Joanna Newsom: Go Long
Joanna Newsom is an incredibly talented wordsmith that writes all her own songs, plays the harp and piano. In one interview she mentions that during a show once, one of the strings on her harp cut her finger. It was bleeding but she kept playing and every time she plucked a string and felt blood splatter on her face, she smiled. (I just added that part because she's super cute and you'd never expect that of her)
There are guys like this everywhere and I hope that most of you never have to figure that out but for those of you that have, this song is a startling reminder to always be careful with who you give your heart to.
Last night, again, you were in my dreams
Several expendable limbs were at stake
You were a prince, spinning rims
All sentiments Indian-given and half-baked
(The song begins with the set-up of a dream. I believe the entire song is meant to be a dream, made up of shifting imagery about a singular situation, told through metaphors. It seems to be about a man, “tortured” in a sense. From one view it would seem that the man is cruel (and he probably is) but the song lends a lot of sympathy, makes him sound weak and pathetic and pitiful rather than strong and secure and manly as he might imagine he is viewed.)
I was brought in on a palanquin,
Made of the many bodies of beautiful women
Brought to this place to be examined,
Swaying on an elephant:
A princess of India
<br>
<br>
(the 'palanquin' is a sacrificial platform by definition and this, like many of the lyrics in this song, is another reference to the legend of Bluebeard, who had many wives that all disappeared. She's saying that many women have come before her and now she takes the place of the last.
(The narrator is supposed to “save” this man. The first verse looks as if she is a beautiful woman (a “princess of India”) brought in almost as an offering to this wealthy, extravagant and insincere man. It’s no secret that he goes through women quickly, as she’s brought in on a bed of their sacrifice to him. These women, too, hoped to be the one to “save him,” to end his cruelty, to make him love truly another person. Instead, he has continued to live a life of extravagance, of freedom, and therefore, of great loneliness)
We both want the very same thing.
We are praying
I am the one to save you
But you don't even own,
your own violence
Run away from home-
your beard is still blue
(The man truly does believe he is being “saved,” he will no longer have to prove himself as a man, he will sink into the sweet bliss of domesticity and care from a woman he loves, and when he still does not feel fulfilled, with his disappointment, kills these women. The narrator is the newest addition, and they both hope for him. She recognizes though, as he does not, that when he kills these women for their failure, it is his failure, and his violence, which is truly causing him such pain. He can’t own this. He thinks that when he leaves his palace, his woman, disappears, takes advantage of his wealth and freedom, he will again be free, but he is forever stained by the remains of the women who have loved him and who he has torn up. He does not change by leaving; leaving does not save him)
With the loneliness of you mighty men,
With your jaws, and fists, and guitars
And pens, and your sugar-lip,
But I've never been to the fire pits with you mighty men
(The list of attributes these lonely men have: jaws, fists – to represent violence, masculinity, fighting; guitars and pens – artistic and intellectual endeavors; and then sugarlip, a way of being irresistible to women. These men value these things and focus on them so entirely, seeing that men and only men can have these aspects, and gather around firepits to celebrate their manliness. No women are allowed, no women could be as violent, have such a great mind, as these men believe they have. And no woman has ever been invited, or crossed the threshold, into this burning and sad manliness, isolated in its surety of isolation)
Who made you this way?
Who made you this way?
Who is going to bear your beautiful children?
Do you think you can just stop,
when you're ready for a change?
Who will take care of you
when you're old and dying?
(The narrator is concerned and sad for the man, wondering how he got this way, if he will ever have children, if he will ever have a wife that will care for him when he needs it. In his stark independence, his refusal to need anyone (ironically while needing someone so badly) he will end up alone. Worried for him, almost like a mother, the narrator is telling him softly how miserable he will be, and that soon enough, he won’t have a chance. No one will love him)
You burn in the Mekong,
to prove your worth,
Go Long! Go Long!
Right over the edge of the earth!
You have been wronged,
tore up since birth.
You have done harm.
Others have done worse.
(The Mekong is a sacrificial fire lit over the palanquin, or sacrificial platform. It's a reference to another legend in which a nation of snake gods were tricked into the fire, or Mekong, their deaths reaching near-genocidal proportions. Instead of mellowing himself, forgetting his quests for valor, he repeatedly goes on them; he tortures himself to prove himself. However, the sympathy is there. As a man, he’s repeatedly been failed by those who raised him, those around him, from his birth. It becomes a cycle, everyone just hurting each other)
Will you tuck your shirt?
Will you leave it loose?
You are badly hurt.
You're a silly goose.
(Again, softly, maternally, yearning for a simple domesticity, the narrator asks him about his clothing, wondering about his choices, teasing him. At this point though, he has almost destroyed himself. Covered in the remnants of him trying so hard to prove himself, he acts like a delirious and senile old man, groping at the women around them, not even able to respect or understand the women that are paid to care for him.)
You are caked in mud,
and in blood, and worse.
Chew your bitter cud,
Grope your little nurse.
(The narrator likens herself to a horse, to something men watch and use for a sport. She tries to appeal to him, saying look at your princess now. She is also failing him, she has not saved him, and he will kill her soon. She attempts to get him to look at his life spiritually, to show him his fear, and his ignorance and betrayal of women and how he is hurting himself. She tells him that though he’s looking, he’s blinded himself. He’s sunk further into isolation and as she tries to pull him out, she wonders if she’s done the right thing, or if she’s made it worse.)
Do you know why
my ankles are bound in gauze
sickly dressage:
a princess of kentucky?
(Newsom’s narrator comes into the story on a “palanquin.” She’s a princess of India and Kentucky. Her “ankles are bound in gauze.” This finery from Bluebeard is not only a confinement for Carter’s narrator, it is a way for Bluebeard to dehumanize her. He dresses up his new wife in all this excess because he wants to own her. And if he owns his wives, he then has even more of a right to brutally destroy them. Throughout Carter’s version of myth, there are the motifs of red rubies and white lilies, which Bluebeard showers upon his potential next victim. He makes his new wife wear them before they first have sex and even “kissed those blazing rubies…he kissed them before he kissed her mouth.” <br>
<br>
Both pieces of finery also forebode her death. We see that he orders her to place the red rubies around her neck before he intends to decapitate her and there are so many lilies in her room after the loss of her virginity, the narrator remarked that it looked like an “embalming parlour”. She even later finds his other wives dressed up in their former fineries in the “terrible room.” Newsom’s version of the Bluebeard myth does not expand very much on luxury’s connections to violence, but such overtones are definitely present in “Go Long” (“Do you know why my ankles are bound in gauze?/ Sickly dressage, a princess of Kentucky?”)
In the middle of the woods
which were the probable cause,
we danced in the lodge
like two panting monkeys.
(I think this might actually be a personal reference. I would definitely like to have sex in the middle of the woods in a sweat lodge like two panting monkeys. Sounds hot. )
I will give you a call, for one last hurrah.
If this tale is tall, forgive my scrambling.
But you keep palming along the wall,
moving at a blind crawl, but always rambling.
(Though he is lonely and sad and terrible, she has loved him, like all other women have too, and forever they feel his kiss, and he is forever kissing, asking for something he won’t accept. He is far away, lonely and alone, with all the other men, begging for and refusing help in the same breath.)
Wolf-spider, crouch in your funnel nest,
If I knew you, once,
now I know you less,
In the sinking sand,
where we've come to rest,
have I had a hand in your loneliness?
<br>
<br>
(Wolf spiders are strictly solitary creatures who prefer to build a funnel nest whose primary objective is to keep everything else but that spider OUT. )
When you leave me alone
in this old palace of yours,
it starts to get to me. I take to walking,
What a woman does is open doors.
And it is not a question of locking
or unlocking.
(If you're not familiar with Bluebeard, he had numerous wives that all disappeared. He convinces a local girl to marry him and leaves the country, giving her the keys to the castle and telling her not to open one particular door. He told each wife not to open the door, but each did. Her curiosity also gets the best of her, and in the forbidden room she finds the bodies of all his previous wives on hooks. )
Well, I have never seen
such a terrible room-
gilded with the gold teeth
of the women who loved you!
Now, though I die,
Magpie, this I bequeath:
by any other name
a jay is still blue
(The Magpie in a monogamous bird, it takes one mate its entire life while the Blue Jay is the opposite, always mating with a different bird. She's saying that she's the faithful Magpie and he's the Blue Jay, once a cheater, always a cheater. It's also a Shakespeare reference to "Romeo and Juliet" where Juliet says in her famous monologue "A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." )
With the loneliness
of you mighty men,
with your mighty kiss
that might never end,
while, so far away,
in the seat of the west,
burns the fount
of the heat of that loneliness.
There's a man
who only will speak in code,
backing slowly, slowly down the road.
May he master everything
that such men may know about loving,
and then letting go.
(She accepts it then, and speaks of him, of every man like him, the ones that are on an eternal quest to be something that doesn’t exist. They understand nothing about themselves and are always moving. The narrator knows now that they cannot be helped. She hopes only for the next best thing: that he becomes what he wants to be in a true sense, that, like he’s been doing his whole life, he will love, and then he will cast away, and then he will do it again, until he’s let everyone go, and it is only him, only the men, in one place, all together, steeping themselves in isolation and a journey that they refuse to let end. )
Here is a video of this song with the lyrics posted on screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBtVaHkJc4I
Here is a good quality, live versionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X ... re=related
Joanna Newsom is an incredibly talented wordsmith that writes all her own songs, plays the harp and piano. In one interview she mentions that during a show once, one of the strings on her harp cut her finger. It was bleeding but she kept playing and every time she plucked a string and felt blood splatter on her face, she smiled. (I just added that part because she's super cute and you'd never expect that of her)
There are guys like this everywhere and I hope that most of you never have to figure that out but for those of you that have, this song is a startling reminder to always be careful with who you give your heart to.
Last night, again, you were in my dreams
Several expendable limbs were at stake
You were a prince, spinning rims
All sentiments Indian-given and half-baked
(The song begins with the set-up of a dream. I believe the entire song is meant to be a dream, made up of shifting imagery about a singular situation, told through metaphors. It seems to be about a man, “tortured” in a sense. From one view it would seem that the man is cruel (and he probably is) but the song lends a lot of sympathy, makes him sound weak and pathetic and pitiful rather than strong and secure and manly as he might imagine he is viewed.)
I was brought in on a palanquin,
Made of the many bodies of beautiful women
Brought to this place to be examined,
Swaying on an elephant:
A princess of India
<br>
<br>
(the 'palanquin' is a sacrificial platform by definition and this, like many of the lyrics in this song, is another reference to the legend of Bluebeard, who had many wives that all disappeared. She's saying that many women have come before her and now she takes the place of the last.
(The narrator is supposed to “save” this man. The first verse looks as if she is a beautiful woman (a “princess of India”) brought in almost as an offering to this wealthy, extravagant and insincere man. It’s no secret that he goes through women quickly, as she’s brought in on a bed of their sacrifice to him. These women, too, hoped to be the one to “save him,” to end his cruelty, to make him love truly another person. Instead, he has continued to live a life of extravagance, of freedom, and therefore, of great loneliness)
We both want the very same thing.
We are praying
I am the one to save you
But you don't even own,
your own violence
Run away from home-
your beard is still blue
(The man truly does believe he is being “saved,” he will no longer have to prove himself as a man, he will sink into the sweet bliss of domesticity and care from a woman he loves, and when he still does not feel fulfilled, with his disappointment, kills these women. The narrator is the newest addition, and they both hope for him. She recognizes though, as he does not, that when he kills these women for their failure, it is his failure, and his violence, which is truly causing him such pain. He can’t own this. He thinks that when he leaves his palace, his woman, disappears, takes advantage of his wealth and freedom, he will again be free, but he is forever stained by the remains of the women who have loved him and who he has torn up. He does not change by leaving; leaving does not save him)
With the loneliness of you mighty men,
With your jaws, and fists, and guitars
And pens, and your sugar-lip,
But I've never been to the fire pits with you mighty men
(The list of attributes these lonely men have: jaws, fists – to represent violence, masculinity, fighting; guitars and pens – artistic and intellectual endeavors; and then sugarlip, a way of being irresistible to women. These men value these things and focus on them so entirely, seeing that men and only men can have these aspects, and gather around firepits to celebrate their manliness. No women are allowed, no women could be as violent, have such a great mind, as these men believe they have. And no woman has ever been invited, or crossed the threshold, into this burning and sad manliness, isolated in its surety of isolation)
Who made you this way?
Who made you this way?
Who is going to bear your beautiful children?
Do you think you can just stop,
when you're ready for a change?
Who will take care of you
when you're old and dying?
(The narrator is concerned and sad for the man, wondering how he got this way, if he will ever have children, if he will ever have a wife that will care for him when he needs it. In his stark independence, his refusal to need anyone (ironically while needing someone so badly) he will end up alone. Worried for him, almost like a mother, the narrator is telling him softly how miserable he will be, and that soon enough, he won’t have a chance. No one will love him)
You burn in the Mekong,
to prove your worth,
Go Long! Go Long!
Right over the edge of the earth!
You have been wronged,
tore up since birth.
You have done harm.
Others have done worse.
(The Mekong is a sacrificial fire lit over the palanquin, or sacrificial platform. It's a reference to another legend in which a nation of snake gods were tricked into the fire, or Mekong, their deaths reaching near-genocidal proportions. Instead of mellowing himself, forgetting his quests for valor, he repeatedly goes on them; he tortures himself to prove himself. However, the sympathy is there. As a man, he’s repeatedly been failed by those who raised him, those around him, from his birth. It becomes a cycle, everyone just hurting each other)
Will you tuck your shirt?
Will you leave it loose?
You are badly hurt.
You're a silly goose.
(Again, softly, maternally, yearning for a simple domesticity, the narrator asks him about his clothing, wondering about his choices, teasing him. At this point though, he has almost destroyed himself. Covered in the remnants of him trying so hard to prove himself, he acts like a delirious and senile old man, groping at the women around them, not even able to respect or understand the women that are paid to care for him.)
You are caked in mud,
and in blood, and worse.
Chew your bitter cud,
Grope your little nurse.
(The narrator likens herself to a horse, to something men watch and use for a sport. She tries to appeal to him, saying look at your princess now. She is also failing him, she has not saved him, and he will kill her soon. She attempts to get him to look at his life spiritually, to show him his fear, and his ignorance and betrayal of women and how he is hurting himself. She tells him that though he’s looking, he’s blinded himself. He’s sunk further into isolation and as she tries to pull him out, she wonders if she’s done the right thing, or if she’s made it worse.)
Do you know why
my ankles are bound in gauze
sickly dressage:
a princess of kentucky?
(Newsom’s narrator comes into the story on a “palanquin.” She’s a princess of India and Kentucky. Her “ankles are bound in gauze.” This finery from Bluebeard is not only a confinement for Carter’s narrator, it is a way for Bluebeard to dehumanize her. He dresses up his new wife in all this excess because he wants to own her. And if he owns his wives, he then has even more of a right to brutally destroy them. Throughout Carter’s version of myth, there are the motifs of red rubies and white lilies, which Bluebeard showers upon his potential next victim. He makes his new wife wear them before they first have sex and even “kissed those blazing rubies…he kissed them before he kissed her mouth.” <br>
Both pieces of finery also forebode her death. We see that he orders her to place the red rubies around her neck before he intends to decapitate her and there are so many lilies in her room after the loss of her virginity, the narrator remarked that it looked like an “embalming parlour”. She even later finds his other wives dressed up in their former fineries in the “terrible room.” Newsom’s version of the Bluebeard myth does not expand very much on luxury’s connections to violence, but such overtones are definitely present in “Go Long” (“Do you know why my ankles are bound in gauze?/ Sickly dressage, a princess of Kentucky?”)
In the middle of the woods
which were the probable cause,
we danced in the lodge
like two panting monkeys.
(I think this might actually be a personal reference. I would definitely like to have sex in the middle of the woods in a sweat lodge like two panting monkeys. Sounds hot. )
I will give you a call, for one last hurrah.
If this tale is tall, forgive my scrambling.
But you keep palming along the wall,
moving at a blind crawl, but always rambling.
(Though he is lonely and sad and terrible, she has loved him, like all other women have too, and forever they feel his kiss, and he is forever kissing, asking for something he won’t accept. He is far away, lonely and alone, with all the other men, begging for and refusing help in the same breath.)
Wolf-spider, crouch in your funnel nest,
If I knew you, once,
now I know you less,
In the sinking sand,
where we've come to rest,
have I had a hand in your loneliness?
<br>
<br>
(Wolf spiders are strictly solitary creatures who prefer to build a funnel nest whose primary objective is to keep everything else but that spider OUT. )
When you leave me alone
in this old palace of yours,
it starts to get to me. I take to walking,
What a woman does is open doors.
And it is not a question of locking
or unlocking.
(If you're not familiar with Bluebeard, he had numerous wives that all disappeared. He convinces a local girl to marry him and leaves the country, giving her the keys to the castle and telling her not to open one particular door. He told each wife not to open the door, but each did. Her curiosity also gets the best of her, and in the forbidden room she finds the bodies of all his previous wives on hooks. )
Well, I have never seen
such a terrible room-
gilded with the gold teeth
of the women who loved you!
Now, though I die,
Magpie, this I bequeath:
by any other name
a jay is still blue
(The Magpie in a monogamous bird, it takes one mate its entire life while the Blue Jay is the opposite, always mating with a different bird. She's saying that she's the faithful Magpie and he's the Blue Jay, once a cheater, always a cheater. It's also a Shakespeare reference to "Romeo and Juliet" where Juliet says in her famous monologue "A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." )
With the loneliness
of you mighty men,
with your mighty kiss
that might never end,
while, so far away,
in the seat of the west,
burns the fount
of the heat of that loneliness.
There's a man
who only will speak in code,
backing slowly, slowly down the road.
May he master everything
that such men may know about loving,
and then letting go.
(She accepts it then, and speaks of him, of every man like him, the ones that are on an eternal quest to be something that doesn’t exist. They understand nothing about themselves and are always moving. The narrator knows now that they cannot be helped. She hopes only for the next best thing: that he becomes what he wants to be in a true sense, that, like he’s been doing his whole life, he will love, and then he will cast away, and then he will do it again, until he’s let everyone go, and it is only him, only the men, in one place, all together, steeping themselves in isolation and a journey that they refuse to let end. )
Here is a video of this song with the lyrics posted on screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBtVaHkJc4I
Here is a good quality, live versionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X ... re=related
Well played, lady 
