Josephine

I think it's great that people have come up with their own personal interpretations and applications of this song, but in case anyone is curious about how this song actually came about... this is what Brandi said about it in an interview:

First of all, Brandi didn't write "Josephine". It was actually written by Tim Hanseroth. Tim wrote it when they were driving through Josephine County, Oregon. She said he was inspired by the landscape to write this song. This doesn't give us much about the true deeper meaning behind the song though, so it's still anyone's guess. :)

I came to this site hoping someone had already written their thoughts on the lyrics of this song, but it looks like I'll have to be the first.
Listening to the song made me wonder why this person can't understand why they ever started loving "Josephine". I got a little upset that someone would just outright say that they can't figure this out. It almost sounded accusatory and mean, but now reading the lyrics in my head makes me sympathize with the narrator rather than Josephine. It sounds to me like he/she is close to the end of his/her life. Maybe the memory is a bit fuzzy. This song, it seems, is telling the story of someone trying to account for moments spent with the love of their lives. It's sad... not to remember something so profound.

This makes me think of my Grandma and Grandpa... My Grandma has Alzheimer's.

Their love was incredible, but now she's so far gone... He once stated he would never leave her side, but he couldn't watch her deteriorate from a ball of energy into a bed ridden person who forgets everything and never wants to get out of bed... It's not that she can't get up, she just doesn't have the will. He had to move out and live separately.

The way she views her love for him now is very very similar to these lyrics. It makes me feel so sad... And it's kind of ironic, as my Grandpa's name is "Joseph". Hmm. Male version of the name, but still.

Maybe it's just me, but I see this song in a different way... To me it feels as if she's singing about a lost love, someone who didn't turn out the way she thought they'd be. But she still misses the image of this person who she first fell in love with. And even though she sometimes wonder how she fell in love with them in the first place (because they have turned out so differently), she embraces the fact that she DOES miss this person. She still longs for that time before realization hit. The line 'I'm missing someone but I don't know who' seems to say that she's not sure who she's missing, because they have changed so much and she's having a hard time adding it all up together. How could this person have been so different from what she perceived them to be? I don't see it as accusatory, but more as a genuine wondering of how she could have missed it, followed by a 'why couldn't things have been differently?'

lol, this is my first post and it's a lot harder to get my interpretation down than I thought :p And sorry if I'm not making a whole lot of sense, English is not my first language.

i know that i see it a certain way because of personal experience. i was with a girl for a few years, and then she left. it's been over a year now since then, and often when i think about her, i can't even really remember that much. i've been alone for too long, and i've lost a lot of it. but, in the last line brandi says "someone help me understand why i'm STILL loving you"... and i can relate to this. somehow, i know that i still love this girl. but i'm not sure why. and i don't know if maybe it's different than any love i knew before it. i'm not even sure that i'm right.

I'd listen to Brandi on Voyager @ World Space, but they over played The Story and I grew sick of her.hehe. Then I heard this song and the rest as they say is history.heh. By the way, my mom loves this song too, sometimes even asks me to put it on for her! Love her voice!!

It's probably about a love that has changed.

The singer is missing the way it used to be with Josephine (as a person) or in Josephine (as a place where/when the good memories took place). The song could be just an expression of feeling lost after the love, or a plea to revive the love.

It seems as if the relationship has gone all vague (almost dead)...and the singer is leaving it up to the other person to do something about it.

The question is, why isn't she doing anything to it herself?

Don't we all have a Josephine in our past? Someone we fell for that has left us for someone else? Or who was completly different under the surface when we got to know them better? Someone that broke our heart, yet we can't let them go?