High life
Whose is the hand that I will hold?
Whose is the face I will see?
Whose is the name that I will call
When I am called to meet thee?
In this life who did you love
Beneath the drifting ashes?
Beneath the sheeting banks of air
That barrenly bore our rations?
When I could speak it was too late
Didn't you hear me calling?
Didn't you see my heart leap like
A pup in the constant barley?
In this new life where did you crouch
When the sky had set to boiling?
Burning within, seen from without
And your gut was a serpent coiling
And for the sake of that pit of snakes
For whom did you allay your shyness?
And spend all your mercy and madness and grace
In a day beneath the bending cypress
It was not on principle
Show, pro-heart that you have got gall
A miracle
I can bear a lot but not that pall
I can bear a lot, but not that pall
Kingfisher sound the alarm
Say sweet little darling now come to my arms
Tell me all about the love you left on the farm
He was a kind, unhurried man
With a heavy lip and a steady hand
But he loved me just like a little child
Like a little child loves a little lamb
Thrown to the ground by something down there
Bitten by the bad air while the clouds tick
Trying to read all the signs
Preparing for when the bombs hit
Hung from the underbelly of the earth
While the stars skid away below
Gormless and brakeless, gravel-loose
Falling silent as gavels in the snow
I lay back and spit in my chaw
Wrapped in the long arm of the law
Who has seen it all
I can bear a lot but not that pall
I can bear a lot but not that pall
Kingfisher, cast your fly
O lord, it happens without even trying
When I sling a low look from my shuttering eye
Blows rain upon the one you loved
And though you were only sparring
There's blood on the eye, unlace the glove
Say, honey, I am not sorry
Stand here and name the one you loved
Beneath the drifting ashes
And in naming, rise above time
As it, flashing, passes
We came by the boatload
And were immobilized
Worshiping volcanoes
Charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth left
Us bound and calcified and made as
Obstinate as obsidian
Unmoving, save our eyes
Just mooning and blinking
From faces marked with coal
Ash cooling and shrinking
Cracks loud as thunder rolling, I swear
I know you, you know me
Where have we met before, tell me true?
To whose authority
Do you consign your soul?
I had a dream you came to me
Saying, you shall not do me harm anymore
And with your knife you evicted my life
From its little lighthouse on the seashore
And I saw that my blood had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath
It is too short, the day we are born
We commence with our dying
Trying to serve with the heart of a child
Kingfisher lie with the lion
Whose is the face I will see?
Whose is the name that I will call
When I am called to meet thee?
In this life who did you love
Beneath the drifting ashes?
Beneath the sheeting banks of air
That barrenly bore our rations?
When I could speak it was too late
Didn't you hear me calling?
Didn't you see my heart leap like
A pup in the constant barley?
In this new life where did you crouch
When the sky had set to boiling?
Burning within, seen from without
And your gut was a serpent coiling
And for the sake of that pit of snakes
For whom did you allay your shyness?
And spend all your mercy and madness and grace
In a day beneath the bending cypress
It was not on principle
Show, pro-heart that you have got gall
A miracle
I can bear a lot but not that pall
I can bear a lot, but not that pall
Kingfisher sound the alarm
Say sweet little darling now come to my arms
Tell me all about the love you left on the farm
He was a kind, unhurried man
With a heavy lip and a steady hand
But he loved me just like a little child
Like a little child loves a little lamb
Thrown to the ground by something down there
Bitten by the bad air while the clouds tick
Trying to read all the signs
Preparing for when the bombs hit
Hung from the underbelly of the earth
While the stars skid away below
Gormless and brakeless, gravel-loose
Falling silent as gavels in the snow
I lay back and spit in my chaw
Wrapped in the long arm of the law
Who has seen it all
I can bear a lot but not that pall
I can bear a lot but not that pall
Kingfisher, cast your fly
O lord, it happens without even trying
When I sling a low look from my shuttering eye
Blows rain upon the one you loved
And though you were only sparring
There's blood on the eye, unlace the glove
Say, honey, I am not sorry
Stand here and name the one you loved
Beneath the drifting ashes
And in naming, rise above time
As it, flashing, passes
We came by the boatload
And were immobilized
Worshiping volcanoes
Charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth left
Us bound and calcified and made as
Obstinate as obsidian
Unmoving, save our eyes
Just mooning and blinking
From faces marked with coal
Ash cooling and shrinking
Cracks loud as thunder rolling, I swear
I know you, you know me
Where have we met before, tell me true?
To whose authority
Do you consign your soul?
I had a dream you came to me
Saying, you shall not do me harm anymore
And with your knife you evicted my life
From its little lighthouse on the seashore
And I saw that my blood had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath
It is too short, the day we are born
We commence with our dying
Trying to serve with the heart of a child
Kingfisher lie with the lion
Lyrics submitted by mutinyinheaven_x
Kingfisher Lyrics as written by Joanna Newsom
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
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it's obstinate, not ostinate. haha
it sounds like it could be metaphorical for the end of a relationship. it would thematically match the progress of the album, at least. so wonderful.
typo! thanks :)
Yup. The end.