Michelangelo Lyrics
There's no comments on this one? Maybe everyone got stuck like I am now... You really can't say anything else about it....
I read that she said this was literally about a dream she had regarding Michelangelo. I've recently read The Agony and the Ecstacy and no where in it was there any mention of Paris. Some of this can fit him, but not all of it. He never had any children of his own so far as I read.
I heard somewhere that the song was actually about Gram parsons, I actually think most of her work has been based on him.
@Beco I have thought the same thing. There are definitely lyrics that appear to refer to Parsons. -- Regarding the reference to Paris, this is book well known to WW2 enthusiasts called "Is Paris Burning?"
@Beco I have thought the same thing. There are definitely lyrics that appear to refer to Parsons. -- Regarding the reference to Paris, this is book well known to WW2 enthusiasts called "Is Paris Burning?"
This is not about the artist Michaelangelo specifically but about all artists. The lyrics "paint" pictures. It could be about anybody she knew who was artistic.
There do seem to be a number of lyrical references to the an American Indian figure.
The name Michelangelo means dream and angel. She had a dream so this may be the inspiration as she mentions an Angel. I think the song is referring to someone she lost and her dreams are filled with the memory. Alsways with her in her dreams.
@Twinee1 The name is derived from combing MIchael and Angelo.
@Twinee1 The name is derived from combing MIchael and Angelo.
Micha El means "who is like God?" It is rhetorical and implies that no one is like God. Angelo is from a Greek word meaning messenger. The combination refers to the archangel Michael who is a warrior and a messenger from Heaven.
Micha El means "who is like God?" It is rhetorical and implies that no one is like God. Angelo is from a Greek word meaning messenger. The combination refers to the archangel Michael who is a warrior and a messenger from Heaven.
I agree that the name is used by Emmylou as a veiled reference to Gram Parsons who gave a tremendous boost to Emmylou's career and then died just when things started to take off.
I agree that the name is used by Emmylou as a veiled reference to Gram Parsons who gave a tremendous boost to Emmylou's career and then died just when things started to take off.
The reference to dying in a field of thorn and roses strongly...
The reference to dying in a field of thorn and roses strongly suggests Joshua Tree National Park, a place Parsons visited a lot and he died in the town of that name. A hawk flying overhead would be common in the desert there. There are many allusions to him in the song.
The name Michelangelo has a double meaning. From the Hebrew, Micah-el (gift of God) and a reference to the great Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet; the super-artist. It is probably a very clever reference to Gram Parsons whom Harris toured with on the Grievous Angel tour which preceded the posthumous release of the album by the same name. Gram was a tortured soul who never healed from the suicide of his father and cirrhosis-stricken mother, both before he graduated high school. I imagine that was what led him to the self-destructive drug and alcohol abuse which later killed him. Harris wonders if she could have saved him.
Undoubtedly about Gram Parsons through and through, Michelangelo being the great artist, her estimation of Gram. Truly agonizing lyrics regarding his death, indicating she suffered a great deal while working through it. "An arrow driven deep inside you long ago" refers to Gram's own agony when told his father died, his scream heard throughout the house. Honestly, I'm in awe of this woman and grateful to her for bringing Gram's work and dream to us.
emmylou herself said this is the kind of song that is open for interpretations, and can mean anything you want. To me, this is a song that hits personally, because i think it is about lost hopes, lost future. Especially the part ''on a highway out alone to find the mother of your children who were still unborn and waiting in the wings of some desire abandoned long ago''. I always wanted to have children, but now with the global warming and human evilness increasing, i lost all my hopes of a future, a marriage and a family. So, to me, this is a song about lost dreams, just like red dirt girl.