I had been listening to this song for a few years at least when I started actually hearing some of the lyrics, and I started to pick out what seemed to be references to Santa Cruz, California, somewhere I lived for a while. I looked into it and was surprised that she had lived there, too, attending college at UC Santa Cruz.
She mentions "the Pogonip," which is a trail and area of the mountains behind UC Santa Cruz. These lyrics make it sound like she dropped out of classes to grow weed out in the woods there. I agree with slickeronstate about the "Lovesick Daughter"— it's probably a reference to taking LSD with her hippy friends in Santa Cruz. Lord knows it's a common enough practice there, especially back in the eighties.
The '89 quake was a big event in central California. The epicenter was in the forest of Nisene Marks, which is a beautiful place. I hiked by there once; there's a little monument even. My old piano teacher's daughter was in college at UCSC at the time, and I remember hearing stories from her about it. I remember the Bay Bridge in San Francisco collapsed and I'm pretty sure there were some casualties.
Anyway, it surprised me to suddenly make this connection with a song I already thought was beautiful, to suddenly find the lyrics run parallel to my own personal childhood mythology. And I figured it might be insightful to mention UCSC and Gillian's time there. Love this album.
I had been listening to this song for a few years at least when I started actually hearing some of the lyrics, and I started to pick out what seemed to be references to Santa Cruz, California, somewhere I lived for a while. I looked into it and was surprised that she had lived there, too, attending college at UC Santa Cruz.
She mentions "the Pogonip," which is a trail and area of the mountains behind UC Santa Cruz. These lyrics make it sound like she dropped out of classes to grow weed out in the woods there. I agree with slickeronstate about the "Lovesick Daughter"— it's probably a reference to taking LSD with her hippy friends in Santa Cruz. Lord knows it's a common enough practice there, especially back in the eighties.
The '89 quake was a big event in central California. The epicenter was in the forest of Nisene Marks, which is a beautiful place. I hiked by there once; there's a little monument even. My old piano teacher's daughter was in college at UCSC at the time, and I remember hearing stories from her about it. I remember the Bay Bridge in San Francisco collapsed and I'm pretty sure there were some casualties.
Anyway, it surprised me to suddenly make this connection with a song I already thought was beautiful, to suddenly find the lyrics run parallel to my own personal childhood mythology. And I figured it might be insightful to mention UCSC and Gillian's time there. Love this album.
~profanelexicon~