-side of the vinyl was not another live song, but the first version of "Psychiatric" (the 'new beat remix'), which appeared two years later on the album "L'Autre...".
"Allan" is a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, an American poet, that Farmer is very appreciative and that she has evoked in many interviews. One verse of the song containing the word "Ligeia" which refers to the name of Poe's fairy tale published in 1837 in the review The American Museum. Farmer also sings "Pauvres poupées / Qui vont qui viennent", which is an excerpt from "Ligeia".
In the refrain, the singer slips into the skin of Lady Rowena, one of the heroines of the fairy tale, who was died but was reborn in the guise of another woman. In the lyrics, Farmer addresses this death woman as if she was her blood sister. Thus the singer "appropriates Poe's literary work giving another dimension, her own". The French magazine Top Secrets tried to give an interpretation of the lyrics, noting several references to Poe's life in the song.
Read more about this topic: Allan (song)
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