To me, Only Skin is a song about the core duality of wishing to venture out into the world while simultaneously wishing to double down on creating a comfortable, welcoming environment. In other words, it's a classic question of "should I stay or should I go?"
A lot of comments have interpreted this song as the story of a man and a woman, the man having gone to war and the woman taking on the role of the healer, trying to rid the man of his trauma. For a long time, I didn’t pay much mind to this interpretation, simply believing that this song was a less specific, more broad outpouring of thoughts and experiences… but after reading through other comments, I do feel like the war veteran storyline makes a lot of sense and certainly ties into the main themes of the album as a whole.
The song begins with images of the battlefield, with tanks and planes ("black airplanes flew over the sea," "greasy black engines," etc). This section is narrated in second person, indicating a disconnection from the narrator. War is often portrayed as an adventure through media and propaganda, but it's an adventure in a literal way; the soldier is literally leaving home, doing battle, and then coming back. The second person indicates that it's not the narrator going to war, but rather a loved one; retrospectively, she can only imagine this archetypal image of adventure.
The narrator prescribes herself to the fate of the caring woman, who heals her lover from the trauma of the adventure he’s partaken in; she takes the healing flower and “appl[lies] it gently / to the love you’ve lent me.”
But here’s where the central theme of Only Skin, and Ys as a whole, really seems to blossom. In her quest to cultivate this safe environment for her lover, the narrator goes on her own adventure, one which is much more nuanced and emotionally charged. She states, “I took my fishing pole… down to the swimming hole,” and she goes “rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes.” She “tramped through the poison oak, heartbroke and inchoate.” These are words of agency, the narrator going through her own soul-crushing journey to heal the one she loves.
During the climactic Bill Callahan verse, we finally seem to hear the woman singing alongside the man. Some people interpret this as a two-sided conversation, with the Callahan+Newsom lines representing the man and the Newsom-only lines representing the woman. Rather, I like to think of this verse as the two lovers singing together rather than conversing with one another, as despite their separate circumstances, they’ve really had to go through similar struggles. By the end of the song, the woman has resolved to “do, my darling, right by you.”
Whether a happy ending or otherwise, this ending at the very least resolves the conflict of disconnection throughout the song. Constantly throughout the text, the man is left spiraling deeper and deeper in a concrete battle; “always up the mountainside you’re clambering, groping blindly, hungry for anything.” Meanwhile, the woman is left to clean up a doomed situation in a more abstract, emotional battle of her own. By the end of the song, the two lovers’ perspectives meet one another, and they both decide to face the world together.
Of course, these are just my thoughts, and it’s how I personally like to think of this song whenever I hear it. I think it ties really well into interpretations of songs like Emily and Monkey and Bear - but those are discussions for another day. It allows the song to be specific while also broad, diving into an intimate conflict while also expanding into general themes of connection and adventure.
@strawberrypi Hmmm, an interesting take on the song . Im not sure you've got to the get roots of the song. It feel like you've just scraped the surface. Maybe listen to it a bit more and have another stab .
@strawberrypi Hmmm, an interesting take on the song . Im not sure you've got to the get roots of the song. It feel like you've just scraped the surface. Maybe listen to it a bit more and have another stab .
To me, Only Skin is a song about the core duality of wishing to venture out into the world while simultaneously wishing to double down on creating a comfortable, welcoming environment. In other words, it's a classic question of "should I stay or should I go?"
A lot of comments have interpreted this song as the story of a man and a woman, the man having gone to war and the woman taking on the role of the healer, trying to rid the man of his trauma. For a long time, I didn’t pay much mind to this interpretation, simply believing that this song was a less specific, more broad outpouring of thoughts and experiences… but after reading through other comments, I do feel like the war veteran storyline makes a lot of sense and certainly ties into the main themes of the album as a whole.
The song begins with images of the battlefield, with tanks and planes ("black airplanes flew over the sea," "greasy black engines," etc). This section is narrated in second person, indicating a disconnection from the narrator. War is often portrayed as an adventure through media and propaganda, but it's an adventure in a literal way; the soldier is literally leaving home, doing battle, and then coming back. The second person indicates that it's not the narrator going to war, but rather a loved one; retrospectively, she can only imagine this archetypal image of adventure.
The narrator prescribes herself to the fate of the caring woman, who heals her lover from the trauma of the adventure he’s partaken in; she takes the healing flower and “appl[lies] it gently / to the love you’ve lent me.”
But here’s where the central theme of Only Skin, and Ys as a whole, really seems to blossom. In her quest to cultivate this safe environment for her lover, the narrator goes on her own adventure, one which is much more nuanced and emotionally charged. She states, “I took my fishing pole… down to the swimming hole,” and she goes “rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes.” She “tramped through the poison oak, heartbroke and inchoate.” These are words of agency, the narrator going through her own soul-crushing journey to heal the one she loves.
During the climactic Bill Callahan verse, we finally seem to hear the woman singing alongside the man. Some people interpret this as a two-sided conversation, with the Callahan+Newsom lines representing the man and the Newsom-only lines representing the woman. Rather, I like to think of this verse as the two lovers singing together rather than conversing with one another, as despite their separate circumstances, they’ve really had to go through similar struggles. By the end of the song, the woman has resolved to “do, my darling, right by you.”
Whether a happy ending or otherwise, this ending at the very least resolves the conflict of disconnection throughout the song. Constantly throughout the text, the man is left spiraling deeper and deeper in a concrete battle; “always up the mountainside you’re clambering, groping blindly, hungry for anything.” Meanwhile, the woman is left to clean up a doomed situation in a more abstract, emotional battle of her own. By the end of the song, the two lovers’ perspectives meet one another, and they both decide to face the world together.
Of course, these are just my thoughts, and it’s how I personally like to think of this song whenever I hear it. I think it ties really well into interpretations of songs like Emily and Monkey and Bear - but those are discussions for another day. It allows the song to be specific while also broad, diving into an intimate conflict while also expanding into general themes of connection and adventure.
[Edit: Formatting]
@strawberrypi Hmmm, an interesting take on the song . Im not sure you've got to the get roots of the song. It feel like you've just scraped the surface. Maybe listen to it a bit more and have another stab .
@strawberrypi Hmmm, an interesting take on the song . Im not sure you've got to the get roots of the song. It feel like you've just scraped the surface. Maybe listen to it a bit more and have another stab .