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Full Moon, Empty Heart Lyrics
Sleep in now, now.
Sleep in now, now, now.
It's still night out.
Sleep in.
Don't look at me
Looking back at you,
Out the window backwards,
Out the window backwards.
Sleep.
See this child twice stolen from me,
Out the window backwards,
Out the window backwards.
Sleep in now, now.
Sleep in now, now, now.
Sleep now.
Now fall to the bed,
Put your hand in your hair.
Now fall to the tile,
Stick your finger in your eye.
That's the only way you cry.
Hey now.
Hey now.
Full moon pass the window sideways.
Hey now.
Hey now.
Sleep in now, now.
Sleep in now, now.
Sleep in now, now.
Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
Maurice Sendak wrote a children's book called Outside Over There. In this book a baby is stolen by goblins when her sister is playing her a lullaby, but not watching. The baby's big sister must go out the window backwards to get to the goblin land and retrieve her sister. Once there she makes the goblins cry and change back into the babies they came from before her sister is turned into a goblin bride. She finds her sister and saves her. It is a very dark children's book, but has always been my very favorite. I have it memorized. This song has so many similarities to that book, I have to wonder if they are related. This song is also one of my favorites, and I have it memorized too. I wish I knew Tanya Donelly because I'm just too curious to know if I'm right .
@cambrose Wow, that's the plot to the movie 'Labyrinth'. Never knew that was based on a book by Sendak.
@cambrose Wow, that's the plot to the movie 'Labyrinth'. Never knew that was based on a book by Sendak.
I would say that Tanya is the mom, the song is about a kid falling asleep. Out the window backwards is a reflection in the night. Falling on the tile part is the kid getting up and out of bed, crying alligator tears.
I think it's deceptively sinister. The lullaby segment at the beginning followed by the upbeat poppish main part with the bouncy bass line belies the song's darkness. The key lyric is 'See this child twice stolen from me / Out the window backwards.'
A disturbed parent has decided to protect their child and ensure it is never 'stolen' again... by throwing it out a window. Or possibly by throwing both themselves and the child out the window, so that they remain together in death. A very long 'sleep in'.
When I first heard the lines "Don't look at me looking back at you, out the window backwards," the first image that came into my mind was of watching someone riding away through the rear windshield of a car. I think the woman singing the song (not necessarily Tanya herself) is losing custody of her child. It has happened before ("see this child twice stolen from me") and she is trying to comfort her child by telling her/him to sleep, not to think about the separation.
"A child twice stolen from me," could also be 2 abortions, miscarriages or something of that nature.
@epoxychick71 An accurate assumption in my opinion. White Belly, the song that follows Full Moon Empty Heart on Star, is about an abortion.
@epoxychick71 An accurate assumption in my opinion. White Belly, the song that follows Full Moon Empty Heart on Star, is about an abortion.