While it's fairly obvious that the majority of this song is about Lola Montez's affair with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, not all of it can be traced back to concrete history, and I suspect some of it is fictionalized by Joanna Newsom, or maybe even personal details inserted in among the story.
I've gone through and attempted to connect lyrics back to history. I haven't done a ton of research, just read most of a book about Lola Montez and then various snippets about her, so no doubt I'm missing details, but I've attempted a reading of sorts.
Joanna Newsom stated in an interview that the lyrics of "Have One On Me" are meant to be in the voice or thoughts of someone in a feverish sort of state (I cannot remember the exact quote; I'm sure I'm twisting it). I take this to believe the song takes place in Lola Montez's hazy mind as she recounts her life, mainly dealing with Ludwig (or Louis here). Considering the abundant reference to alcohol later, maybe the song is a sort of drunken sprawl from Lola, or perhaps a dream, or something else. It does jump around a lot, so I hope to tie it together in a way by combing through it.
The opening scene is quite confusing for me. I've gone through many considerations while trying to decide what is actually happening. There is a scene from a book about Lola I'd like to recount, because I think it might be related. After Lola has been in Bavaria a long time, some of the citizens are getting fed up with her and storm to her house to attempt to chase her out. They actually do this several different nights, eventually succeeding. On most occasions, Lola appears indifferent and cocky to their attacks, even though she probably would have been overtaken had she not had guards and troops to protect her. The riots do turn violent, Ludwig refers to his people as "blackguards" at one point, and people are hurt, though no one specifically. The first time people came after her, rioting on her lawn, it is reported that she stepped out on her balcony and toasted to their good health with a glass of champagne, then throwing bon bons out among the crowd. This is the scene I think of when considering the first stanza, but it doesn't seem to fit entirely. The idea of Lola "float[ing] out" to watch the commotion fits. I've thought that the cup dropping is her champagne cup being dropped over the balcony with the bon bons. The "them" that are kept around could possibly be guards and/or troops sent to protect her. The "blackguard" could be a rioting Bavarian who is hurt in the scuffle. Lola doesn't feel so terrible about his death, but realizes that Louis will, in fact, probably feel guilty and aches for him and him only. Even if this is not accurate, it brings up a point I am curious about: Is Lola a villain? Throughout the song there are varying portrayals from Lola being cruel to Lola truly loving Louis. I can't figure out exactly what the consensus is, but this brings it up right away. If "him" is Louis, then Lola clearly yearns for his approval, but this doesn't seem to be a theme that runs throughout the entire thing (a result of the jumpiness of the narrative? Perhaps the difference between how Lola really feels (love) and how others assumes she feels (just using the king)?)
I'm also entirely doubtful that "Heard the cup drop: thought, "Well, that's why they keep them around," refers to what I suggested. I can't come up with a suggestion that makes sense, however. The way this sentence is phrased leads me to believe that Lola is suggesting that cups are kept around to drop after seeing one perform its duty. That's nonsensical, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at or what is missing. Also, the death of the "blackguard" leaves me questioning as well. My explanation doesn't strike me as fully satisfactory.
However, the next stanza is pretty easy. It's in the form of a letter Lola has written to Louis after she has successfully left Bavaria. The issue of the name "daddy longlegs" brings up a few things for me. First, I am unsure of whether it's referring to a spider, or a crane fly (apparently called "daddy longlegs" in the UK). The spider makes sense considering the song is full of spider imagery, but considering a crane fly could be a meal for a spider, I believe that theory makes it so Louis is the victim he is portrayed as throughout the song, also fitting other lyrics. The second thing is why Lola is so insistent on referring to Louis as "daddy","pa" and "pretty papa." I know it's not particularly strange to refer to someone as "daddy" in a romantic or sexual way, but the overabundance made me question if there was more to it. Now the king was obviously older than Lola, which may be a part of it, but I wondered, given later lyrics, if some of the lyrics were intended for father figures in Lola's life. Lola's father died young and her mother remarried. Her stepfather, though she was said to get along with him, sent her away to live elsewhere. Perhaps this is looking too far into it, but it's interesting nonetheless. This stanza also takes on the notion of Lola being rather loving towards the king. She left only because she had to and clearly still yearns for him, yet urges him to stay there and be calm to retain his power.
We then jump to when Lola seems to have first met the king. She's introduced as a dancer, especially desiring money. I'm thinking the "shrieking six-legged millionaire" is the king (six-legs makes me think of the crane fly reference). The fact that his riches are pointed out seems that that is something Lola was after -- a gold-digger! She goes after him, flirting, asking to see him. There's a little big of language here identifying Lola as a sort of victim. When she says, "they are at it again" I think of her somehow being abused, and then shortly after, she's "poor Lola." However, I don't believe Lola was really treated poorly while she danced, after all doing it all of her own accord, so perhaps those small victimizations Lola urged in order for the king to feel badly for her, or perhaps that is simply how the king did view it. The story jumps to the end, where Lola leaves Bavaria after the king has lost much of his honor. Again, here, Lola is somewhat the bad girl -- she left him to save herself. But it seems in reality she kept returning and the king was the one that took a stand and denounced her power in order to please his country.
The "fly" is probably the king, while of course, Lola is a spider. I'm not at all sure of what "whereby the machine is run," means, or what exactly the "deed" is other than Lola and her affair. I'm thinking it was the people of Bavaria who have a voice during these accusations, leaving Louis as poor and abused. Adding on, at the end, is probably Louis, referring sadly to Lola as a whore. It seems everyone assumes her to be a woman just after money and power, which perhaps she was, but it seems sad to me that even Louis, who loved her, acknowledged her "black heart."
Castlemaine appears to be a place in Australia that had a gold rush event and opened up a theater where Lola was the first to perform. Lola also went to California before this (hanging around Nevada City) and so is no stranger to chasing gold. This jumps quite a bit, and I believe she had married another at this point, long having left the kings affair.
I'm not entirely sure who is seeing who after, "Well, I've seen lots." I'm thinking perhaps, given the idea of stumbling ramblings or someone not in their right mind, it's possible this is meant to communicate Lola hallucinating about seeing Louis. The next part confuses me a bit too. "Though the long road begins and ends with you," seems to communicate long lasting love to me, which so far, Lola hasn't really been accused of. She's been seen of cruel and seeking out money, but this line seems to mean she sees her life as circling around him. I can't tell if at this point this song has jumped back to the past, or if she's remembering and longing for him.
"At night," though, does take us back to Bavaria. Lola was known for carrying around a whip and also known for not getting along with the Jesuits which explains this stanza. The immediately following line about the big black spider could possibly jump back to the present, to a sort of insanity Lola feels so much that she can't even leave her house, and wonders if Louis still with her. Or it could be referring to the days when she was being attacked by Bavarians and was probably hidden away to protect her.
From here on out, I'm wholly unsure of what the italics mean. Earlier, it seemed to be in the voice of the king, but I do not believe that is entirely true for the rest of the song. As a result, I'm not sure if the next stanza is Lola still, or possibly the king? I'm also not entirely sure of where to go with the meaning of the lyrics either. At first I thought it was referring to Lola's transfer out of Bavaria ("the change") where the "death" is an emotional or metaphorical one. But I suppose it could also refer to the king's feelings when he decided to renounce Lola's power and ordered to have her arrested if found. "These songs" could be the poetry Louis spent his life writing. If this is referring to the night the two left each other, it's obvious whoever this stanza is in the voice of didn't quite want it to happen.
"Mud in your eye" leads us into the "Will you have one on me?" part, obviously referring to drinking. The rest of the song, I believe, is fictionalized, considering Lola and the king never got married (perhaps she wanted to?) and I'm unsure of why another man she married would be relevant here.
A wedding is taking place, but instead of it being a happy event, it appears to be a violent and drunken mess. Throwing the bouquet, normally a fun and happy ceremony, becomes a violent rowdy sort of act and then everything gets confusing and there are a ton of references to alcohol. The little love ditty I thought might be from the words of the king, but the "I'm leaving!" part leads me to believe it's Lola, pleading, that the king keep her in Bavaria or ask her to stay.
Then we just get muddied memories. Repeatedly someone is "half-dead" and "drunk." She is hidden in a cupboard, given champagne, and then hoarded on a train. This could be seen as referring to the night Lola left Bavaria again, but later lines lead me to the believe she was on the train with the person she loved, which doesn't fit. The memories of the stubble and missed hairs scraping against her while she is put away is such wonderful imagery and starts to build a picture of something meant to be beautiful, but absolutely not. Instead of a gorgeous falling star, it looks like coal, and god has become a rat (cornered, like Lola may have felt). There is a constant urging to drink, have one on Lola perhaps, or Lola remembering someone telling her to have one on him. The "knocking heads" lines brings me back to the train, sitting up, but asleep, as it chugs along.
The "meanwhile" line is a line sympathetic towards Lola, which most of the song isn't. It recalls the scene where she drinks to the rioters health, but this time, I believe she's drinking to the kings, sarcastically, and talking about how he got rid of her and how it hurt. This is what makes me think back to her step-father, who certainly made her expendable, but that doesn't seem to mean much throughout the rest of the song. I believe this stanza shows just how broken she feels after being thrown from Bavaria, even though most of the song has shown Lola as the cruel one.
It's pretty amazing when the music halts and the love songs come back on. I believe the broken and confused Lola goes back to a memory when she was in Bavaria and had power and the king's love ... but really it just goes back to the beginning of the end, where because of her, someone dies, and she knows the king won't like it. So she croons, wondering if she made it okay, if she felt bad enough, if she did right by him.
I find myself ultimately confused about the message of the song. I think it's really Lola mourning the loss of a man she truly did love, but nobody believed she did, and was viewed as violent, crude and cruel (she did carry a whip around...). Now in her fog, she can't stop thinking about it, how she was a dancer on the stage, but a child in his arms. And how she trusted him and his bad poetry, but eventually he got rid of her, because she was making him look bad and made bad things happen.
I'm not sure if that's whats actually happening here and I long to learn more. It's such a fun song though. I took it to be far more lighthearted at first than I now believe it is. Also, Joanna Newsom uses some of the best instruments in her music and this is a wonderful showcase of it.
Hey this is really enlightening, I would just like to add something:
perhaps, given the volatile nature of "lola's" speech throughout her words, she is refering to all the men in her life by using just one male character, perhaps louis. And so, she is expressing all the emotions she felt for many different men who marked her life, some who have helped her, others who have tossed her aside and even others that she herself helped, hurted and tossed aside. And these men characters are not only her lovers, but her father figures as well, her step-dad for instance. Perhaps...
Hey this is really enlightening, I would just like to add something:
perhaps, given the volatile nature of "lola's" speech throughout her words, she is refering to all the men in her life by using just one male character, perhaps louis. And so, she is expressing all the emotions she felt for many different men who marked her life, some who have helped her, others who have tossed her aside and even others that she herself helped, hurted and tossed aside. And these men characters are not only her lovers, but her father figures as well, her step-dad for instance. Perhaps at the end of her long life she confuses all of them in this druken stream of thought and they all fit into a commom male presence in her journey, and so the long road beggins and ends with him but she can never make amends, she spent her entire life emptying her bottle by offering herself to 'him' whithout fully understanding what was it that she was offering and to whom, or even why she did it. Did she want love? Was she trying endlessly to please her long gone 'dad'? Or even herself or her mother? - as she says in Ribbon bows 'my mother may be ashamed of me, with all my fineries (this is another thing I'd like to add, once you understand what's behind 'Have one on me', it addapts throughout the entire album, as if the narrator has embodied this character lola and all of her different sides, it's really interesting to try and find her in all the tracks, her constant struggle between parting and leaving others behind, a sense of longing and the need to go over the top with excess to make up for that. There must be a reason for this being the Title track as you said). And I don't think that her being Good or Dad is the point, she was neither, she was just hurricane lola, both brave and fragile, cruel and soft, traitor and betrayed, manipulating and being used.
Also, I felt that we shouldn't be very caught up by the narrator's use of YOU and ME, because it seems to me that in some instances lola (or the other 'characters' throughout the album) can be addressing a lover as easily as she can be addressing herself (this felt very appropriate in 'Go Long' or even the use of italics in 'Have one on Me', which to me immideatly felt like all of a sudden all the different Lolas from different points in her life where all stepping in at this moment where she looks back and goes on this almost hallucinated trip). It does not necessarily make sense, the same way that it doesn't for her to mix her dads with her royal lovers but at the end of the day, lola was in fact a rather erratic person who lived on the edge all the time, without any kind of boundaries or attachments to society, or even reality, and if you add the excess and the alcohol factor (very obvious in this song) and the need to love and be loved back, it does make sense and it is beautifull. She never was and still does not know who they were, the same way she never trully got to understand who she was and what she was looking for in her wreckless search.
I went to a Joanna Newsom show last week and almost cried during this song, I truly believe she is the best poet musician I ever encountered.
Sorry if my english is bad at some points but I hope I added something interesting because I really enjoyed reading your analysis.
While it's fairly obvious that the majority of this song is about Lola Montez's affair with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, not all of it can be traced back to concrete history, and I suspect some of it is fictionalized by Joanna Newsom, or maybe even personal details inserted in among the story.
I've gone through and attempted to connect lyrics back to history. I haven't done a ton of research, just read most of a book about Lola Montez and then various snippets about her, so no doubt I'm missing details, but I've attempted a reading of sorts.
Joanna Newsom stated in an interview that the lyrics of "Have One On Me" are meant to be in the voice or thoughts of someone in a feverish sort of state (I cannot remember the exact quote; I'm sure I'm twisting it). I take this to believe the song takes place in Lola Montez's hazy mind as she recounts her life, mainly dealing with Ludwig (or Louis here). Considering the abundant reference to alcohol later, maybe the song is a sort of drunken sprawl from Lola, or perhaps a dream, or something else. It does jump around a lot, so I hope to tie it together in a way by combing through it.
The opening scene is quite confusing for me. I've gone through many considerations while trying to decide what is actually happening. There is a scene from a book about Lola I'd like to recount, because I think it might be related. After Lola has been in Bavaria a long time, some of the citizens are getting fed up with her and storm to her house to attempt to chase her out. They actually do this several different nights, eventually succeeding. On most occasions, Lola appears indifferent and cocky to their attacks, even though she probably would have been overtaken had she not had guards and troops to protect her. The riots do turn violent, Ludwig refers to his people as "blackguards" at one point, and people are hurt, though no one specifically. The first time people came after her, rioting on her lawn, it is reported that she stepped out on her balcony and toasted to their good health with a glass of champagne, then throwing bon bons out among the crowd. This is the scene I think of when considering the first stanza, but it doesn't seem to fit entirely. The idea of Lola "float[ing] out" to watch the commotion fits. I've thought that the cup dropping is her champagne cup being dropped over the balcony with the bon bons. The "them" that are kept around could possibly be guards and/or troops sent to protect her. The "blackguard" could be a rioting Bavarian who is hurt in the scuffle. Lola doesn't feel so terrible about his death, but realizes that Louis will, in fact, probably feel guilty and aches for him and him only. Even if this is not accurate, it brings up a point I am curious about: Is Lola a villain? Throughout the song there are varying portrayals from Lola being cruel to Lola truly loving Louis. I can't figure out exactly what the consensus is, but this brings it up right away. If "him" is Louis, then Lola clearly yearns for his approval, but this doesn't seem to be a theme that runs throughout the entire thing (a result of the jumpiness of the narrative? Perhaps the difference between how Lola really feels (love) and how others assumes she feels (just using the king)?)
I'm also entirely doubtful that "Heard the cup drop: thought, "Well, that's why they keep them around," refers to what I suggested. I can't come up with a suggestion that makes sense, however. The way this sentence is phrased leads me to believe that Lola is suggesting that cups are kept around to drop after seeing one perform its duty. That's nonsensical, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at or what is missing. Also, the death of the "blackguard" leaves me questioning as well. My explanation doesn't strike me as fully satisfactory.
However, the next stanza is pretty easy. It's in the form of a letter Lola has written to Louis after she has successfully left Bavaria. The issue of the name "daddy longlegs" brings up a few things for me. First, I am unsure of whether it's referring to a spider, or a crane fly (apparently called "daddy longlegs" in the UK). The spider makes sense considering the song is full of spider imagery, but considering a crane fly could be a meal for a spider, I believe that theory makes it so Louis is the victim he is portrayed as throughout the song, also fitting other lyrics. The second thing is why Lola is so insistent on referring to Louis as "daddy","pa" and "pretty papa." I know it's not particularly strange to refer to someone as "daddy" in a romantic or sexual way, but the overabundance made me question if there was more to it. Now the king was obviously older than Lola, which may be a part of it, but I wondered, given later lyrics, if some of the lyrics were intended for father figures in Lola's life. Lola's father died young and her mother remarried. Her stepfather, though she was said to get along with him, sent her away to live elsewhere. Perhaps this is looking too far into it, but it's interesting nonetheless. This stanza also takes on the notion of Lola being rather loving towards the king. She left only because she had to and clearly still yearns for him, yet urges him to stay there and be calm to retain his power.
We then jump to when Lola seems to have first met the king. She's introduced as a dancer, especially desiring money. I'm thinking the "shrieking six-legged millionaire" is the king (six-legs makes me think of the crane fly reference). The fact that his riches are pointed out seems that that is something Lola was after -- a gold-digger! She goes after him, flirting, asking to see him. There's a little big of language here identifying Lola as a sort of victim. When she says, "they are at it again" I think of her somehow being abused, and then shortly after, she's "poor Lola." However, I don't believe Lola was really treated poorly while she danced, after all doing it all of her own accord, so perhaps those small victimizations Lola urged in order for the king to feel badly for her, or perhaps that is simply how the king did view it. The story jumps to the end, where Lola leaves Bavaria after the king has lost much of his honor. Again, here, Lola is somewhat the bad girl -- she left him to save herself. But it seems in reality she kept returning and the king was the one that took a stand and denounced her power in order to please his country.
The "fly" is probably the king, while of course, Lola is a spider. I'm not at all sure of what "whereby the machine is run," means, or what exactly the "deed" is other than Lola and her affair. I'm thinking it was the people of Bavaria who have a voice during these accusations, leaving Louis as poor and abused. Adding on, at the end, is probably Louis, referring sadly to Lola as a whore. It seems everyone assumes her to be a woman just after money and power, which perhaps she was, but it seems sad to me that even Louis, who loved her, acknowledged her "black heart."
Castlemaine appears to be a place in Australia that had a gold rush event and opened up a theater where Lola was the first to perform. Lola also went to California before this (hanging around Nevada City) and so is no stranger to chasing gold. This jumps quite a bit, and I believe she had married another at this point, long having left the kings affair.
I'm not entirely sure who is seeing who after, "Well, I've seen lots." I'm thinking perhaps, given the idea of stumbling ramblings or someone not in their right mind, it's possible this is meant to communicate Lola hallucinating about seeing Louis. The next part confuses me a bit too. "Though the long road begins and ends with you," seems to communicate long lasting love to me, which so far, Lola hasn't really been accused of. She's been seen of cruel and seeking out money, but this line seems to mean she sees her life as circling around him. I can't tell if at this point this song has jumped back to the past, or if she's remembering and longing for him.
"At night," though, does take us back to Bavaria. Lola was known for carrying around a whip and also known for not getting along with the Jesuits which explains this stanza. The immediately following line about the big black spider could possibly jump back to the present, to a sort of insanity Lola feels so much that she can't even leave her house, and wonders if Louis still with her. Or it could be referring to the days when she was being attacked by Bavarians and was probably hidden away to protect her.
From here on out, I'm wholly unsure of what the italics mean. Earlier, it seemed to be in the voice of the king, but I do not believe that is entirely true for the rest of the song. As a result, I'm not sure if the next stanza is Lola still, or possibly the king? I'm also not entirely sure of where to go with the meaning of the lyrics either. At first I thought it was referring to Lola's transfer out of Bavaria ("the change") where the "death" is an emotional or metaphorical one. But I suppose it could also refer to the king's feelings when he decided to renounce Lola's power and ordered to have her arrested if found. "These songs" could be the poetry Louis spent his life writing. If this is referring to the night the two left each other, it's obvious whoever this stanza is in the voice of didn't quite want it to happen.
"Mud in your eye" leads us into the "Will you have one on me?" part, obviously referring to drinking. The rest of the song, I believe, is fictionalized, considering Lola and the king never got married (perhaps she wanted to?) and I'm unsure of why another man she married would be relevant here.
A wedding is taking place, but instead of it being a happy event, it appears to be a violent and drunken mess. Throwing the bouquet, normally a fun and happy ceremony, becomes a violent rowdy sort of act and then everything gets confusing and there are a ton of references to alcohol. The little love ditty I thought might be from the words of the king, but the "I'm leaving!" part leads me to believe it's Lola, pleading, that the king keep her in Bavaria or ask her to stay.
Then we just get muddied memories. Repeatedly someone is "half-dead" and "drunk." She is hidden in a cupboard, given champagne, and then hoarded on a train. This could be seen as referring to the night Lola left Bavaria again, but later lines lead me to the believe she was on the train with the person she loved, which doesn't fit. The memories of the stubble and missed hairs scraping against her while she is put away is such wonderful imagery and starts to build a picture of something meant to be beautiful, but absolutely not. Instead of a gorgeous falling star, it looks like coal, and god has become a rat (cornered, like Lola may have felt). There is a constant urging to drink, have one on Lola perhaps, or Lola remembering someone telling her to have one on him. The "knocking heads" lines brings me back to the train, sitting up, but asleep, as it chugs along.
The "meanwhile" line is a line sympathetic towards Lola, which most of the song isn't. It recalls the scene where she drinks to the rioters health, but this time, I believe she's drinking to the kings, sarcastically, and talking about how he got rid of her and how it hurt. This is what makes me think back to her step-father, who certainly made her expendable, but that doesn't seem to mean much throughout the rest of the song. I believe this stanza shows just how broken she feels after being thrown from Bavaria, even though most of the song has shown Lola as the cruel one.
It's pretty amazing when the music halts and the love songs come back on. I believe the broken and confused Lola goes back to a memory when she was in Bavaria and had power and the king's love ... but really it just goes back to the beginning of the end, where because of her, someone dies, and she knows the king won't like it. So she croons, wondering if she made it okay, if she felt bad enough, if she did right by him.
I find myself ultimately confused about the message of the song. I think it's really Lola mourning the loss of a man she truly did love, but nobody believed she did, and was viewed as violent, crude and cruel (she did carry a whip around...). Now in her fog, she can't stop thinking about it, how she was a dancer on the stage, but a child in his arms. And how she trusted him and his bad poetry, but eventually he got rid of her, because she was making him look bad and made bad things happen.
I'm not sure if that's whats actually happening here and I long to learn more. It's such a fun song though. I took it to be far more lighthearted at first than I now believe it is. Also, Joanna Newsom uses some of the best instruments in her music and this is a wonderful showcase of it.
This is so awesome, thanks for the research!
This is so awesome, thanks for the research!
Hey this is really enlightening, I would just like to add something: perhaps, given the volatile nature of "lola's" speech throughout her words, she is refering to all the men in her life by using just one male character, perhaps louis. And so, she is expressing all the emotions she felt for many different men who marked her life, some who have helped her, others who have tossed her aside and even others that she herself helped, hurted and tossed aside. And these men characters are not only her lovers, but her father figures as well, her step-dad for instance. Perhaps...
Hey this is really enlightening, I would just like to add something: perhaps, given the volatile nature of "lola's" speech throughout her words, she is refering to all the men in her life by using just one male character, perhaps louis. And so, she is expressing all the emotions she felt for many different men who marked her life, some who have helped her, others who have tossed her aside and even others that she herself helped, hurted and tossed aside. And these men characters are not only her lovers, but her father figures as well, her step-dad for instance. Perhaps at the end of her long life she confuses all of them in this druken stream of thought and they all fit into a commom male presence in her journey, and so the long road beggins and ends with him but she can never make amends, she spent her entire life emptying her bottle by offering herself to 'him' whithout fully understanding what was it that she was offering and to whom, or even why she did it. Did she want love? Was she trying endlessly to please her long gone 'dad'? Or even herself or her mother? - as she says in Ribbon bows 'my mother may be ashamed of me, with all my fineries (this is another thing I'd like to add, once you understand what's behind 'Have one on me', it addapts throughout the entire album, as if the narrator has embodied this character lola and all of her different sides, it's really interesting to try and find her in all the tracks, her constant struggle between parting and leaving others behind, a sense of longing and the need to go over the top with excess to make up for that. There must be a reason for this being the Title track as you said). And I don't think that her being Good or Dad is the point, she was neither, she was just hurricane lola, both brave and fragile, cruel and soft, traitor and betrayed, manipulating and being used. Also, I felt that we shouldn't be very caught up by the narrator's use of YOU and ME, because it seems to me that in some instances lola (or the other 'characters' throughout the album) can be addressing a lover as easily as she can be addressing herself (this felt very appropriate in 'Go Long' or even the use of italics in 'Have one on Me', which to me immideatly felt like all of a sudden all the different Lolas from different points in her life where all stepping in at this moment where she looks back and goes on this almost hallucinated trip). It does not necessarily make sense, the same way that it doesn't for her to mix her dads with her royal lovers but at the end of the day, lola was in fact a rather erratic person who lived on the edge all the time, without any kind of boundaries or attachments to society, or even reality, and if you add the excess and the alcohol factor (very obvious in this song) and the need to love and be loved back, it does make sense and it is beautifull. She never was and still does not know who they were, the same way she never trully got to understand who she was and what she was looking for in her wreckless search. I went to a Joanna Newsom show last week and almost cried during this song, I truly believe she is the best poet musician I ever encountered.
Sorry if my english is bad at some points but I hope I added something interesting because I really enjoyed reading your analysis.