| Michael Nesmith – Joanne Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
Sweet long makes perfect sense - think of it in terms of yearning or longing for something. "Her sweet long" means that for which she sweetly yearns. It was probably not for the singer, because he follows by describing her as being driven in desperation, possibly for someone else. I always interpreted this as a song about a love triangle, "Joanne and the man and the time that made them both run." "The hold that she had (on the other man) was much stronger than the love she had for me" Seems like the singer was taken with Joanne, who was in turn obsessed with someone else, probably someone unobtainable to her. The singer could never be that man to her, as he came to realize having broken down her desires "like a light through a prism" -to discover "a tune that he could not have sung." This may be all wrong, but it feels right. Overall I hear this song (which has haunted me of late) as a sweet reminiscense of a relationship that briefly but permantly marked the singer, and was doomed from the outset. Have we not all had some such experience along the way? I know I have, and 30 or more years later my mind goes sweetly back to what might have been, but never was. No regrets and no anger - "my only thoughts of her are kind" - and also a wise realization that it all worked out for the best in the end. Still, we are touched and changed in a way that can only find expression through this kind of poetry. It is a lovely little song, and I only regret that Nesmith did not pen many more like this one, and that very few folks write this kind of poetic music any more. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.