Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
if you want to come on down
down with your bones so white
and watch the freight trains pound
into the wild, wild night
how i would love to gnaw
gnaw on your bones so white
and watch while the freight trains paw
paw at the wild, wild night
all these ghost towns, wreathed in old loam
assateague knee-deep in seafoam
ho swansea! buttonwillow!
lagunitas! ho calico!
and all these beastly bungalows
stare, distend, like endless toads
endlessly hop down the road
borne by wind, we southward blow
and yonder, wild and blue
the wild blue yonder looms
till we are wracked with rheum
by roads, by songs entombed
and all we want to do
is chew, and chew, and chew!
dear one, drive on
when all we want to do
is chew, and chew, and chew
and if you want to come on down
down with your bones so white
watch while the freight trains pound
into the wild, wild night
how i would love to gnaw
to gnaw on your bones so white
and watch while the freight trains paw
paw at the wild, wild night
down with your bones so white
and watch the freight trains pound
into the wild, wild night
how i would love to gnaw
gnaw on your bones so white
and watch while the freight trains paw
paw at the wild, wild night
all these ghost towns, wreathed in old loam
assateague knee-deep in seafoam
ho swansea! buttonwillow!
lagunitas! ho calico!
and all these beastly bungalows
stare, distend, like endless toads
endlessly hop down the road
borne by wind, we southward blow
and yonder, wild and blue
the wild blue yonder looms
till we are wracked with rheum
by roads, by songs entombed
and all we want to do
is chew, and chew, and chew!
dear one, drive on
when all we want to do
is chew, and chew, and chew
and if you want to come on down
down with your bones so white
watch while the freight trains pound
into the wild, wild night
how i would love to gnaw
to gnaw on your bones so white
and watch while the freight trains paw
paw at the wild, wild night
Lyrics submitted by Mopnugget
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Hi, another response to nibril's comment: While I am also frustrated sometimes frustrated by the lack of clear-cut or obvious meaning in Joanna's songs, I don't think this results in "something meaningless for the listener". I think this allows her songs to have even more specific meaning to each person who listens to them. While I can't know for sure what Ms. Newsom was referring to when she wrote "yonder wild and blue, the wild blue yonder looms", these words have a very deep and specific significance to me, a meaning I would never hope or even want to be able to explain. If I were to find out that Joanna was thinking of something completely different regarding those lyrics, it wouldn't make those words any less meaningful to me.
I have also always thought that Sadie was about her dog, at the same time knowing that it was about much more, about some of the deepest paradoxes of being human. Knowing that she wasn't writing about her dog at all doesn't mean the song has any less meaning to me. The deeper significance of the lyrics remains intact, and I think the fact that that significance comes across whether we think she is talking about a dog or a dear friend is a testament to her genius.
So, I wouldn't look at lack of clarity in Joanna's lyrics as a drawback, but as proof of her talent.