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Yarn and Glue Lyrics
do you know what this is son?
this is the panopticon
and all around us blink the brash
and shifty eyes of common cash
so do we die or do we travel?
down the path by which one dabbles
in the arts of antediluvian crafts
with yarn and glue
so gather twilight to your breast
and couch the rabble-rouser's nest
and we will take a day of rest
and we will all be heaven-blessed
and we will gather 'round to dine
and pass the time with wicked rhymes
and toast in dandelion wines
to hear their mellifluous chimes
we toast the fallow furrows that we sow
we toast the monies that we owe, oh, oh
we toast the creditors we daily face
who topple down with gruesome grace
and we toast the aristocrats with blood of blue
because we know our collars are that color, too
and we toast the artisans of antediluvian crafts
with yarn and glue
we do, we do!
this is the panopticon
and all around us blink the brash
and shifty eyes of common cash
down the path by which one dabbles
in the arts of antediluvian crafts
with yarn and glue
and couch the rabble-rouser's nest
and we will take a day of rest
and we will all be heaven-blessed
and pass the time with wicked rhymes
and toast in dandelion wines
to hear their mellifluous chimes
we toast the monies that we owe, oh, oh
we toast the creditors we daily face
who topple down with gruesome grace
because we know our collars are that color, too
and we toast the artisans of antediluvian crafts
with yarn and glue
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This song is jam-packed with heavy stuff!
A panopticon is a type of prison where the prisoners know the jailer can see any of them at any given time, but have no idea if in fact they are at any particular moment being watched or not.
The second verse deals with the dilemna of many middle-class bohemians, disempowered and taking refuge in antiquated so called "art forms," childlike make-believe worlds of yarn and glue.
She's so smart!
Lyrically this is the stuff of genius, but it's gorgeous sound of the glockenspiel that gets me with this song! :p
"and we toast the aristocrats with blood of blue because we know our collars are that color, too"
aww i like that
"it's gorgeous sound of the glockenspiel that gets me with this song!"
I'm pretty sure that's an mbira rather than a glockenspiel.
Yeah, she`s really smart. Smart, beautiful and talented.
I had some problems with meaning of few words, like "antediluvian", "rabble-rouser" and other that are not unknown per se but its just hard to get them in particular context cause English is not my native language.
So my idea is that this song is about religion as a form of escapism. This "antediluvian" means time before great floods in bible, so traveling back in this biblical picture made form yarn and glue could be viewed as critique of refusing to admit that we all will die. Here is the line:
"Do we die or do we travel...../in the arts of antediluvian crafts/ with yarn and glue"
Considering that Joanna likes nature and all that natural stuff it may give a reason to think that she does not like institutional religion.
And all the other stuff i think is about hypocrisy, if i got the right meaning of word "toast". As i understood "toast" here means "to praise". If that how it is, than it seems that she is singing about that people are trying to look good on the surface but in reality they are corrupt because they are not exploring their authentic self but instead they are traveling in the antediluvian crafts made by artisans, that could be understood as priests and other adepts of institutional religion.
i can hear this song as a parade theme for the revolting proletariat/petit bourgeois, million voices strong. every line is sarcastic and biting, displaying a curt understanding of what is expected of the blind fools, happy for their gilded misfortune. through cheap neo-artifacts of hedonistic times (according to the judaic bible) ... well, hipster culture. this song deserves to be revisited for a wider audience.
could be an extremely superfluous allusion to the independent music industry.