| Neko Case – Knock Loud Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| god this song rips me apart. and i dont even know why! | |
| Fleet Foxes – Textbook Love Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I just have to say, that little part where he says "little girl I was....dreamin of" is so so so SO wonderful. | |
| The Breeders – We're Gonna Rise Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I think this song is about a lack of control, the realization that there's no great story in life or in history, simply events...and yet there are still simple pleasures. And it's sort of confusing about how to interpret things like "light on your face" when you're thinking about how there's no "grand strategy". when imposing meaning on things that have no meaning has lost its value but life is still sadly beautiful. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Emily Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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TheFlatWorm: You got it. |
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| The Cave Singers – Helen Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Seems to me to be about blurring the lines of individuality between two people who seem so fervently and irrevocably close... | |
| Joanna Newsom – Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Also, the Lord's sword mincing up the morning could refer to the angel that stands guard outside the Garden of Eden with a double-edged sword constantly thrashing about. Could dragons be fierce passions? And machines sharp and artificial intellect and reason? Skin seems to be a theme in Joanna's songs. I wouldn't be surprised if it all referred to the same thing, like the recurring Bones seems to. Could skin be external passion and lust? And the tea be her contemplative dismissal and even apathy towards that? am I being too analytical? |
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| Joanna Newsom – Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I feel like this song is about losing innocence. | |
| The Cave Singers – Seeds of Night Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song is really magical. Sort of gives me a feeling of a less feral Animal Collective. | |
| Animal Collective – For Reverend Green Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Thank you, discogen, for the first original commentary on this song I've heard yet. | |
| Smog – Permanent Smile Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song, to me, is sort of about the uncertainty and greatness of feeling that comes with the interplay between G-d and man. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Sprout and the Bean Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| What do you see, annalise? | |
| Joanna Newsom – Monkey & Bear Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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One more thing. I can't promise it'll be my last, because I've been thinking too much about this song and more might come out! This is highly and grotesquely subjective, but I almost want to draw the conclusion that Joanna Newsom thinks that "what is now known" from the horses who died of overeating is the truest way to happiness, fulfillment, whatever. I draw that conclusion based on her voice and the way she plays her harp (and the violins, though it's possible she didn't directly ask for such a thing) during the phrase "for their season". She makes it seem peaceful, and above all, natural. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Monkey & Bear Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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As for teeth and bones. The teeth seem to symbolize her natural aggression in response to her oppression. When the monkey promises she'll bare her teeth, he is promising that she'll rebel one day against the flagrant human oppression that holds them both. In reality, the bear needs to bare her teeth against the both the monkey (though he's her dear and trusted friend!) and the humans. At the end, it's trying to tell us that sooner or later, if you are trying to escape oppression, you will "bury" your aggression until it kills you. Bones...I've come to feel like the bones symbolize a very simple but elemental level of individual being. In Hebrew, the word "etzem" means both bone and self. I would be interested to explore this in the other songs as well, such as "only skin". I wish I could begin to analyze that song, but it seems a little too ethereal and inaccessable to me. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Monkey & Bear Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I would just like to add a few things. I agree with a lot of what people have said so far. Also..I've read a few of Joanna's interviews and know nothing about the constellations. Firstly, I'm upset no one has mentioned how these song fits in on a sociopolitical level, in the general context of opression and freedom. I'm reminded a bit of the book Animal Farm, in that the monkey and the bear both escape freely, together, yet the monkey ends up exploiting the bear and reverting back to the old human ways of "leashes" and domestication. Also, it is vital to note how this song fits in based on the general theme of the album, which is "excess", water, etc. One of my favorite lines in the song was "the hills are groaning with excess/like a table ceaselessly being set". (thanks for those creative writing classes, Ms. Newsom!) I think this captures very poignantly the overwhelming and bitter nature of America's greed and overabundance. Now, given those two things, I would like to go out on a limb and connect them as such: the sick need for overabundance is the source of the greed and corruption that leads to the monkey's exploitation of the bear. All that said, I really wish I could figure out what happens to the end to the bear. I almost think that the story went off on some Jungian tangent, which had less to do with the narrative and more about the bear's personal, practically non-physical journey as a response to his slavery. I like the idea that he became a constellation. I do feel pretty clear about the idea that the bear dies in the end, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Her coat "dragging in the water" and her limbs falling off is enough to tell me she's dying in some sort of very real and physical way. OK, I think that's about enough from me! I got an account here just to comment on this song, by the way. Hope there are more to come. |
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