Pleasure Is All Mine

the "man gasping" as some are saying here, is actually Inuit throat singing... by tanya tagaq, a women...lol. you should look up some videos of throat singing. it's amazing! i think it was originally invented as a game of some kind by Inuit women. but it makes great music too :)

and it fits in perfectly to me in this album, because the practice is so...basic...i love it...this album gets down to the core of music. to it's roots. to the roots of humanity...using the oldest instruments on earth, the voice. which makes perfect sense, seeing how the album is called Medulla...being the innermost part of an organ or animal.

this album is amaaazzzingly put together. bjork did a wonderful job. and i think this song is the perfect opening to it. so beautiful, the way the voices unfold in the song, it's like a flower opening up... or like water flowing, it's so pure and crisp...

"when in doubt, give" one of her best lines. love it.

I think it may just be a philosophy on relationships in general. While a giver also receives happiness from giving, it also makes them stronger because it creates a dependency from the other person to the giver. And giving could be in any way, not just sexual giving or physical gift-giving. At any rate, it's a beautifully made song, with powerful layering of sounds and chords.

It is better for the speaker to give than to receive in her sexual relationship, because even though her lover may be the "dominant" one, it is pleasurable for her to give sex because in the end she receives the joy of motherhood through her child.

Great song. Bjork had just left her baby girl when she recorded this, so I guess it was about some kind of release.

yeh, thats a good way to look at the lyrics, i hadnt thought of that. i always get quite a sexual vibe from this song, like a pleasure being returned- 'who gives most'. i guess that fits in with the child birth thing, seeing as birth follows sex etc. the 'women like us we strengthen most host-like' has the kind of mothering connotations, as if the baby is a host of your body.

a truly beautiful song, and album

i always thought of the song as being sexual, like finally being a generous lover. possibly oral. but that's just my mind.... the birth idea totally makes more sense. let's go with birth.

I agree with I though so too, but now I guess I should think once more ;) maybe it's really about birth. I own Medulla, great album, yeah

Regardless of the meaning behind the song, her voice is so sexy and seductive throughout, especially the first 'Who Gives Most' part.

I think it fits more closely the interpretation that it's about sex. "To finally let go and evenly/ be flown" doesn't really line up to the birth interpretation. It seems to be implying something at which you surrender in order for both (evenly) to reach some high point (be flown). Sounds more like an orgasm than the process of labor.

"The strongest stance" part refers to the idea that there's a submissive partner and one who's in control, who sets the pace and decides when and what to "give" or play "host."

The song as a whole, though, serves as a metaphor for giving, the connection being that giving ultimately benefits, even exhilirates, both the giver and the receiver.