Maybe Sparrow

This song seems like an allegory about trying to warn a young person about the pitfalls of life. The sparrow represents a young, talented but inexperienced person, and the sparrow's song is their passion in life, perhaps musical ability. The hawks are people who are predatory, who take advantage of vulnerable people. The sparrow doesn't listen to the singer's warning and is figuratively killed by the hawks. Later, the singer hears an airplane overhead that seems to be echoing the sparrow's song, symbolizing that that their art lives on after them.

What an amazing song. So beautiful

Delicious and melodic.

Such a powerful song. The best part, probably of the entire album, is:

Oh my sparrow, it's too late Your body limp beneath my feet Your dusty eyes cold as clay You didn't hear my warning Didn't hear my warning

She just pours all of herself into this and does such great things with melody at the same time. Her voice is incredible and really broadens the reach of her music, especially in her harmonies.

This is one of my favorites. I surprised there are not more comments.

The melody stands-out to to me. I put it on my Autumn playlist.

What Season does it remind you of most?

Please replace the line "your dusty eyes as cold as cane" with "your dusty eyes cold as clay". Neko publishes all of her lyrics on her website, which I think is an indication of how hard she works on and the pride she takes in her lyrics (well-deserved).

You really should watch her music video for this song if your want to understand where she's coming from (http://www.anti.com/videos/maybe-sparrow/. That said, she usually writes songs in such a way that each person can have their own personalized meaning.

I've always loved this song because, from an ecological standpoint, no predator would ever warn its prey. In fact, owls' success as predators comes precisely from their silence. I love the book Watership Down, and it was also a big influence on Neko. Theres a character in that book called the Black Rabbit of Inle, who is essentially the rabbits' equivalent of Death. Theres this inescapable aspect of dying, and killing from the Black Rabbits standpoint, that I think is very similar to the way she describes an owl killing its prey. Its not evil, its jst the way it is. Thats also why replacing "clay" with "Cain" (as was originally posted here) really confuses the meaning of the song. I could go on for hours about this stuff, what a brilliant songwriter...

Made an account just to comment on this. For me it feels like Neko speaks from the perspective of an onlooker; yearning to help someone who is swept away by the brutal norms of nature. Wanting to get involved, wanting to help, to warn — but maybe not eaten themselves. She writes in a way that our own hearts make the sense of it with our own story, I’m just scratching the surface with her. Glad she was shown to me