The part with the deer I think may be about suicide. Wanting to follow the thing into death, maybe feeling especially bad after hitting an animal with your car, but knowing about the legions of sorrow that follow suicide. In a way, others' grief does stand between you and death, so it can seem like legions of sorrow defying you.
On the Live at ACL album she also plays "Behind the House," which contains the lines "Or is this your way to tell me / that I couldn't save you?" Those lines imply a sense of guilt and failure, I think. Many songs on the album seem to have something to do with death and sorrow. Since I always listened to the album as a whole, I thought of "Favorite" as being about someone you love who you've lost. I heard the line "Found favorin' Heaven" as "Found favor in Heaven." So then it's not just following the deer, but following the lost beloved someone, perhaps feeling an obligation to.
That may be reading too much into it. But it's worth noting too that the song's got the feeling of a prayer.
The part with the deer I think may be about suicide. Wanting to follow the thing into death, maybe feeling especially bad after hitting an animal with your car, but knowing about the legions of sorrow that follow suicide. In a way, others' grief does stand between you and death, so it can seem like legions of sorrow defying you.
On the Live at ACL album she also plays "Behind the House," which contains the lines "Or is this your way to tell me / that I couldn't save you?" Those lines imply a sense of guilt and failure, I think. Many songs on the album seem to have something to do with death and sorrow. Since I always listened to the album as a whole, I thought of "Favorite" as being about someone you love who you've lost. I heard the line "Found favorin' Heaven" as "Found favor in Heaven." So then it's not just following the deer, but following the lost beloved someone, perhaps feeling an obligation to.
That may be reading too much into it. But it's worth noting too that the song's got the feeling of a prayer.