I've read and interview about Guyville and Liz said:
"This song ['Canary'] is a perfect example. This isn't talking about a guy; it's talking about me and my home life with my family, having this stressful relationship with this quasi-abusive brother, and trying to be a good little girl for everyone while all this shit was going on inside me. And I had these contrary feelings and inappropriate thoughts, and my piano was where I would go. I was allowed to practice piano, so instead of practicing, I was making up these subversive songs. This is probably fucking the oldest one on Guyville, now that we come to it, because I can see myself in my parents' house, and what I'm saying is: 'Send it up on fire in the music, up to the heavens. I will be deaf and stop listening to you all before I will shut up. Deaf before dawn.' There is a line in there about sex, like: 'I come when you circle the cherry/I sing like a good canary'– but that's acknowledging that even later. I think that would've been a line added later... rewritten, in a sense, to describe... I'm still there. I'm still stuck in a context where I have no voice, but I'm inside here somewhere."
@arnold1056 This is Liz saying it's "deaf before dawn", not me. You're contradicting the person that wrote the song. This is from an interview that came out in the Village Voice in 2008, and it's still up if you google it.
@arnold1056 This is Liz saying it's "deaf before dawn", not me. You're contradicting the person that wrote the song. This is from an interview that came out in the Village Voice in 2008, and it's still up if you google it.
I've read and interview about Guyville and Liz said:
"This song ['Canary'] is a perfect example. This isn't talking about a guy; it's talking about me and my home life with my family, having this stressful relationship with this quasi-abusive brother, and trying to be a good little girl for everyone while all this shit was going on inside me. And I had these contrary feelings and inappropriate thoughts, and my piano was where I would go. I was allowed to practice piano, so instead of practicing, I was making up these subversive songs. This is probably fucking the oldest one on Guyville, now that we come to it, because I can see myself in my parents' house, and what I'm saying is: 'Send it up on fire in the music, up to the heavens. I will be deaf and stop listening to you all before I will shut up. Deaf before dawn.' There is a line in there about sex, like: 'I come when you circle the cherry/I sing like a good canary'– but that's acknowledging that even later. I think that would've been a line added later... rewritten, in a sense, to describe... I'm still there. I'm still stuck in a context where I have no voice, but I'm inside here somewhere."
@NeonFlow Death before dawn. Not "Deaf before dawn".
@NeonFlow Death before dawn. Not "Deaf before dawn".
@arnold1056 This is Liz saying it's "deaf before dawn", not me. You're contradicting the person that wrote the song. This is from an interview that came out in the Village Voice in 2008, and it's still up if you google it.
@arnold1056 This is Liz saying it's "deaf before dawn", not me. You're contradicting the person that wrote the song. This is from an interview that came out in the Village Voice in 2008, and it's still up if you google it.