How Neil Finn of Crowded House Crafted a Fantastic Lyric Thanks to His Hotel-Room Neighbors

There are a million songs that dwell on the positives of an evening of passion. Not all that many, however, talk about the consequences that can accompany getting carried away too far too soon.

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Neil Finn of Crowded House took that road less traveled on the 1988 track “Into Temptation”. It’s a song that’s just as much focused on the morning after as it is the night before.

Passion’s Aftermath

Crowded House came up out of the ashes of the New Zealand band Split Enz, which had included both Neil Finn and Paul Hester. (Nick Seymour made the new band trio.) The band’s debut album took a while to get off the ground until “Don’t Dream It’s Over” was released as a last-ditch single and became a worldwide smash.

Needless to say, anticipation soared for a new record. That put the pressure on Finn, who was the band’s primary songwriter. Over a two-year span following the initial release of the debut album in 1986, he wrote the songs for the follow-up, often in between tour gigs.

As a matter of fact, it wasn’t long after a show that he came up with the idea for “Into Temptation”. While in his hotel room, Finn awoke to what he thought was a knock on his door. It turned out to be the room next to his. When he looked, he saw two people he had witnessed at the bar earlier meeting at the door to commence a one-night stand.

Once he dove into the song, Finn, who came from a Catholic upbringing, began to explore the guilty feelings that can often accompany such an evening. The music he and his band created for “Into Temptation” was quite alluring, all the better to explore the themes of a track that became a highlight of the 1988 album Temple Of Low Men.

A Deep Dive into the Lyrics of “Into Temptation”

“You opened up your door,” Finn begins in “Into Temptation”, recalling the hotel-room rendezvous he witnessed. “I couldn’t believe my luck.” “The cradle is soft and warm,” the narrator explains, touching on the inviting nature of the evening. “It couldn’t do me no harm.”

But when the refrain comes around, we get the first glimpse of his second thoughts. “Into temptation,” Finn sings. “Knowing full well the Earth will rebel.” He’s hinting that his sin of passion might bring about unseen disasters in the future.

Rationalization acts as a refuge. “A muddle of nervous words,” he explains. “Could never amount to betrayal.” We don’t know if he’s betraying another person or perhaps his faith. But her seductive charms keep pulling him back. “As I turned to go,” he says. “You looked at me for half a second/With an open invitation/For me to go into temptation.”

“Lose yourself when you linger long/Into temptation right where you belong,” Finn sings in the middle eight. The final verse finds the narrator expressing regret, which signals that he went through with the affair. “The guilty get no sleep,” he complains. “In the last slow hours of morning.” “I should have listened to the warning,” he laments.

The final words Finn sings are “Don’t tell.” The deed is done, and now the cover-up begins. But it’s likely that no amount of after-the-fact scrambling will release the narrator of “Into Temptation” from his all-encompassing guilt.

Photo by Suzie Gibbons/Redferns