After three decades of familiarity with this song, its depths and its haunting maritime imagery, some fog still swirls around its solid centre for me. But here's my understanding of it so far...
First of all, the song's addressed (assuming it's Joni Mitchell doing the addressing, paragon of autobiographical songwriters that she is) to something called Blue - is Blue a person, or does Blue represent general melancholy? It works as both. And the way she lingers over that first word.
'Songs are like tattoos' - songs get under your skin, they occupy a place where previously there was nothing, they stay with you. They're full of detail, can be pretty much anything, and you develop a relationship with them. In these ways both songs and tattoos have the qualities of love affairs. Which is what this song is ultimately about ('Blue, I love you').
After assuring Blue that she knows she can survive on her own, because she's done it before ('I've been to sea before' - and there's an overtone here that she'll be 'all at sea' without Blue), she asks Blue to either commit to her ('Crown and anchor me') or release her ('let me sail away.'). That Crown and Anchor imagery is striking - as a nautical tattoo motif, and an entreaty to Blue to both exalt and stabilise her (if Blue's a person, it might even mean 'marry me').
'Hey Blue, here is a song for you' - trying to get Blue's attention, by making this song an offering
'Ink on a pin' - both the tools of tattooing and of writing songs (this song) down using pen and paper
'Underneath the skin, an empty space to fill in' - both an unoccupied place for a tattoo, and conveying the hollowness inside herself (or Blue?) for this song to occupy.
After this there's an examination of the ways and costs of trying to avoid these periods of melancholy ('these waves') - the casualties ('so many sinking'), the methods (drugs, loveless sex, violence), and ending with the compelling sadness of the lines 'lots of laughs, lots of laughs' - is this another method (obviously failed)? A reflection on the hollowness of the these pleasures? The memory of better times now all over?
'hell's the hippest way to go'/'I'm going to take a look around it though' - People are telling her that indulging in the distractions listed, although these are abhorred by religion, is the best way to live. Or the best way to die? She doesn't think they're right, but she's going to think about what they're saying.
'Blue, here is a shell for you, inside you'll hear a sigh' - she's offering Blue a hollow thing which, if you listen, produces a sad sound. Sometimes a shell is just a shell, but not here. I think it represents both herself and the song. This line also echoes the earlier 'Here is a song for you', but now she's offering an empty structure for Blue to fill with his/its own meaning.
'A foggy lullaby' - is there a better description of this song itself?
'There is your song from me' - she's turned the shell of herself into a song, used her own melancholy to create this gift for Blue.
And there is your interpretation from me. Tread with care.
@TrueThomas Great breakdown. Shells used to have living things in them, it could represent all of her previously-alive relationships, and since they all end, they all end with a sigh, a feeling of what could have been but never materialized (the anchor and crown).
@TrueThomas Great breakdown. Shells used to have living things in them, it could represent all of her previously-alive relationships, and since they all end, they all end with a sigh, a feeling of what could have been but never materialized (the anchor and crown).
After three decades of familiarity with this song, its depths and its haunting maritime imagery, some fog still swirls around its solid centre for me. But here's my understanding of it so far...
First of all, the song's addressed (assuming it's Joni Mitchell doing the addressing, paragon of autobiographical songwriters that she is) to something called Blue - is Blue a person, or does Blue represent general melancholy? It works as both. And the way she lingers over that first word.
'Songs are like tattoos' - songs get under your skin, they occupy a place where previously there was nothing, they stay with you. They're full of detail, can be pretty much anything, and you develop a relationship with them. In these ways both songs and tattoos have the qualities of love affairs. Which is what this song is ultimately about ('Blue, I love you').
After assuring Blue that she knows she can survive on her own, because she's done it before ('I've been to sea before' - and there's an overtone here that she'll be 'all at sea' without Blue), she asks Blue to either commit to her ('Crown and anchor me') or release her ('let me sail away.'). That Crown and Anchor imagery is striking - as a nautical tattoo motif, and an entreaty to Blue to both exalt and stabilise her (if Blue's a person, it might even mean 'marry me').
'Hey Blue, here is a song for you' - trying to get Blue's attention, by making this song an offering
'Ink on a pin' - both the tools of tattooing and of writing songs (this song) down using pen and paper
'Underneath the skin, an empty space to fill in' - both an unoccupied place for a tattoo, and conveying the hollowness inside herself (or Blue?) for this song to occupy.
After this there's an examination of the ways and costs of trying to avoid these periods of melancholy ('these waves') - the casualties ('so many sinking'), the methods (drugs, loveless sex, violence), and ending with the compelling sadness of the lines 'lots of laughs, lots of laughs' - is this another method (obviously failed)? A reflection on the hollowness of the these pleasures? The memory of better times now all over?
'hell's the hippest way to go'/'I'm going to take a look around it though' - People are telling her that indulging in the distractions listed, although these are abhorred by religion, is the best way to live. Or the best way to die? She doesn't think they're right, but she's going to think about what they're saying.
'Blue, here is a shell for you, inside you'll hear a sigh' - she's offering Blue a hollow thing which, if you listen, produces a sad sound. Sometimes a shell is just a shell, but not here. I think it represents both herself and the song. This line also echoes the earlier 'Here is a song for you', but now she's offering an empty structure for Blue to fill with his/its own meaning.
'A foggy lullaby' - is there a better description of this song itself?
'There is your song from me' - she's turned the shell of herself into a song, used her own melancholy to create this gift for Blue.
And there is your interpretation from me. Tread with care.
A beautifully written synopsis and interpretation. Thank you!
A beautifully written synopsis and interpretation. Thank you!
@TrueThomas I much prefer your interpretation over any that imply it was just another lost romance song.
@TrueThomas I much prefer your interpretation over any that imply it was just another lost romance song.
@TrueThomas Great breakdown. Shells used to have living things in them, it could represent all of her previously-alive relationships, and since they all end, they all end with a sigh, a feeling of what could have been but never materialized (the anchor and crown).
@TrueThomas Great breakdown. Shells used to have living things in them, it could represent all of her previously-alive relationships, and since they all end, they all end with a sigh, a feeling of what could have been but never materialized (the anchor and crown).
Anyway, amazing music. Joni was one in a million.
Anyway, amazing music. Joni was one in a million.