Jessica

General CommentThis is one of those songs that creeps up on your brain some late morning and forces you to spend all trying to remember where it came from.

When you realize its Kaki King singing about teenage summer-camp-lesbianism it's just all that more satisfying.

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General Commenti don't really have a sense of rhythm, but ever notice how when she sings "you had been drinking from the carton" there is a skipped drum beat? and i think another one not too long after that. always drives me crazy. like the song though.

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General CommentSo, apparently Kaki King is a lesbian. I never knew this about her until today, actually. Yeah, I guess this song is about this girl, Jessica, that she liked but was too young for her at the time. Apparently, Jessica told her she'd wait for her, but the lyric, "trying to remember love that never really was" indicates that Jessica didn't end up waiting for her.

I think there were just certain memories or certain moments that were going through her head as she was composing this song so she thought she would add a couple lyrics wherever she thought they fit.

Actually, what I really want is for someone to listen to her song, "My Insect Life" and add those lyrics to SongMeanings because I've listened to that song bunches of times and I'd really like to know what she's saying!

All I could ever decipher was the part where she says, "Notes I learn[ed]/ So beautiful/ The day begins in my insect life"

Otherwise...nothin' :(

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General Comment"Apparently"? Why do people always assume that every song with a personal story is autobiographical? And even if this one was, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about Kaki King's sexual orientation. Things are quite often more ambiguious than "homo" and "hetero". This song is great, anyhow, one of those bittersweet songs I love. It expresses the feeling well: a distant reminiscence of lost love that seems almost like a dream.

I will try to decipher "My Insect Life", it is a little hard though...

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General CommentHey hysteresis, news flash: Kaki King is a lesbian. I hate the spoil the interpretation for anyone, but as Kaki herself stated in many interviews, this song is about an older camp counselor she had who had a crush on her. The counselor's name was Jessica. And although Kaki didn't return the feelings, she found it very flattering and, as a young teenager, it was one of her first experiences in the realm of love. The song was about a love that never existed between them. By the way: Kaki's current girlfriend is acoustic guitarist Kelli Rudick -- her music is kinda reminiscient of Kaki's music prior to her newest stuff.

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General Comment“My Insect Life”
“This is a Louden acoustic tuned to DADGAD. There are several overdubs on this track including drums, vocals, and my lap-steel part at the end. I wanted to sing on this song, but I hadn’t written any lyrics, so what you hear are just meaningless syllables.”

fretsmag.com/…


Good luck deciphering that one! lol

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General Commentthe last part of the line "you had been drinking from the carton..." is "and i knew."

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General CommentIt does seem like there's a missing beat during that part. Also, I had no idea what this song was about, but I find it more interesting now.

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General Commenti just arrived at the kaki king page of this site unintentionally (i was curious so i hit 'view all staff picks' from the homepage and this is where i ended up). i had never bothered doing a search on this site for kaki since she isn't really known for her lyrics. in fact, i've always had the impression that she doesn't really spend too much with lyrics and vocals, and that she only started singing on some of her songs just to give them a different coloring as opposed to her instrumentals. i'm not trying to marginalize her singing--though she's not a good vocalist by any means--but her voice definitely works in the context of her songs.

anyway, the reason i chose to first check out the thread for "jessica" was to see if anyone had mentioned the two instances in the song where the beat stutters (first on the word 'perfume' and the second time on 'drinking'). turns out, yes, the last two people before me who posted mentioned that in their comments. it's nice to know that someone else also identifies this song by those two little, minor parts. i used to be bothered by them quite a bit because i considered it poor songwriting to just skip half a beat on two occasions in order to maintain the rhythm of the lyric. but now i've come to like those two parts because they give the song a cool affectation and i can't help but notice them every time i happen to listen to this song.

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