La Dame et la Licorne

Pure beauty this.

The song's title referst to a fameous meadeval tapastry that shows a lady and a unicorn- tracy chavlier wrote about it.

yes this song does refer to a tapastry which shows the taming of a unicorn. A unicorn can only be tamed by a virgin woman, and more then once the words seem to come from the point of view of a woman. The unicorn being tamed is often a reference in paintings and such to a man falling in love with a lady and the womans chastaty leading to a faithful relationship. Going on this i will hazard a guess that this is a bout lovers seperated by war from the point of view of a young chaste woman prehaps harking back to medival times. The general air of the lyrics seem to be about beauty but also sadness as id reflected by the sad but beautiful melody of the music. Prehaps this is the lady going to see her lover at the front lines and the beauty she encounters along the way. She seems almost intoxicated with the beauty and the thought of seeing her lover again. But i cant help thinking when i hear this some that the boy is already dead but she travels to see him anyway, prehaps unconciously seeking her own death so that they can be together. or prehaps im reading too much into it ;)

hmm sorry for the typos im new to the site and cant seem to find an edit button, guess i'll have to be more careful in future posts. "But i cant help thinking when i hear this song that the boy is already dead but she travels to see him anyway" I think i thought this because the lyrics go: "Bring back my boy I loved him I loved him" where as "bring him back" could refer to him returning from the war, the "I loved him" does seem to indicate he might be dead.

I really have a strong feeling that this song isn't meant to be taken as literal events. To me it is intensely psychological symbolism. The version I have (from the 2006 Palo Santo CD) has this lyric right after "on the roads and the fences": my head is on fire my body's disturbed It also omits the lyric: "to the enemy lines". It seems to me to be more about a tortured person trying his all to feel love, but failing. The fourth verse particularly shows this. Other songs on the CD also express this kind of gentle, passive, frustration with a woman or lover and attempting to love her. Hail Maiy is a good example. So very powerful.

From a Shearwater live show recorded by NPR, here's Jonathan's introduction to this song: ".. Palo Santo .. which is a set of songs all about the singer Nico. The record starts out .. she died on the island of Ibiza .. she fell off of a bicycle while having a stroke .. so the record kind of starts imagining her last moments and kind of goes backwards from there."

I cannot believe there are only 6 comments about this song. It is the most beautiful song I've ever heard. honestiron's reply seems to nail it! Amazing, amazing stuff!

Make that 7. Love this song...