It makes you wonder how she gets through live sets. Like it's one thing to write and create this song, and quite another to memorize and perform this along with other complex songs on the set list. Like 17 minutes of obscure lyrics... no conventional chorus, very few repetition... Truly impressive. This song is a modern masterpiece.
Antonia Glaser i actually did some research on her cause it astounded me as well.. she apparently learnt to memorize long, elaborate pieces of poetry while she was in university i believe..how, i have no idea.. there has to be some methodology she's developed that we're just not aware of.. because you're right, there's no conventional chorus, very few repetitive lines.. it's astounding.
+EclecticStranger Memorising poetry is one thing. What's really astonishing is memorising the music. Her harp playing skills are no joke. Her singing neither. Just goes to show that she's a modern day musician. I don't consider bands (rock bands etc.) as real musicians. She wrote songs as complex and beautiful as post romantic Piano Concertos. And she wrote many many of them. I believe most of the views here have only been superficial, not realising the depth of her music.
+Antonia Glaser I 100% agree. I have memorized the lyrics myself, but I sure wouldn't trust myself to sing it in front of a live audience. Don't even get me started on her harp playing.
Joanna forgot the lyrics at Latitude festival years ago and asked for a reminder twice them (if I remember rightly) eventually had to give up. It just made her adorable. It was an amazing performance: she was first on stage as she had another gig in London on the evening. The whole festival was at the main stage at noon. There was a guy waving a huge flag and the crowd was so quiet respectful there was a whisper passed from the back, through the whole field, until it got to him and he rolled up his flag, turned round and silently mouthed 'sorry'. Awesome.
I almost feel confident in saying I need not listen to any other song she's ever produced to say she is the most impressive musician in a long, long time. I love and listen to all various types of music... but this song still impresses and captures me more than anything. What a humble, beautiful, and gifted artist!
I listened to this song so much when my Dad was dying. It was the only thing that felt right. I remember listening to it in winter, watching the snow fall against the black night. Such a beautiful song. It was the only album I could listen to at that time.
On the night I lost a friend unexpectedly, I found myself listening to this song over and over, still in the depths of shock.. I also felt like it was the only music that spoke to what I was feeling, this feeling I'd never felt before.. It was like a meditative oasis where life and death are a natural cycle and to just accept.. 'fire moves away..' it was an anchor, expressing the pain I felt but also consoling it. I'm so sorry for your loss ❤ it's amazing that strangers across the planet found solace in the same sound Thank you Joanna 🌱
the line “scrape your knee: it is only skin makes the sound of violins” at 5:00 evokes such a powerful emotional response from me, i don’t know why. joanna newsom is so mind-blowingly talented, i don’t think talented even covers how magical she is. my heart legitimately feels changed after absorbing this song.
It gets me everytime, too. For me, it means, that it's okay to get hurt, to throw oneself in a possibly hurtful situation. You are strong enough to heal afterwards. But without allowing yourself this part of life, you will never be able to enjoy the happier times.
Yea that line start a crescendo that is so emotional to me. Then comes "The seagull weeps 'So Long' ". Literally brings me to tears every single time. I hold her music so close to my heart.
That same part, just after at like 5:35 where she transitions to the other melody after she say’s humming a threshing song gives me goose bumps and chills every time I hear this song. She is such an experience to listen to that I don’t even really like to listen to her with anyone else around. (Not for inappropriate reasons)
"Come across the desert with no shoes on. I love you truly or I love no-one" My gods, that line really hit me like it hasn't ever. The speaker in this song and the love she has for that man (I'm taking a jab at what this song could possibly be about) is quite remarkable. I love Joanna Newsom's music so much!
The more you listen to the song to more complex it becomes. I just now realized she referenced stone fruit multiple times in this song and it actually has a place in the story "Smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened" "Silently from all the blooming cherry trees in tiny nooses safe from everyone" "Suck all day on a cherry stone" "Dig a little hole not three inches round, spit your pit in the hole in the ground"
Dogs chasing birds also comes back... Toothless hound-dog choking on a feather in the beginning, then the bird against the picture window and dogs still run roughly 'round little tufts of finch-down.
To me, this song is about the delight and fear and anguish and anxiety of love in sickness, loving the sick, and loving while sick ourselves. How this world is so enormous and heavy and beautiful and intoxicating and smothering that it wrecks and ruins us. How the infinite tiny miracles are barely enough - they are enough, but just barely - to keep us breathing. And so much more. This song is one of the greatest works of art to ever be created, and for the last eight years I've been extremely grateful to have it.
This song is always stunning, when the male lyricist kicks in and the song just rides down like a rollercoaster into the end, it's just so god damned good.
that little anecdote in the middle about the brown bird gets me every time. I forget that part is in this song and then I'm floored by how captivating it is.
My cat recently died and I held her limp body in my hands, so hoping that she'd jump up again and purr. The section about the bird punches me in the gut every time. I worry I didn't give my cat a good enough life in my boring apartment. The bird flying up again at the sight of treetops - I wish I could give my girl that. But she's gone.
Linguists: Isn't Cellar Door a pleasing phrase? Joanna Newsom: Awful atoll, Oh, incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow, Bawl bellow, Sibyl sea-cow all done up in a bow
Sometimes when I’m especially tired (or especially hounded), I hide here in this song. The rich tapestry of music and lyrics keep me safe. Yes, it’s a good space to step aside and catch my breath. Thank you Joanna!
This is one of the most beautiful songs of our time. The powerlessness of all of us in the grasp of death and the power of nature. We do what we can, while avoiding what we can't. So instead we must stupor at the beauty and grasp to our loved ones when the fire comes.
And to think I came upon Joanna in a little review in a newspaper I picked up on a train. Had that not happened, I would have missed this glorious artist! After all these years, this is still one the most remarkable songs I've ever heard.
I love Joanna Newsom because I know that it will literally take most of (if not all) of my life to truly listen to, understand, and visualize all of her music.
Beautiful. A song my brother and I sang when we were younger, so it's really nostalgic for me. It's a nostalgic story-telling song in the first place, so it only adds to the effect. This song can bring me to tears, with it's incredibly vibrant imagery. I love it, definitely a favorite.
I remember hearing this for the first time...I was floored!...it was such a joyous melody that changed textures from one story to the next...so beautifully crafted!...I never forgot it...I had to pull over from driving to fully appreciate this wonderous masterpiece of song!...I've bought 3 of her albums so far...I love them so much...thank you joanna!!!
I thought this song was crazy when I heard it on BBC. So I UA-camd it to hear again. Still thought it was nonsense words. Then after I couldn’t stop listening , after 20 listens, the whole thing makes sense and your are now one of my favorite songwriters and singers.
The meaning behind this song is quite depressing, but Joanna disguises it with beautiful melodies and heart wrenching vocals, truly one of my favorite Newsom songs. It's so brutally honest, and the beginning of the song is written so brilliantly starting off as if we've been thrown into the middle of a tale. I've always loved Newsom's narrating, and here she shines more then ever in 16 minutes and 53 seconds of pure gold. My favorite line is when she sings about the estuaries and how it conjoined with the shore out onto the ocean, where thankfully all her lover's actions are forgiven though she tries and tries to support him, and yet he follows through his infidelity and mischief... and still she stays by his side. Being a woman, being a woman... oh Newsom, you've had it hard. I'm only 16, and gosh I'm so In love with her music. Thank you, Joanna... you're a beautiful story teller.
I just spent like two hours trying to get what these lyrics were all about lmao and my mind is blown, this narrator suffered so much, right? Just to keep that relationship alive, but she went through it
I believe this song is her best. And I agree. She is the best songwriter of my lifetime, too. I've always loved this song but seeing the lyrics alongside reawakened my fascination with the intricacy of her sung poetry.
Why the hell is this not on spotify? This is probably, in my opinion, one of the most complete pieces of music ever created. It would do this world such a favor to make this as available as possible. Words cannot express how much I love this song,
In love with everything Joanna ever did, and lately this one especially. Since I'm currently on lockdown like half of Europe, it's the closest thing I can get to travelling far away.
I'm not sure what the story is here, but I can't sing it without nearly crying. I think I'm connecting to something deep within myself, and within the words, but I'm not sure what.
Massive high-five Christian. That particular transition is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful i have ever heard in a piece of music - and yes, chills every time. Feel it right down my spine and hairs stand on end!
I have listened to this song at least 900 times since I first heard it over 14 years ago and it has never failed to fill me with wonder. If I could listen to this on my death bed I will and I will pass on with a happy mind ✨️
Just my opinion but I hear the death and resurrection of coming to spirituality. Of the love affair between humanity and nature and how it builds and destroys. Also the relation between relationships. When we attempt salvation we sometimes martyr ourselves. Also the pain that lies in freedom. In how we sacrifice self to gain perspective of truth and allign with the complete wholeness that is All. Mother and child, lovers, GOD and humankind... Just a song of infinity. That's what I get anyway. But this is my first time listening so a more indepth study, better yet a deeper revealation of how I feel about it may need to be done. That being said I enjoyed it immensely.
"Why would you say I was the last one?" I think that line intrigues me more than any of the others in this song, solely because it's returned to several times, which seems to place a sense of importance on it. I wonder what "the last one" is referring to, and why it seems so affecting to the narrator.
I think it's about her being the last woman this man would ever love, as he would keep telling her she is the "last one". But the songs seem to imply he is unfaithful, or that their relationship is fading, so it feels like she is repeating that line as she mourns that it was not true when he spoke it.
@@MVA11p @Arno MansionV You put it so well! I take it to mean the same thing. I love relating this bit to a line in Divers where she says "I don't know if you love me most but you loved me last." Over there I think it means that the narrator's lover is dying and over here it's their relationship that is dying. I bet it was on purpose. Joanna never writes something that doesn't hold some meaning.
I wish I understood it better... english is my second language and I try to just understand all the words. I hope one day I will be able to understand this song in its full glory. Thank you Joanna
Wish you the best of luck, but if it makes you feel better I am a native English speaker who has listened to this countless times and still don’t know what it is about
i know this comment is a year old but enlish is my first and only language and i still dont even know most of these words. but this is a beautiful song!
I have written my whole thesis listening to you, Joanna. Thank you so, so much. Your neautiful voice is the best way to concentration I have ever found.
Love the part with the East-Asian style musical influences! 6:07 - 7:35 particularly reminds me of the stories of the Ming ji prostitutes from the novel Peach Blossom Pavilion.
13:35 and onward is probably the best part of the whole song and that's really saying something considering just how incredible the rest of the song is
Some Years ago, I had a terrible cold. I was laying in the in the sun and listened to Only Skin and Emily. While I listened, I was shivering the whole time. After that I stood up and my cold was completely blown away. Like a miracle.
This is so beautiful. In combination with Joanna being in possession of an unfathombly deep pool of creativity and the experiences she shares... this composition is an exceptional journey.
This song just broke me. The whole tale of saving a sick bird and having the determination and knowledge to give it a proper death is beautiful! WHAT BROKE ME- having the miracle of "saw the trees tops, cocked her head and up and flew" followed by reality- "but back in the world...dogs still run roughly around little tufts of finch down" having that opposition of romantic and beautiful "what should be" truth", followed by "no that bird died and the dogs are eating it"...seriously. metaphor much?
I just find it hilarious that she can write and perform such an artistic piece, and her husband gets an Emmy for "Dick in a box" :D The Emmys are literally a joke.
The Emmys are an award show that awards other tv shows. Why would they award a song? They awarded Dick in a Box because it was a comedy skit, not cause it was a song.
@@SKsaturn I guess someone should tell the Emmys that they need to rename the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics" to "Primetime Emmy Award for a Comedy Skit."
That final, dialogical part ("All my bones...") reminds me of Pale Fire, lines 653-664: 'What is that funny creaking - do you hear?' 'It is the shutter on the stairs, my dear.' 'If you're not sleeping, let's turn on the light. I hate that wind! Let's play some chess.' 'All right.' 'I'm sure it's not the shutter. There - again.' 'It is a tendril fingering the pane.' 'What glided down the roof and made that thud?' 'It is old winter tumbling in the mud.' 'And now what shall I do? My knight is pinned.' Who rides so late in the night and the wind? It is the writer's grief. It is the wild March wind. It is the father with his child.
Me, too. If I had ever in my life felt like I feel when I listen to these 16 small minutes of music, in a church, or temple, or I'd have fallen to my knees, maybe become a monk. (So, I guess I'm glad I have not felt about religions of the world, this way, felt this awe at the beauty of its creation, this Art.) God, Newsom, I'm not a celebrity-stalker, but could I have your autograph? Thank you. Life is thundering blissful toward death in a stampede, so I'll see you there in a second!
And when I say cry, I mean cry. Not shed a couple of tears, but weep out loud, involving uncontrollable sobbing and usually also a lot of snot. I don't know exactly why.
This part makes me shudder. I actually play that part before I do my peak training sets. Yes, a meathead with 600lbs on his back is cranking Joanna through his head phones. Gives me a better adrenaline and euphoria than heavy metal.
"i love you truly or I love no one" you are right but he/she doesnt care. it's about loving someone unconditionaly. no matter where or to whom her/his lover will go, he/she knows that he/she will always love him.
To me it sounds like he's gone mad from PTSD after returning from a war, "There was a booming above you, Black airplanes flew over the sea, You froze in your sand shoal, Prayed for your poor soul"
It makes you wonder how she gets through live sets. Like it's one thing to write and create this song, and quite another to memorize and perform this along with other complex songs on the set list. Like 17 minutes of obscure lyrics... no conventional chorus, very few repetition... Truly impressive. This song is a modern masterpiece.
Antonia Glaser i actually did some research on her cause it astounded me as well.. she apparently learnt to memorize long, elaborate pieces of poetry while she was in university i believe..how, i have no idea.. there has to be some methodology she's developed that we're just not aware of.. because you're right, there's no conventional chorus, very few repetitive lines.. it's astounding.
+EclecticStranger Memorising poetry is one thing. What's really astonishing is memorising the music. Her harp playing skills are no joke. Her singing neither. Just goes to show that she's a modern day musician. I don't consider bands (rock bands etc.) as real musicians. She wrote songs as complex and beautiful as post romantic Piano Concertos. And she wrote many many of them. I believe most of the views here have only been superficial, not realising the depth of her music.
+Antonia Glaser I 100% agree. I have memorized the lyrics myself, but I sure wouldn't trust myself to sing it in front of a live audience. Don't even get me started on her harp playing.
+Antonia Glaser i've never heard her sing this live...prob a good reason why :p
Joanna forgot the lyrics at Latitude festival years ago and asked for a reminder twice them (if I remember rightly) eventually had to give up. It just made her adorable. It was an amazing performance: she was first on stage as she had another gig in London on the evening. The whole festival was at the main stage at noon. There was a guy waving a huge flag and the crowd was so quiet respectful there was a whisper passed from the back, through the whole field, until it got to him and he rolled up his flag, turned round and silently mouthed 'sorry'. Awesome.
I almost feel confident in saying I need not listen to any other song she's ever produced to say she is the most impressive musician in a long, long time. I love and listen to all various types of music... but this song still impresses and captures me more than anything. What a humble, beautiful, and gifted artist!
doctorliman the whole album is wonderful!!
"I love you truly or I love no-one" always makes me cry. Most of the time almost all of this song does, but that line gets me every single time.
I listened to this song so much when my Dad was dying. It was the only thing that felt right. I remember listening to it in winter, watching the snow fall against the black night. Such a beautiful song. It was the only album I could listen to at that time.
This feeling of relating to only one song for so long is hypnotizing. I understand you completely.
Sorry for your loss
On the night I lost a friend unexpectedly, I found myself listening to this song over and over, still in the depths of shock.. I also felt like it was the only music that spoke to what I was feeling, this feeling I'd never felt before.. It was like a meditative oasis where life and death are a natural cycle and to just accept.. 'fire moves away..' it was an anchor, expressing the pain I felt but also consoling it.
I'm so sorry for your loss ❤ it's amazing that strangers across the planet found solace in the same sound
Thank you Joanna 🌱
Your father is now with Jesus Christ.
the line “scrape your knee: it is only skin makes the sound of violins” at 5:00 evokes such a powerful emotional response from me, i don’t know why. joanna newsom is so mind-blowingly talented, i don’t think talented even covers how magical she is. my heart legitimately feels changed after absorbing this song.
Elsie Campbell makes me cry every time
It gets me everytime, too. For me, it means, that it's okay to get hurt, to throw oneself in a possibly hurtful situation. You are strong enough to heal afterwards. But without allowing yourself this part of life, you will never be able to enjoy the happier times.
Yea that line start a crescendo that is so emotional to me. Then comes "The seagull weeps 'So Long' ". Literally brings me to tears every single time. I hold her music so close to my heart.
That same part, just after at like 5:35 where she transitions to the other melody after she say’s humming a threshing song gives me goose bumps and chills every time I hear this song. She is such an experience to listen to that I don’t even really like to listen to her with anyone else around. (Not for inappropriate reasons)
I know I'm late to this comment... But the way she says violins sounds quite like violence, possible wordplay and double meaning.
"Come across the desert with no shoes on.
I love you truly or I love no-one"
My gods, that line really hit me like it hasn't ever. The speaker in this song and the love she has for that man (I'm taking a jab at what this song could possibly be about) is quite remarkable. I love Joanna Newsom's music so much!
The more you listen to the song to more complex it becomes. I just now realized she referenced stone fruit multiple times in this song and it actually has a place in the story
"Smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened"
"Silently from all the blooming cherry trees in tiny nooses safe from everyone"
"Suck all day on a cherry stone"
"Dig a little hole not three inches round, spit your pit in the hole in the ground"
Oh wow I never noticed that before in this!
Dogs chasing birds also comes back... Toothless hound-dog choking on a feather in the beginning, then the bird against the picture window and dogs still run roughly 'round little tufts of finch-down.
To me, this song is about the delight and fear and anguish and anxiety of love in sickness, loving the sick, and loving while sick ourselves. How this world is so enormous and heavy and beautiful and intoxicating and smothering that it wrecks and ruins us. How the infinite tiny miracles are barely enough - they are enough, but just barely - to keep us breathing. And so much more. This song is one of the greatest works of art to ever be created, and for the last eight years I've been extremely grateful to have it.
she said this song was a recap of everything that happened in Ys told in a story. That's why it's such a ginormous song.
the title was the last thing to be done, it came to her in a dream after the wrote the album.
This album is a constant. It will never sound dated because it is from outside of time. It will always be as amazing as the first time you heard it.
This song is always stunning, when the male lyricist kicks in and the song just rides down like a rollercoaster into the end, it's just so god damned good.
This is the best description of the end of the song I could ever imagine. That's exactly what it's like.
bill fucking callahan. they were dating at the time.
Aren't all the lyrics to this song written by Joanna?
You mean vocalist
"sky was a bread roll,
soaking in a milk bowl
and when the bread broke,
fell in bricks of wet smoke"
How much better can imagery ever be than this?
that little anecdote in the middle about the brown bird gets me every time. I forget that part is in this song and then I'm floored by how captivating it is.
exactly. the part when the bird stood in her hand, dead, for a 'lifetime or two'.
@@obscurecult She'd lain still as a stone, they were sure she was dead but then she saw the treetops and off she went!
My cat recently died and I held her limp body in my hands, so hoping that she'd jump up again and purr. The section about the bird punches me in the gut every time. I worry I didn't give my cat a good enough life in my boring apartment. The bird flying up again at the sight of treetops - I wish I could give my girl that. But she's gone.
Linguists: Isn't Cellar Door a pleasing phrase?
Joanna Newsom: Awful atoll, Oh, incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow, Bawl bellow, Sibyl sea-cow all done up in a bow
this might be the greatest piece of music ever written. as far as I'm concerned. just so breathtaking
Sometimes when I’m especially tired (or especially hounded), I hide here in this song. The rich tapestry of music and lyrics keep me safe. Yes, it’s a good space to step aside and catch my breath. Thank you Joanna!
This is one of the most beautiful songs of our time. The powerlessness of all of us in the grasp of death and the power of nature. We do what we can, while avoiding what we can't. So instead we must stupor at the beauty and grasp to our loved ones when the fire comes.
I have no loved ones
@ William Nelson if not, make ones.
@@juno-9098 this is amazing
The. Lyrical. Master.
👑
💚
Sometimes, such as now, I listen to this song and just end up with my jaw open in awe that someone could create something this astoundingly beautiful.
And to think I came upon Joanna in a little review in a newspaper I picked up on a train. Had that not happened, I would have missed this glorious artist! After all these years, this is still one the most remarkable songs I've ever heard.
I discovered her from Owen Pallett’s cover of Peach Plum Pear. Forever grateful they did that cover and led me to her.
I love Joanna Newsom because I know that it will literally take most of (if not all) of my life to truly listen to, understand, and visualize all of her music.
joanna sounds so good when she sings "then there was a silence you took to mean something"
She sounds so ethereal at ''when I cut your hair, and leave the birds the all of the trimmings"
Everytime I leave this song alone for a while I think, "maybe it wasn't that great."
It's always so much better than I remember.
Come across the desert with no shoes on, I love you truly or I love no one.
If you don't live me now you will NEVER live me again. Eye can still hear ya saying you would never break the chain.""
@@speculesgorgoth4055 ❤️
This is possibly the most inspired song in the English language, and my go-to when I can't find any other beauty in the world.
Beautiful. A song my brother and I sang when we were younger, so it's really nostalgic for me. It's a nostalgic story-telling song in the first place, so it only adds to the effect. This song can bring me to tears, with it's incredibly vibrant imagery. I love it, definitely a favorite.
I remember hearing this for the first time...I was floored!...it was such a joyous melody that changed textures from one story to the next...so beautifully crafted!...I never forgot it...I had to pull over from driving to fully appreciate this wonderous masterpiece of song!...I've bought 3 of her albums so far...I love them so much...thank you joanna!!!
I am down to once a week listening to this, instead of every day. Growth, growth is occurring ♡♡♡
it’s still every day for me SOS
@@alicemarks7468 it's a good thing too!!
I thought this song was crazy when I heard it on BBC. So I UA-camd it to hear again. Still thought it was nonsense words. Then after I couldn’t stop listening , after 20 listens, the whole thing makes sense and your are now one of my favorite songwriters and singers.
Who elses' Spotify wrapped would be sooooo different if Newsom was on Spotify?
The meaning behind this song is quite depressing, but Joanna disguises it with beautiful melodies and heart wrenching vocals, truly one of my favorite Newsom songs. It's so brutally honest, and the beginning of the song is written so brilliantly starting off as if we've been thrown into the middle of a tale. I've always loved Newsom's narrating, and here she shines more then ever in 16 minutes and 53 seconds of pure gold. My favorite line is when she sings about the estuaries and how it conjoined with the shore out onto the ocean, where thankfully all her lover's actions are forgiven though she tries and tries to support him, and yet he follows through his infidelity and mischief... and still she stays by his side. Being a woman, being a woman... oh Newsom, you've had it hard. I'm only 16, and gosh I'm so In love with her music. Thank you, Joanna... you're a beautiful story teller.
Also this deserved a Grammy for Best Rap Song.
@@samuelbarron825 agreed
I just spent like two hours trying to get what these lyrics were all about lmao and my mind is blown, this narrator suffered so much, right? Just to keep that relationship alive, but she went through it
I believe this song is her best. And I agree. She is the best songwriter of my lifetime, too. I've always loved this song but seeing the lyrics alongside reawakened my fascination with the intricacy of her sung poetry.
Favorite 17 minute jam.
Why the hell is this not on spotify? This is probably, in my opinion, one of the most complete pieces of music ever created. It would do this world such a favor to make this as available as possible. Words cannot express how much I love this song,
Aquelzor exactly. Stores also don't seem to have the physical copy in stock anywhere...and I don't like buying on iTunes
***** it's available a lot of places online in CD and Vinyl form.
Granbar yea... Gonna order it from amazon. Apparently JNew thinks Spotify is the "banana of the music induatry" lol
+Paxel Karlsson "Complete" is the perfect word for it!
Paxel Karlsson Spotify screws the artist out of money. Watch her interview with Larry King about why she chose not to collaborate with Spotify.
One of the best lyrical pieces of our times!
In love with everything Joanna ever did, and lately this one especially. Since I'm currently on lockdown like half of Europe, it's the closest thing I can get to travelling far away.
I'm not sure what the story is here, but I can't sing it without nearly crying. I think I'm connecting to something deep within myself, and within the words, but I'm not sure what.
This song manifests a lot of archetypes
God, the transition from 6:00 gives me chills every time.
Massive high-five Christian. That particular transition is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful i have ever heard in a piece of music - and yes, chills every time. Feel it right down my spine and hairs stand on end!
Glorious, epic song about romantic love and all the pitfalls and levitations it carries within it by its nature.
I have listened to this song at least 900 times since I first heard it over 14 years ago and it has never failed to fill me with wonder. If I could listen to this on my death bed I will and I will pass on with a happy mind ✨️
I remember listening to this in a bus going through a heavy storm. It's a recommended experience, trust me
Scrap a sassafrass eh Sisyphus!
Just my opinion but I hear the death and resurrection of coming to spirituality. Of the love affair between humanity and nature and how it builds and destroys. Also the relation between relationships. When we attempt salvation we sometimes martyr ourselves. Also the pain that lies in freedom. In how we sacrifice self to gain perspective of truth and allign with the complete wholeness that is All. Mother and child, lovers, GOD and humankind... Just a song of infinity. That's what I get anyway. But this is my first time listening so a more indepth study, better yet a deeper revealation of how I feel about it may need to be done. That being said I enjoyed it immensely.
"Why would you say I was the last one?" I think that line intrigues me more than any of the others in this song, solely because it's returned to several times, which seems to place a sense of importance on it. I wonder what "the last one" is referring to, and why it seems so affecting to the narrator.
I think it's about her being the last woman this man would ever love, as he would keep telling her she is the "last one". But the songs seem to imply he is unfaithful, or that their relationship is fading, so it feels like she is repeating that line as she mourns that it was not true when he spoke it.
@@MVA11p I can see how that fits the rest of the song. It certainly fits my interpretation. Thanks!
@@MVA11p perfectly said
@@MVA11p @Arno MansionV You put it so well! I take it to mean the same thing. I love relating this bit to a line in Divers where she says "I don't know if you love me most but you loved me last." Over there I think it means that the narrator's lover is dying and over here it's their relationship that is dying. I bet it was on purpose. Joanna never writes something that doesn't hold some meaning.
i know this song has such a deep meaning but everytime i listen to it i do imagine i’m a medieval princess who fight a whole army with a blessed sword
zelda vibe
I wish I understood it better... english is my second language and I try to just understand all the words. I hope one day I will be able to understand this song in its full glory. Thank you Joanna
Wish you the best of luck, but if it makes you feel better I am a native English speaker who has listened to this countless times and still don’t know what it is about
@@Alex-km7so lmao i LOVE joanna but this is so true
Same. I'm actually trying to write them down at work when I have nothing to do. To learn them better.
i know this comment is a year old but enlish is my first and only language and i still dont even know most of these words. but this is a beautiful song!
I have written my whole thesis listening to you, Joanna. Thank you so, so much. Your neautiful voice is the best way to concentration I have ever found.
Love the part with the East-Asian style musical influences! 6:07 - 7:35 particularly reminds me of the stories of the Ming ji prostitutes from the novel Peach Blossom Pavilion.
That is my absolute favorite part😍
cathy and duby greatest “silently from all the blooming cherry trees”
This song to me is perfect. It’s beautiful.
My favourite song in the whole world
13:35 and onward is probably the best part of the whole song and that's really saying something considering just how incredible the rest of the song is
Some Years ago, I had a terrible cold. I was laying in the in the sun and listened to Only Skin and Emily. While I listened, I was shivering the whole time. After that I stood up and my cold was completely blown away. Like a miracle.
This is so beautiful. In combination with Joanna being in possession of an unfathombly deep pool of creativity and the experiences she shares... this composition is an exceptional journey.
I wish I knew what it was about this song with which I resonate so well.
I was listening to this song constantly painting house red on repeat for few days from morning until evening never get tired of this song
Lol i wrote this one month ago i was sure it was 100 years ago
5:33 - 6:00 is one of the most beautiful moments in all of Ys if you ask me
Marcos Ioannou totally agree.Such an amazing moment
I agree that's my favourite section of the song. Magical.
i love everything about this and it never gets old. what a story, what pleasure in every way. love her. sooooooo much!
This song just broke me. The whole tale of saving a sick bird and having the determination and knowledge to give it a proper death is beautiful! WHAT BROKE ME- having the miracle of "saw the trees tops, cocked her head and up and flew" followed by reality- "but back in the world...dogs still run roughly around little tufts of finch down"
having that opposition of romantic and beautiful "what should be" truth", followed by "no that bird died and the dogs are eating it"...seriously. metaphor much?
Probably the greatest song ever recorded.
i love everyone’s theories on the themes and meanings of this song......to me i think it’s about femininity and a woman’s burden of healing :-)
little bits of the themes of eternal recurrence that are later more pronounced in Divers. still a beautiful and perfect song
This song (the whole album tbh) was instrumental (Lol) in my journey to sobriety 2 years ago and man!!! it still is essential for life as we know it.
I just find it hilarious that she can write and perform such an artistic piece, and her husband gets an Emmy for "Dick in a box" :D The Emmys are literally a joke.
What the actual fuck. Why?
The Emmys are an award show that awards other tv shows. Why would they award a song? They awarded Dick in a Box because it was a comedy skit, not cause it was a song.
@@SKsaturn I guess someone should tell the Emmys that they need to rename the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics" to "Primetime Emmy Award for a Comedy Skit."
ball my eyes out and clutch my pearls like it’s the first time every time I listen to this
is she like a literature major this is pure transcendentalism love it
The all my bones and onwards, tears me down, instant tears....Well actually the whole song makes me cry
It's so cute how her voice squeaks in the beginning! I absolutely love everything she has ever done.
That final, dialogical part ("All my bones...") reminds me of Pale Fire, lines 653-664:
'What is that funny creaking - do you hear?'
'It is the shutter on the stairs, my dear.'
'If you're not sleeping, let's turn on the light.
I hate that wind! Let's play some chess.' 'All right.'
'I'm sure it's not the shutter. There - again.'
'It is a tendril fingering the pane.'
'What glided down the roof and made that thud?'
'It is old winter tumbling in the mud.'
'And now what shall I do? My knight is pinned.'
Who rides so late in the night and the wind?
It is the writer's grief. It is the wild
March wind. It is the father with his child.
given her love for Nabokov this is probably exactly what she based it off!
Me, too. If I had ever in my life felt like I feel when I listen to these 16 small minutes of music, in a church, or temple, or I'd have fallen to my knees, maybe become a monk. (So, I guess I'm glad I have not felt about religions of the world, this way, felt this awe at the beauty of its creation, this Art.) God, Newsom, I'm not a celebrity-stalker, but could I have your autograph? Thank you. Life is thundering blissful toward death in a stampede, so I'll see you there in a second!
I feel like i'm listening to someone's life story in song. Like an entire movie of story in a single 15 minute song.
does she know all her songs by heart?!? wow, what a bard
According to her site, part of the last verse is "could move you to such heights" instead of "couldn't move you to such heights", just fyi
Maybe the most epic songs there is out there. Will listen to it and love it until the day I die.
This song is captivating. Each time you listen to it you notice something which helps you appreciate it magnificence even more.
No words! Utterly sublime in emotion.
This song makes me feel emotions I didn't know I could feel
An epic poem of love and war.
I keep thinking I’ll change my mind every time I listen, but nope, this is one of my favourite ever songs
years ago i knew all the words to this song. revisiting it now, trying to sing along, i cried
This song never fails to move me to tears
Goosebumps....
And when I say cry, I mean cry. Not shed a couple of tears, but weep out loud, involving uncontrollable sobbing and usually also a lot of snot. I don't know exactly why.
back in 2006, she put this song down as a monument of modern pop-crafting, it's an unsurmountable epic bomb
The bit about candy and spiders are my favorite
thank you so much for uploading this
there are no words to describe this song
13:30 and beyond is so tragic and beautiful
no words can describe what this song has meant to me over the last 12 years... but some of the lyrics in the video are incorrect just fyi
Good video! I'm liked and share 574 times :D
It's a beautiful song. You don't have to understand why it's a long song, it's just that beautiful and magical. Derp.
we stan a 21st c romantic poet! tennyson who
So much power, so much femininity
My fucking soul. Only listened to this about 3000 times and hits me just as hard every time.
This part makes me shudder. I actually play that part before I do my peak training sets. Yes, a meathead with 600lbs on his back is cranking Joanna through his head phones. Gives me a better adrenaline and euphoria than heavy metal.
To me, it almost sounds like her man went mad, and though she tries harder and harder to take care of him, she can't.
+Lilly Kopp I hear hints of life and death, sickness and health, abandonment, betrayal, love, loss, and yes, madness too.
"i love you truly or I love no one" you are right but he/she doesnt care. it's about loving someone unconditionaly. no matter where or to whom her/his lover will go, he/she knows that he/she will always love him.
i thought it was about a cheating man who she still loves. she decides to forgive him. in the beginning he gives her an std
To me it sounds like he's gone mad from PTSD after returning from a war, "There was a booming above you, Black airplanes flew over the sea, You froze in your sand shoal,
Prayed for your poor soul"
Amazing, totally and utterly amazing!
it means...what you need it to mean
7:52 she's just showing off at that point
Oh my god, I just wish it would last forever T_T SO GOOD!
God how good this song is...
try as i might, i can’t replicate the way she sings ‘and there was a booming above you’ lol