| Billy Joel – Light As The Breeze Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Light As the Breeze is a song rich which religious subtext, relating a sexual relationship between a man (the narrator) and a woman (the object of that man's desire and scorn, simultaneously). The song has three distinct sections: the first, wherein the man is smitten with the woman and desiring her wholly; the second, where the man is trapped by his desire; and the third, where he is at peace with this desire but recognizes the unhealthy dependence he has on it. In the first section, Cohen describes the relationship and sets up the woman as a goddess of some sort: "It don't matter how you worship/as long as our down on your knees" and "at the alpha and the omega [. . .] like a blessing come from heaven/for something like a second/I was healed and my heart was at ease." The man, a worshiper of this sexual goddess desires her so deeply that when he does not have her, he is not at ease and it is only through having her, sexually, that he can feel peace. In this section, he accepts and even lauds this relationship. It is worth noting here that her response to his dependence can be described as flippant: she comes to him "light as the breeze" or, in other words, care free. She is either ignorant of or uncaring for the deep desire that he holds for her and the pain which he endures when he does not have her. This is re-enforced later by the line "And she's naked/But that's just a tease." Soon, the man begins to resent this flippancy in his object of desire. He feels as though his goddess has abandoned him to feel constant yearnings and yet refuses to satisfy those demands. "And you're weak and you're harmless [. . .] And it's not exactly prison/But you'll never be forgiven/For whatever you've done/With the keys [. . .] And your heart's hard and hateful." In this time, he turns away from his desire, from his goddess. In so doing, he only feels more pain and anguish at the lack of fulfillment: "And I'm sick of pretending/I'm broken from bending/I've lived too long/On my knees." Alas, she comes to him once again, still light as the breeze, and fulfills his desires -- giving him momentary pause and rest. At this point, Cohen evokes Christian imagery with the blood on the bracelet. In Christian theology, through the spilling of Christ's blood, the ultimate sacrifice, human kind was forgiven of its sins eternally. Through the blood on the bracelet (ingested as Catholics ingest Christ during the Mass), the relationship between the two is changed: from resentment to acceptance. The woman invites the man to partake in the healing ritual: the sex. However, she reminds him that she is only a woman and, therefore, a human being like him. She is not, in fact, a goddess; but, in his mental construction, she is as a goddess and is the only thing that can heal him despite his disgust for his love of her. And so he returns to the position of worship, kneeling, at the delta, this time "like one who believes [in the goddess which was revealed to be just a woman]" and she was still able to heal him. This song is one not about a romantic, fairy-tale love, but of a love where one partner needs the other to be at peace and it tells of the intense burden that places on both partners. For the man, he cannot be happy without her healing powers; for the woman, she cannot simply be a woman, she must also be a goddess -- surely a tough role to fulfill. Regardless, it's a fantastic song. |
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