| Dessa – The Chaconne Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is a song about hero worship and a love affair, and the way ideals are changed by reality. "Now the bough breaks" starts this beautiful song; it is a reference to Brahms' lullaby (when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall), about losing childhood innocence. She read about a famous violinist and idolized his talent, longed to meet him in person (the books I read said you were a fragile kid). "When we met I was still a young girl" refers to her youthful excitement in finally meeting him face-to-face. But he is different from her romantic expectations of him ("you were vain and hard to take, all the same, I was brave"). She follows him like a groupie ("heard your chaconne on every stage") and has a love affair with him ("all the things that we do to pass the time between the wars"). But he is obsessed with playing his music and not interested in emotional attachments ("but your love sleeps in a velvet case. So what'd you bring me for?"). He is willing to take advantage of her admiration and youthful beauty; she resembles his wife ("they say a dozen years ago, she could have passed for me"). Ultimately, this song is about the disappointment we expetience when our idols fail us and we find they are flawed humans ("you're at your best when you're alone; above the fray with your chaconne). "Now the bells toll" is a reference to a John Donne poem and also an Ernest Hemingway novel (For Whom the Bell Tolls) about war and death (bells ring for a funeral): "Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." |
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