The whole Bertha Pappenheim/Anna O. thing doesn't fit. This song, in fact, this entire album is full of themes about getting older and settling down, and this Anna O. thing has nothing to do with that. Spencer is far more prone to writing metaphors about his personal life than he is to making obscure historical references. The lines about Anna and the repeated "Anna, Anna, Anna, Oh! Why'd you change your name?" to me seem to be a clear reference to Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days. In that song, he expresses unhappiness/regret that this woman (friend? ex-lover?) has enslaved herself to settling down/married life. This song, full of nostalgia, talks about the times when Anna would play guitar and ends with the "why'd you change your name?", (meaning, why did you get married/settle down). But this borrowed thought from Up on Your Leopard has more sadness in this song (there was more frustration/anger in the other) as he is using that event as a metaphor for a larger happening: he is not merely talking about losing "Anna" to marriage but how him and (i'm assuming) his friends are losing their youth and missing those times in the past. You can even see how that metaphor comes to be in these lines:
"because it's been a long time since we sat around the willow tree fire
where Anna played guitar and the rest of us fell in love
that was back before she changed her name"
If any, I think this line sums it all up: "my god, i wish the way we used to be"
While I give credit to those of you who have shed some light on the mythological references, I think mostly he is using them almost as pseudonyms for his friends.
I think its funny that you figured this out by thinking about the artist and the canon of the album rather than relying solely on the song like most people are. Your first step to discovering a lot of what this song has to say was asking yourself "What do we expect of Spencer and what have we come to expect from this album". I'm very impressed.
I think its funny that you figured this out by thinking about the artist and the canon of the album rather than relying solely on the song like most people are. Your first step to discovering a lot of what this song has to say was asking yourself "What do we expect of Spencer and what have we come to expect from this album". I'm very impressed.
The whole Bertha Pappenheim/Anna O. thing doesn't fit. This song, in fact, this entire album is full of themes about getting older and settling down, and this Anna O. thing has nothing to do with that. Spencer is far more prone to writing metaphors about his personal life than he is to making obscure historical references. The lines about Anna and the repeated "Anna, Anna, Anna, Oh! Why'd you change your name?" to me seem to be a clear reference to Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days. In that song, he expresses unhappiness/regret that this woman (friend? ex-lover?) has enslaved herself to settling down/married life. This song, full of nostalgia, talks about the times when Anna would play guitar and ends with the "why'd you change your name?", (meaning, why did you get married/settle down). But this borrowed thought from Up on Your Leopard has more sadness in this song (there was more frustration/anger in the other) as he is using that event as a metaphor for a larger happening: he is not merely talking about losing "Anna" to marriage but how him and (i'm assuming) his friends are losing their youth and missing those times in the past. You can even see how that metaphor comes to be in these lines:
"because it's been a long time since we sat around the willow tree fire where Anna played guitar and the rest of us fell in love that was back before she changed her name"
If any, I think this line sums it all up: "my god, i wish the way we used to be"
While I give credit to those of you who have shed some light on the mythological references, I think mostly he is using them almost as pseudonyms for his friends.
I'm really glad you posted this & I totally agree with what you're saying, too.
I'm really glad you posted this & I totally agree with what you're saying, too.
Do you think maybe he used Anna O as a metaphor because this married life/settling down he lost her to is like sanity?
Do you think maybe he used Anna O as a metaphor because this married life/settling down he lost her to is like sanity?
I think its funny that you figured this out by thinking about the artist and the canon of the album rather than relying solely on the song like most people are. Your first step to discovering a lot of what this song has to say was asking yourself "What do we expect of Spencer and what have we come to expect from this album". I'm very impressed.
I think its funny that you figured this out by thinking about the artist and the canon of the album rather than relying solely on the song like most people are. Your first step to discovering a lot of what this song has to say was asking yourself "What do we expect of Spencer and what have we come to expect from this album". I'm very impressed.