a beautiful song, about the struggle between two opposing world views: the logical against the intuitive. i'm also interested in how these word views correspond with the ways in which the two hemispheres of our brain see things - the left being rational and logical, the right being non-verbal and intuitive. a simplification, for sure, but worth reading up on. Or just feeling :-) But a little background from wikipedia:
Intuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason... Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify... The "right brain" is popularly associated with intuitive processes...
anyway :-) after a descriptive first verse to set the scene, and a line that i'll come to later;
Piecemeal could break your home in half
she understands the problem with trying to live your life in a 'rational way', in logical 'steps' - a piecemeal approach - rather than sensing and experiencing the bigger picture in a more intuitive way. ('in half' here could also allude to these two opposing sides of the brain/worldviews)
A love is not complete
With only heat
i imagine the word 'but' before this line. her left brain is trying to be objective about what she needs (more than sexual heat), whist ignoring what her intuition is really telling her. which is beautifully redressed in the next verse...
And in came a heatwave
A merciful save
You choose, you chose
Poetry over prose
just listen to the way she sings this - all the heat, passion, and intuition is wrapped up in these few lines. this is where it's at - more heated and more musical, improvised (unplanned - intuitive), passionate... ;-) I think the word 'save' refers to being saved from the cold rationality of logic; instead, nourished by the warmth of intuition, manifested as a HEATWAVE of passion. Poetry over prose again symbolises left/right world views for me - poetry corresponding with metaphor and the intuitive right-brain, prose referring more to the linear 'language' of the left-brain.
A map is more unreal than where you've been
Or how you feel
this line sums up by reminding us to trust our feelings over any map or conceptualisation of life.
all of which leads me to the question of this 'boy'. in one sense the boy doesn't really figure - the song is really about intuition, and he is just a character in that story. But in another sense, it's all about him, it's all about the passion, as that would have been the motivation for the ideas in the song. this music wouldn't have existed without that passionate love. So it's NOT about a boy... but it actually is :-) Such is the dichotomy that feist so skilfully illustrates for us :-)
one line i'm still not sure about:
A destination known
Only by the one
Whose fate is overgrown
is this the boy? if so, is she in awe of his intuitive abilities? but why overgrown? is she the one, or could the one be her view of god/the universe/fate? it could also be any of us, as listeners. There is no one meaning to any song, and this song is certainly deep enough to support many levels of understanding - i've enjoyed sharing mine with you :-)
a beautiful song, about the struggle between two opposing world views: the logical against the intuitive. i'm also interested in how these word views correspond with the ways in which the two hemispheres of our brain see things - the left being rational and logical, the right being non-verbal and intuitive. a simplification, for sure, but worth reading up on. Or just feeling :-) But a little background from wikipedia:
Intuition is the apparent ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason... Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify... The "right brain" is popularly associated with intuitive processes...
anyway :-) after a descriptive first verse to set the scene, and a line that i'll come to later;
Piecemeal could break your home in half
she understands the problem with trying to live your life in a 'rational way', in logical 'steps' - a piecemeal approach - rather than sensing and experiencing the bigger picture in a more intuitive way. ('in half' here could also allude to these two opposing sides of the brain/worldviews)
A love is not complete With only heat
i imagine the word 'but' before this line. her left brain is trying to be objective about what she needs (more than sexual heat), whist ignoring what her intuition is really telling her. which is beautifully redressed in the next verse...
And in came a heatwave A merciful save You choose, you chose Poetry over prose
just listen to the way she sings this - all the heat, passion, and intuition is wrapped up in these few lines. this is where it's at - more heated and more musical, improvised (unplanned - intuitive), passionate... ;-) I think the word 'save' refers to being saved from the cold rationality of logic; instead, nourished by the warmth of intuition, manifested as a HEATWAVE of passion. Poetry over prose again symbolises left/right world views for me - poetry corresponding with metaphor and the intuitive right-brain, prose referring more to the linear 'language' of the left-brain.
A map is more unreal than where you've been Or how you feel
this line sums up by reminding us to trust our feelings over any map or conceptualisation of life.
all of which leads me to the question of this 'boy'. in one sense the boy doesn't really figure - the song is really about intuition, and he is just a character in that story. But in another sense, it's all about him, it's all about the passion, as that would have been the motivation for the ideas in the song. this music wouldn't have existed without that passionate love. So it's NOT about a boy... but it actually is :-) Such is the dichotomy that feist so skilfully illustrates for us :-)
one line i'm still not sure about:
A destination known Only by the one Whose fate is overgrown
is this the boy? if so, is she in awe of his intuitive abilities? but why overgrown? is she the one, or could the one be her view of god/the universe/fate? it could also be any of us, as listeners. There is no one meaning to any song, and this song is certainly deep enough to support many levels of understanding - i've enjoyed sharing mine with you :-)