Lots of interesting allusions here, but I'm still trying to put the pieces together. Spinning straw into gold is a feature of the folk tale of Rumpelstiltskin, but I see few other parallels between that story and this song. The mentions of the horse seem tied to You and Me, Bess, though when I read about Johnny Appleseed in wikipedia, there are mentions of his kindness to horses and his life-long bachelorhood.
I love the oboe and bassoon here and how her voice twists on the line "your 'arrangement' with Fate." And you have to admire the audacity of a songwriter who writes the line "her faultlessly etiolated fishbelly-face" -- "etiolated" = pale from lack of light.
Lots of interesting allusions here, but I'm still trying to put the pieces together. Spinning straw into gold is a feature of the folk tale of Rumpelstiltskin, but I see few other parallels between that story and this song. The mentions of the horse seem tied to You and Me, Bess, though when I read about Johnny Appleseed in wikipedia, there are mentions of his kindness to horses and his life-long bachelorhood.
I love the oboe and bassoon here and how her voice twists on the line "your 'arrangement' with Fate." And you have to admire the audacity of a songwriter who writes the line "her faultlessly etiolated fishbelly-face" -- "etiolated" = pale from lack of light.