Twenty Greatest Singles of the CU Era: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “If We Were Vampires”

“If We Were Vampires”

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Written by Jason Isbell

2017

There’s a rich legacy of great anniversary songs in country music. Favorites that have come along in my day include “After All This Time,” “Look at Us,” and “You’re Still the One.”

What all three songs have in common is a specificity in the details of the marriage that speak universal truths about love. What they also have in common is that the marriages the songs were written about have since ended.

Matching both of those standards is “If We Were Vampires,” a brilliant composition from Jason Isbell that he wrote in response to a challenge from wife Amanda Shires, who told him to get off of his lazy ass and write something when she saw him lounging idly around the house.

That he wrote this song in response speaks to the depths of his talents. The title sounds ridiculous out of context, yet when it is spoken once in the second verse, the metaphor is breathtakingly poignant:

If we were vampires and death was a joke

We’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke

And laugh at all the lovers and their plans

I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand

Isbell takes a pop culture reference and turns it into a deep reflection on the connection between unconditional love and our inevitable mortality, reaching the raw conclusion that he never wants to live a day without her. He promises to “give you every second I can find, and hope it isn’t me who’s left behind.”

Isbell is such a great songwriter that his gifts as a singer are often overlooked. Those gifts heighten the emotional impact of an already heady composition, delivering his declaration with a gentle intimacy that lets us into the most private contours of a public marriage.

It’s one of those songs that will be giving words to men who can’t find them for themselves for generations to come. What a gift to the world this record is.

Additional Listening:

Other great country anniversary songs