Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
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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My theory is that it's a tragic love story that took place during World War II. The religious references are not the focus of the song, I think. It took me a long time to see it, but the context speaks of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
First, Kingfisher was a bomber in the air force, or perhaps a fighter pilot. The stanza that illustrates that best is: "I can bear a lot but not that pall Kingfisher, cast your fly O lord, it happens without even tryin' When I sling a low look from my shuttering eye"
Other things like rations, "sounding the alarm" and "preparing for when the bombs hit" keyed me in to war at first, and there's more evidence later in the song that she's talking specifically about Pearl Harbor.
I think Joanna does switch narrators several times during the song. She sometimes sings as Kingfisher him/herself, but other parts are his/her lover addressing or observing Kingfisher. The "quiet" part at the end is more historic, and definitely speaks to me of the persecution of the Japanese after Pearl Harbor:
"We came by the boatload And were immobilised 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"
The stanza: "I know you; you know me Where have we met before, tell me true? To whose authority Do you consign your soul?" Clinches the relationship between Kingfisher and the other character; S/he was a Japanese immigrant, and they were lovers before the war. S/he might have even been an actual Japanese spy, but that's not stated very clearly in the song. Now s/he is imprisoned on a military base (in Hawaii?), where Kingfisher sees him/her again.
"To whose authority / Do you consign your soul?" is a reference (almost a joke) about the Japanese' devotion to their emperor versus Americans' to the flag. What they did to the Japanese after Pearl Harbor was pretty atrocious.... The "dream" where Kingfisher kills the lover as if by an atom bomb (a basically undeniable Japan reference) is the final stroke. All hope is lost for the him/her, and s/he expresses his/her regret in the final stanza for the choices they each made.
They rest of the song, while beautiful and fully up to Newsom's poetic standards, says more about their love and less about what actually happened. It's still a love song, but with a historical context and a tragic outcome!
You're a genius! I would have never thought of WWII! The volcanoes work with Hawaii too.
Yeah! I'm usually terrible at figuring out songs, but this one clicked with me somehow. Joanna is the genius! :D
This is exactly what I drew from the lyrics too, a lot of Joanna's songs may have religious (not just Christian) aspects, but I really don't think she focusses on them that often... Usually there's some sort of deeper story there, about a person or people or it's coupled with religion for metaphorical purposes... She's no Sufjan Stevens, guys!
Interesting! I love that we can envision such different landscapes. I always got a renaissance vibe from the arrangement and so my mind took me to Mount Vesuvius/Pompei and imagined lovers calcified by the eruption that took place there in the "ash-cooling, " "gormless- and brakeless," etc.