This is the song for Baby Birch
I will never know you
And at the back of what we've done
There is that knowledge of you
I wish we could take every path
I could spend a hundred years adoring you
Yes, I wish we could take every path,
Because I hated to close the door on you
Do you remember staring up at the stars
So far away in their bulletproof cars
We heard the rushing, slow intake
Of the dark, dark water
And the engine breaks
And I said
How about them engine breaks
And, if I should die before I wake
Will you keep an eye on Baby Birch
Because I'd hate to see her
Make the same mistakes
When it was dark I called and you came
When it was dark I saw shapes
When I see stars I feel in your hand,
And I see stars and I reel, again
Well mercy me, I'll be goddamned
It's been a long long time since I last saw you
And I have never known the plan
It's been a long, long time, how are you
Your eyes are green, your hair is gold
Your hair is black, your eyes are blue
I closed the ranks and I doubled back
But you know, I hated to close the door on you
We take a walk along the dirty lake
Hear the goose cussing at me over her eggs
You poor little cousin
I don't want your dregs
A little baby fussing all over my legs
There is a blacksmith and there is a shepherd and there is a butcher-boy
And there is a barber who's cutting and cutting away at my only joy
I saw a rabbit as slick as a knife and as pale as a candlestick
And I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her and skinned her quick
Held her there kicking and mewling, upended, unspooling, unsung and blue
Told her "wherever you go, little runaway bunny I will find you"
And then she ran
As they're liable to do
Be at peace, baby, and begone
I will never know you
And at the back of what we've done
There is that knowledge of you
I wish we could take every path
I could spend a hundred years adoring you
Yes, I wish we could take every path,
Because I hated to close the door on you
Do you remember staring up at the stars
So far away in their bulletproof cars
We heard the rushing, slow intake
Of the dark, dark water
And the engine breaks
And I said
How about them engine breaks
And, if I should die before I wake
Will you keep an eye on Baby Birch
Because I'd hate to see her
Make the same mistakes
When it was dark I called and you came
When it was dark I saw shapes
When I see stars I feel in your hand,
And I see stars and I reel, again
Well mercy me, I'll be goddamned
It's been a long long time since I last saw you
And I have never known the plan
It's been a long, long time, how are you
Your eyes are green, your hair is gold
Your hair is black, your eyes are blue
I closed the ranks and I doubled back
But you know, I hated to close the door on you
We take a walk along the dirty lake
Hear the goose cussing at me over her eggs
You poor little cousin
I don't want your dregs
A little baby fussing all over my legs
There is a blacksmith and there is a shepherd and there is a butcher-boy
And there is a barber who's cutting and cutting away at my only joy
I saw a rabbit as slick as a knife and as pale as a candlestick
And I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her and skinned her quick
Held her there kicking and mewling, upended, unspooling, unsung and blue
Told her "wherever you go, little runaway bunny I will find you"
And then she ran
As they're liable to do
Be at peace, baby, and begone
Lyrics submitted by blueofthesky
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Can't thank her enough for this song in particular along with others, she's an absolute rarity and to be cherished.
That said, an additional fact: it is not unusual for doctors to get involved in miscarriages, especially late or incomplete miscarriages, because they can be dangerous, and miscarriages are very common, especially in young women who have never been pregnant before. The imagery at the end could mean any of a thousand things, but if we want to talk about it involving the end of a pregnancy, it could mean that.
Now my two cents: I personally - in my own personal politics and beliefs - certainly do think of abortions more as roads not taken, so to me that interpretation would ring true. But there are so many babies that people could have had if things had been a little different! There are the babies that could have been born if you'd been a little drunker or less shy or more forgetful or better or worse at math! There are the babies that could have been born if you just hadn't started an argument over whose turn it was to do the dishes, and the babies that could have been born if you'd skipped class that morning, and the babies that could have been born if the pregnancy hadn't miscarried, and the babies that could have been born if you hadn't broken up, and the babies that could have been born if you hadn't gotten an abortion. Every time we make a choice we shut out a whole bunch of other choices, all the time. How many missed chances are we supposed to live our lives for, anyway? But I think there are certain choices that come to represent how we expected our lives to turn out one way, and they didn't, and there's a whole lot of Joanna Newsom songs that seem to be about that kind of choice. She is a brilliant and articulate woman, and I wish her every luck.
I agree that the image of a skinned bunny, held "upended, kicking and mewling, unsung and blue" evokes a baby, but I think the "unsung and blue" is key - the baby dying before birth.
~told her "wherever you go,
little runaway bunny,
I will find you."~
I think she's saying here that she won't be able to let go of this lost child. That's the theme here - imagining what the baby would have looked like as it grew up. Walking around lake, etc. She can't let go of this child that never came to be.
The following song "On A Good Day" she talks about still being frozen by this loss, but she has made progress. She can see the end (on a good day).
HOWEVER, I don't think this is from Joanna's perspective, but her sister's. The song "Esme" has a verse:
And I do not know
If you know just what you have done
You are the sweetest one
I have ever laid my eyes upon
And...
The phantom of love moves among us at will
Each phantom-limb lost has got an angel
So confused like the wagging bobbed-tail of a bulldog
Kindness, kindness prevails
I think these allude to her sister Emily's losing one child, but finally having Esme - who doesn't replace Baby Birch, but still brings joy and life back to her.
A lot of people talk about the album being about relationships (which some songs are), but I think the core of the album centers around this. I imagine her going back home to Nevada City and helping Emily deal with this loss, then a new birth, all while taking into account everything that has changed in her life and that of her loves ones.
in nabokov's lolita, humbert humbert recalls a song that lolita loves, and it's about a lost love of some type. i hear this song echoed in baby birch. it goes:
O my Carmen, my Carmen!
Something, something those something nights,
And the stars, and the cars, and the bars and the barmen--
And, O my charmin', our dreadful fights.
And the something town where so gaily, arm in
Arm, we went, and our final row,
And the gun I killed you with, O my Carmen,
The gun I am holding now.
the lost love, the guilt of having killed it, the stars, the cars, the rhyme scheme---all very similar.
any thoughts?
"I will never know you, and at the back of what we've done, there is that knowledge of you" =not understanding that part of the self or why she has made certain choices.
She goes back an forth saying "you" when addressing that part of the self and addressing an old lover.
"There is a blacksmith and there is a shepherd and there is a butcher boy...."= Poetic allusion to, what, I'm not sure.
"...Skinned her quick. held her there kicking and mewing....And then she ran, as they're liable to do"= Self-sabotage, that aspect of the writer was an emotional runner.
Basically my interpretation is: Self-sabotage/ Getting too close to someone emotionally and pulling away in fear/Abandoning that cowardly aspect of self which causes the self sabotage. Hope this made sense.
I think Joanna is obsessed with motherhood. She writes of it all the time.
The voice in the song seems sad, somewhat regretful, unsure, and I assume that Joanna is incorporating elements of an expectant mother that has aborted, however, I find it to be more of a social commentary and not a personal reflection.
I don't know, your analysis, and claims that Joanna is deeply fascinated by social expectations, etc. seems to be to be just as "presumptuous" as saying that she's writing of something because she has maternal instinct.
I don't think either one of you are wrong, nor do I have a stance other than Joanna seems to be deeply interested in motherhood, along with a few others topics, easily supported by the common references. I simply don't understand why you would call one opinion presumptuous and then state your own, as if it is truth, when it doesn't appear to be any more or less valid.
On A Good Day
Hey hey hey, the end is near!
On a good day, you can see the end from here.
But I won't turn back, now, though the way is clear;
I will stay for the remainder.
I saw a life, and I called it mine.
I saw it, drawn so sweet and fine,
and I had begun to fill in all the lines,
right down to what we'd name her.
Our nature does not change by will.
In the Winter 'round the ruined mill,
The creek is lying, flat and still;
it is water, though it's frozen.
So, 'cross the years and miles and through,
on a good day, you can feel my love for you.
Will you leave me be, so that we can stay true
To the path that you have chosen?
I'm definitely unsure at this point.