| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song has touched me more than any song has touched me in my whole life, especially the being a woman part, so this is the part i would like to express my perspective of the meaning. I think it starts out with the ending of a very emotional and intense romantic relationship. "and the shallow, water/stretches as far as I can see/knee-deep, trudging along/a seagull weeps; "so long" I think that the water represents her own tears that she has cried, and shes only trudging along because she can't leave and forget. Then it goes backward, to their relationship, when it was full of love. "(and knowing how the common-folk condemn/ what it is I do, to you, to keep you warm being a woman, being a woman)." I think that this is her talking about simply making love, which common folk would condemn since she's not married. She realizes she is no longer a little girl, she has grown in a woman, and can now love like a woman "Picking through your pocket lining well what is this? Scrap of sassafras, eh Sisyphus?" I think that she was literally picking through his pockets and found out that he was either cheating on her with some other woman, or leaving town. Which was like a smack in the face, as sassafras is used for the word sass. I also think that here she was calling him Sisyphus, not because of drugs, but because of the deceitfulness of his actions. Though Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce, (which is a reoccurring theme in Joanna's music) he was deceitful and violated hospitality by killing travelers and guests. Though he did not literally kill her, i think this is expressing how he killed their relationship; as she then portrays, in the next line, herself crying. The whole Be a Woman Sequence goes back and forth, to images of them together, and imagines of them apart (a dead relationship). I think that this means that she really was in love, and didn't want to leave. And every time she looks forward, she again gets stuck in the past. Even after she has put their relationship to rest by "washing the spiders down the drain" she immediately states "little sister he will be back again." Though it may just be wishful thinking she can't let go. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Sawdust and Diamonds Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song has a lot of references to zen Buddhism, in which you give up desire to find enlightenment. They say carry water and chopped wood..become enlightened and carry water and chopped wood. Also, i heard this song played on a piano rather than a harp, it sounds like a ticking clock. Which makes me think that it's really just about life, and running out of time. |
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