| PJ Harvey – Snake Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| oh god im sorry i thought i was posting this in the general comments thread ahahhaha...i wasn't intending to answer you directly...AND I HAD NO IDEA IT WAS SO LONG! sorryyyy | |
| PJ Harvey – Snake Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Pj uses biblical stories to sing about heartbreak. Notice how she uses religious themes in songs like "Missed", "The wind",and "Hair." She becomes each character: Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine, Delilah and Samson...in her songs all these characters are always mad with despair and torment over heartbreak. I've always thought Pj isn't as complex as we think...she simply relates to characters, over and over. (Like in A Perfect Day Elise, she identifies herself with Seymour Glass, the protagonist of "A perfect day for banana fish", by J.d salinger.) I dont think she offers a revision of the story of Adam and Eve, I think she uses it to tell a story that everyone can identify with: betrayal. At the beginning...Adam and Eve were in love, they were the first couple in history, the perfect couple. Their love was sweet and pure, romantic. They lived happily without a worry in the world. (Basically, it was nothing related to sex.) There were no violent, passionate emotions involved. For pj, God's creation of paradise is simply a metaphor of true love...without any dark emotions. The snake is a powerful attractive man, who drives Eve wild with desire. He defies Adam's sweet, "bland" love, by showing her sexual bliss. ("You snake / You crawled / between my legs)... Eve discovers pleasure, which is something new to her. He convinces her to have sex with him by promising her EVERYTHING. Both paradise (true love) and passion (sex.) (Said "want it all?" / It's yours / You bet / I'll make you queen/ of everything.) She'll be his bride: she'll have all the joy she wishes, eternally, if she only sleeps with him. But passion comes with a price. Eve soon realizes how he deceived her, she discovers that sexual bliss, though wonderful, is actually temporary. Once he's done with her, he doesn't want her anymore. But not only that, she also knows what she has done to the love of her life. (I burnt my hands / I'm in this fire...) What she realizes is that sex is hell because she has commited the true sin, which isn't temptation, but betrayal. And with it comes a torrent of emotions that she was oblivous to: guilt, jelousy, pain, and heartbreak. (My heart / it aches) The snake shows her passion, but in doing so, she discovers she has betrayed Adam, the love of her life. And this throws her into a fit of despair. Eve also screams (You snake / I ate / a true / belief) She ate the "belief" , the lie that paradise is eternal bliss. For pj, in life there is no such thing as paradise. The man/snake showed her that there are underlying dark feelings in human nature that she was completely oblivious to. In a way, it is the story of a teenage girl discovering what life is. (Good lord / that fruit / inside of me.) ---> this is really interesting, because although she is mad with guilt and condemns what she has done, here it sounds as if she is longing for it. Once you feel sexual pleasure, you want to taste it again, even if it hurts. Even in her fit of despair, a small part of her STILL longs for that temporary bliss once more. In the end, she desperately begs Adam to forgive her, although the character knows it is hopeless. She says (You must believe / That snake put it / in front of me.) The snake showed her the apple, in the Bible they describe it as something ripe and juicy, which here could be identified with a penis. It is a hopeless way to beg for someone to forgive you, it is like saying that HE came on to her! It wasn't SHE who looked for him, she promises, but actually him who found her. I think it's just a brilliant way of telling the story of a woman who deceived the love of her life. She apologizes for breaking his heart and for destroying their love, although there is nothing she can do about it now. |
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| PJ Harvey – Snake Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Pj uses biblical stories to sing about heartbreak. Notice how she uses religious themes in songs like "Missed", "The wind",and "Hair." She becomes each character: Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine, Delilah and Samson...in her songs all these characters are always mad with despair and torment over heartbreak. I've always thought Pj isn't as complex as we think...she simply relates to characters, over and over. (Like in A Perfect Day Elise, she identifies herself with Seymour Glass, the protagonist of "A perfect day for banana fish", by J.d salinger.) I dont think she offers a revision of the story of Adam and Eve, I think she uses it to tell a story that everyone can identify with: betrayal. At the beginning...Adam and Eve were in love, they were the first couple in history, the perfect couple. Their love was sweet and pure, romantic. They lived happily without a worry in the world. (Basically, it was nothing related to sex.) There were no violent, passionate emotions involved. For pj, God's creation of paradise is simply a metaphor of true love...without any dark emotions. The snake is a powerful attractive man, who drives Eve wild with desire. He defies Adam's sweet, "bland" love, by showing her sexual bliss. ("You snake / You crawled / between my legs)... Eve discovers pleasure, which is something new to her. He convinces her to have sex with him by promising her EVERYTHING. Both paradise (true love) and passion (sex.) (Said "want it all?" / It's yours / You bet / I'll make you queen/ of everything.) She'll be his bride: she'll have all the joy she wishes, eternally, if she only sleeps with him. But passion comes with a price. Eve soon realizes how he deceived her, she discovers that sexual bliss, though wonderful, is actually temporary. Once he's done with her, he doesn't want her anymore. But not only that, she also knows what she has done to the love of her life. (I burnt my hands / I'm in this fire...) What she realizes is that sex is hell because she has commited the true sin, which isn't temptation, but betrayal. And with it comes a torrent of emotions that she was oblivous to: guilt, jelousy, pain, and heartbreak. (My heart / it aches) The snake shows her passion, but in doing so, she discovers she has betrayed Adam, the love of her life. And this throws her into a fit of despair. Eve also screams (You snake / I ate / a true / belief) She ate the "belief" , the lie that paradise is eternal bliss. For pj, in life there is no such thing as paradise. The man/snake showed her that there are underlying dark feelings in human nature that she was completely oblivious to. In a way, it is the story of a teenage girl discovering what life is. (Good lord / that fruit / inside of me.) ---> this is really interesting, because although she is mad with guilt and condemns what she has done, here it sounds as if she is longing for it. Once you feel sexual pleasure, you want to taste it again, even if it hurts. Even in her fit of despair, a small part of her STILL longs for that temporary bliss once more. In the end, she desperately begs Adam to forgive her, although the character knows it is hopeless. She says (You must believe / That snake put it / in front of me.) The snake showed her the apple, in the Bible they describe it as something ripe and juicy, which here could be identified with a penis. It is a hopeless way to beg for someone to forgive you, it is like saying that HE came on to her! It wasn't SHE who looked for him, she promises, but actually him who found her. I think it's just a brilliant way of telling the story of a woman who deceived the love of her life. She apologizes for breaking his heart and for destroying their love, although there is nothing she can do about it now. |
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| PJ Harvey – Long Snake Moan Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My interpretation is a little too dark I think...hahah. I always thought of the last line as a question, instead of a statement: "Is my voodoo working?" It seems to fit much better in what I believe is the meaning of the song. I agree, she wants to somehow "drown" her lover in her "sea" of passion, (Dunk you / under / deep salt / water) to the point in which he'll "die of pleasure." But by the line "No hell / Out of Your spell" I think she means it as a revenge, for making her suffer for him to the point of madness, a recurrent theme in pj, men driving her absolutely insane. (When she finally puts out her suffering by consummating the sexual act, she'll finally be "out of his spell.") The desperate screams in the chorus make it nothing related to a sweet longing for love, it's almost a threat, or a promise that she will turn the "spell" back to him. It's a very disturbing song, everything explicity sexual, there is no hint of any hope or romanticism. (Nowhere in the album, actually.. ) But i think it's even darker, because there is that hint of esoterism everywhere. God, Lazarus, spells. She seems to be invocing some dark power of God, using witchcraft, hence all the "voodoo." Instead of singing, it almost seems like she's chanting. The snake is always depicted as an evil creature, but i think the snake is actually HER. The snake is the cause for all evil in the world, because it tempted Eve. Here, Pj is the temptation in itself, she turns into a snake, or so to say, and «moans» with pleasure. That”s why she asks «Is my voodoo working?» like asking «do you feel it now?» |
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