[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead ¤ milky moon ¤ • View topic - The Reference Thread
As her lyrics can be so difficult at times, I want to start a thread compiling some of the hidden or not so hidden references in Joanna's songs. For instance, somewhere on the forum (or elsewhere, I don't remember) someone mentioned that she had references in Have One On Me to some Will Oldham songs, but then they never mentioned which ones. I'm sure the references will cover literature, songs, etc..
So maybe we can pull out a nice thread compiling these references that people can check it out, add, etc.
I seem to remember reading an analysis of Ys that suggested there were references to Shakespeare in some of the songs. It mentioned the line in Emily, "And the mail is late and the great estates are not lit from within/ the talk in town's becoming downright sickening," and said it could be linked to Shakespeare but I don't remember which work and I can't find this analysis. Does anybody else here remember seeing it?
Then there's the pleiades in Emily, which are a star cluster most prominent in the Northern Hemisphere in winter, and in Greek Mythology the pleiades are the 'seven sisters' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_% ... thology%29), so it's obviously linking to her and Emily's relationship. It's also interesting to note that in Greek Mythology the youngest of the seven sisters was Merope, who went on to marry Sisyphus (who is mentioned in Only Skin) and had several sons.
Also it mentioned in Only Skin how the mention of the 'little willow cabin' could be a reference to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night where it says "Make me a willow cabin at your gate..." (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/t ... uotes.html). The whole of that speech seems to be pretty relevant to that section of Only Skin.
The possible Will Oldham references were in Go Long; he has an album called 'Ease Down the Road' and also one called 'Letting Go', and I've read somewhere that the mention of Kentucky might also be referring to him because he was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Then there's the mention of a palace ("When you leave me alone in this old palace of yours...") which could be referring to how he originally performed under a variety of names involving the word 'Palace' (for example Palace Brothers, Palace Music and Palace Songs). I'm not really sure why the song has so many references to him since I'm not really familiar with his music (I've found most of this information from other blogs analysing Go Long and from Wikipedia), but it is certainly interesting. It says on her wikipedia that her career pretty much started when one of her CDs was passed on to him and he asked her to go on tour with her, so perhaps it's to do with that.
This thread is a really good idea by the way, I didn't really know about the Runaway Bunny or the song Ribbon Bow by Karen Dalton before, so this is really useful!
Auld Lang Syne and Signed, Sealed, Delivered in Good Intentions Paving Company. Depending on what counts as reference, Emily is steeped in them - an ancient history reference (a favourite pastime of Egyptian Pharaohs was hunting songbirds) and a Biblical reference (to the Pharisees, whose meticulous adherence to the letter of the law condemned Jesus).
Funny. After reading this thread this morning I came to work and stumbled upon this as I was reading a totally unrelated book chapter:
"Chinese neo-Confucianism affirms the Tao or Way as that of drawing water and gathering wood, and as the marriage of the sublime and the commonplace..."
I wonder if this is what is referenced in Sawdust & Diamonds when she states "It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood, streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed."
Jordan: I think anything is helpful. I didn't know, for instance, that it was a pastime of Egyptians to hunt songbirds, so anything that anyone has to offer is awesome, because there is always the possibility that someone else will not know even what may seem obvious to us.
Well, the Pharaoh thing is implied in the lyrics - "set to the sky in a flying spree for the sport of the Pharaoh", where the sport in question is hunting. I guess if you don't get that you don't really appreciate how neatly the image in the first two lines summarises one of the main themes of the song - that beautiful things burn themselves out (explored in the meteorite "devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee", and in the narrator's musing on what the meteor shower can tell her about the human condition - "loving him, we move within his borders, just asterisms in the stars' set order", "dumbstruck with the sweetness of being till we don't be"). The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow share a common trait with the subjects of the other images - their moment of beauty, when they're freed from their cages to sing and fly, will inevitably lead to its own end by the Pharaoh's hand. And the Pharaoh represents the order of the universe, I suppose; the rules that say it has to be so. It's a masterful image...
Hi Jordan, actually what I meant is that I did not know there was an historically accurate reference to Egyptians hunting birds. Is this a reference to something historical which has a larger meaning? Because otherwise I agree with you, it's not worth mentioning lyrics just because the mention Egyptians, etc.
Well, yeah, like I said above - the fact that the birds are being hunted, which you might not guess unless you knew that Pharaohs liked to hunt songbirds, means that those lines introduce the theme of the transience of life, which is an important theme in the rest of the song. If you don't pick up that the birds are going to be shot with arrows or boomeranged out of the sky and you think they just fly off or something, the lines don't take on that meaning.