| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Some considerations. I did some research on this one. 1) rushes -Any of various aquatic or wetland herbs of the genus Scirpus, having grasslike leaves and usually clusters of small, often brown spikelets. -a series of lavish attentions paid a woman by a suitor -the initial, intensely pleasurable or exhilarated feeling experienced upon taking a narcotic or stimulant drug. 2) scrap of sassafras, eh Sisyphus? -Sassafras should not be taken internally or used for healing except for topical applications -it had a long and widespread history of folk use as a medicine. -It was also used as an ineffective treatment for syphilis -Syphilus is presented as the first man to contract the disease, sent by the god Apollo as punishment for the defiance that Syphilus and his followers had showed him. -Apollo, was the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a bringer of death-dealing plague 3) awful atoll An atoll is an island of coral that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. 4) Sibyl sea-cow, all done up in a bow -The word sibyl comes (via Latin) from the Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. The earlier oracular seeresses known as the sibyls of antiquity, "who admittedly are known only through legend" prophesied at certain holy sites, probably all of pre-Indo-European origin, under the divine influence of a deity, originally one of the chthonic earth-goddesses. Later in antiquity, sibyls wandered from place to place. -Sea-Cow, or "Sirenia" is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters, swamps, and marine wetlands. 4) awkwardly molt along the shore Moulting (or molting, see spelling differences) is the routine shedding of old feathers in birds, old hairs in mammals, old skin in reptiles, and the entire exoskeleton in arthropods. 5) in my doorway, we shucked and jived "Shucking and jiving" was a tactic of both survival and resistance. A slave, for instance, could say eagerly, "Oh, yes, Master," and have no real intention to obey. Or an African-American man could pretend to be working hard at a task he was ordered to do, but might put up this pretense only when under observation. Both would be instances of "doin' the old shuck 'n jive." Anyway it could refer to a master/slave relationship. Make of these what you will. In my opinion, part of the problem in this one is deciding who are the actors and their relation to one another. I believe the actors are a prostitute, a wife, a "he" and a "green" or inexperienced "you", a daughter. Who is speaking when to whom? There are tons of sexual double-meanings in this song, convenient as (I believe) it discusses the life of a sprostitute with syphilus and her clients who have to deal with death and sickness contracted through sex. The big question the song poses 2 times is "why would you say I was the last one?" If you can't answer that basic question, you should check your reading. In my opinion, it has to do with dying or at least with not having further sexual relations because of the disease. Fire is also an important element, being Fire of hell and Fire of desire, which the author interweaves throughout the song. Anyhoo.. |
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