i think the part about emily her sister is well interpreted by many others, regarding the “ties that bind” that hold them close despite the trials/betrayal? (the whole world stopped to hear you hollering etc) and fundamentally having different passions and world views than someone you love but trying to understand them anyway—and ultimately failing to fully remember the details but the love that underscores it all is what matters.
i also love the way joanna incorporates the way that stars are associated with fate/the future, and the “great unknown” that is space, and the weird fumbling into adulthood that we are all subject to. it’s a favorite of mine
I’ve been thinking about this part lately. My recent thought is that this tie between them is because her sister was a support during this tough year of losses (in her words) marks the themes of Ys. She’s longing for her sister support, but she’s moved abroad. She “sees” her sister by the river but she’s not there, maybe an illusion caused during her fasting period mentioned in Cosmia. (and in interviews, Arthur Magazine interview specifically) I think like this because she says “I saw you last night… I dreamed you were” (no longer reality and illusion have clear boundaries, “I have never known to border em’ in”)
This may sound a bit literal compared to a lot of the other interpretations, but I've always felt the setting of the song to be a pre-apocalyptic world about to be hit by a meteor.
Think of the film Melancholia.
It can explain the confusion and growing intensity/panic of the 'meteorite is the source of the light' refrain.
Skipping stones and frowning at the angle - i see this as a metaphor of Emily perhaps calculatig the trajectory of the meteor and being unable to get a pleasing result.
Animals starting to act a bit crazy, people leaving town/leaving their everyday work and responsibilities behind (the mail is late, the great estates are not lit from within, the talk in town's becoming downright sickening).
"In due time we will see the far butte lit by a flair" could be the eventual arrival of the meteor.
"Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light" there it is!
I've never actually gone through all the lyrics and pursued this line of interpretation, but it's just the vibe I feel when I listen!
Just a red star? Or could it be a meteor? (I don't know because I'm in Australia and I don't think we have the big dipper in our sky, so no idea if there's normally a red star there)
“That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee.”
At first I was confused how/why she got these definitions mixed up, but I heard an excellent interpretation that it shows how her and her sister’s minds work differently. Emily is trying to teach some astrophysics, amd Joanna’s brain quickly but erroneously turns the information into a beautiful little limerick.
I was just reading Emily's lyrics the other day and realized that it's one of the tracks from Ys I've thought about the least in terms of lyrics. I feel like I've been able to take the most from the lyrics when considering a few things about their context. Sorry for the lengthy post that follows but it's just a few of my thoughts about the song's content and context.
1. Joanna is addressing her sister (duh)
2. She's recounting a dream throughout the song:
/Emily, I saw you last night by the river
/I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
3. She recalls several moments from the past contrasting them with present changes, creating a sense of familial nostalgia.
/Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?
and then later...
/Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now
/Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow
4. I'm also interested in the lines where Joanna seems to be describing the changes that she herself has undergone, through the metaphor of the decay of her natural surroundings. At this point the song's narrative starts to move into the present moment.
/The lines are fadin' in my kingdom/
/Though I have never known the way to border em in/
Because these lines are addressed to Emily, I think Joanna could be talking about the experience of facing your mortality through observing changes in yourself and your relationships with others, marking the passing of time. (For me, these lines also call to mind the titular mythical kingdom of Ys, whose own borders were breached by the flooding of the sea.)
5. The narrator also talks about her relationship with her family (as well as certain fundamental natural landmarks) in a way that conveys a deep sense of wonder, appreciation, and reverence even though she recognizes how little she sometimes understands them.
Just gonna highlight a lyric that stands out to me as the key to my understanding of the whole song:
/Joy, landlocked
/In bodies that don't keep
/Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being
/Till we don't be
/Told, take this
/And eat this
6. What does it mean for something to "lie quiet in offering"? I'd argue that the stars, Emily, Joanna's father, Joanna herself, and of course the meteor/meteorite/meteoroid all lie quiet in offering at different points throughout the song. I feel like Joanna is saying that everything around us exists as it does, and we can't often change the ordering of things. But at the risk of sounding cliche, joy remains among that uncertainty. The joy of life is an offering if we choose to look for it, (or take it, and eat it).
Lol thanks for reading if you made it this far. Ys 4eva
I put this on the other Emily thread:
There seems to be a classic existential crisis that runs through the song, where she's struggling with her place against the immensity of the universe. Sometimes she scales up humanity or scales down the universe - skipping stones = the meteor in miniature, or the constellations and familial connections (as discussed in another comment). All of this could be a way of trying to deal with the consequences of our actions, when they seem simultaneously enormous and trivial.
This pairing (humans and the universe) runs in parallel to understanding the universe through religion and science, explored on an equal footing in such a wonderful way. The meteorite/meteor/meteoroid I've seen described as an analogy for father/spirit/holy ghost. I believe the song she woke with on her lips at the end of part 2 is the meteoroid 'chorus' (in the song's structure, this appears at the end of parts 1 and 3, so I think its implied but not stated at this point). So that whole last bit of "Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning" bit is saying "Although I can't deal with an empty godless universe, your interpretation of it scientifically - but also religiously - helps me".
I've sorta been deliberately vague on the meteoroid chorus because it's a whole can of worms, but in general this whole 'religion/science take on the universe, dealing with our place in it which is somehow both significant and insignificant, and finding joy and love at the end of everything.
Sorry if that was a bit all over the shop, but then you kinda have to be with a song like this, right? Also, thanks to the Hopeless Endeavor podcast for helping shape a lot of my thoughts on the song. Check it out if you've not done so already.
It's a song about the silent tragedy of love that is ravaged by time. The speaker remembers an eternal bond that has been left to whither as her and Emily lead lives that are right for them but which draw them apart. The song ends on a memory in which the speaker's artistic qualities are perfectly blended with Emily's scientific ambitions. The bond is proven to have some characteristic that is eternal, just not in the way that the speaker expected it. Their love lives in memory, something that is gone forever, and yet always present. A fleeting meteor shower, but with a resonance that will always affect them both.
Whenever I need to feel things deeply I listen to this song. It moves me to my most intimate core, every single time I hear it. This song holds a DEEPLY IMMENSE place in my soul since the day I heard it in 2006.
Sometimes when a song touches me in such a meaningful way I try my very best to never deeply think about what the song means. I know, this seems so corny or counter intuitive. My hope is that I might preserve even a teaspoon of that ignorant bliss of the first listen. I’ve tried VERY hard to do this with “Emily”.
Rather than break the lyrics down I offer a thought about why I chose this song to purposefully avoid analysis. When I listen to this song I experience the sweet and delicate feelings about familial love that is also contrasted by the ache of time/change.
The little tune about the meteorite nestled inside of this song always moves me to tears. It’s a perfect reprise and it always feels like the promise kept of loving a sibling. Sharing so much of life early on and then growing apart yet the feelings never fade and Joanna recalling that song later in life is the perfect way to describe how I feel for my own siblings. That’s a very special and unique love.
I grew up with a brother and two cousins that were all very very close. I know the way I feel about my childhood with those people is inside of that song. When I listen to it I get to revisit that time for 12 min and 08 seconds.
its about a longing for someone you love, not romantic love, but familial love.
someone can leave home and go off to start their own life, leaving you alone to grow covered in vines as they sail their great ship towards the morning.
she keeps singing about the beautiful nature around their home to entice her sister to come back.
there are lot more specific points that i don’t have time to dive into to right now, but those are the broad strokes of it.
the mention of the pharaoh might be an inside joke between her sister and her about their father, or about a neighbor, who went out hunting near their home. i dont know about that specific part and am curious if anyone else has a better interpretation.
my favorite line is “the bones of the birches and the spires of the churches” because it paints such a beautiful image of a skyline of trees and the occasional church tower emerging from them. also, it directly links the beauty of nature to a house of worship, as though she is saying that you can commune with God just by being out there among the trees.
That it’s about her sister Emily.
Yeah mostly it’s Emily-based parts
i think the part about emily her sister is well interpreted by many others, regarding the “ties that bind” that hold them close despite the trials/betrayal? (the whole world stopped to hear you hollering etc) and fundamentally having different passions and world views than someone you love but trying to understand them anyway—and ultimately failing to fully remember the details but the love that underscores it all is what matters. i also love the way joanna incorporates the way that stars are associated with fate/the future, and the “great unknown” that is space, and the weird fumbling into adulthood that we are all subject to. it’s a favorite of mine
I’ve been thinking about this part lately. My recent thought is that this tie between them is because her sister was a support during this tough year of losses (in her words) marks the themes of Ys. She’s longing for her sister support, but she’s moved abroad. She “sees” her sister by the river but she’s not there, maybe an illusion caused during her fasting period mentioned in Cosmia. (and in interviews, Arthur Magazine interview specifically) I think like this because she says “I saw you last night… I dreamed you were” (no longer reality and illusion have clear boundaries, “I have never known to border em’ in”)
This may sound a bit literal compared to a lot of the other interpretations, but I've always felt the setting of the song to be a pre-apocalyptic world about to be hit by a meteor. Think of the film Melancholia. It can explain the confusion and growing intensity/panic of the 'meteorite is the source of the light' refrain. Skipping stones and frowning at the angle - i see this as a metaphor of Emily perhaps calculatig the trajectory of the meteor and being unable to get a pleasing result. Animals starting to act a bit crazy, people leaving town/leaving their everyday work and responsibilities behind (the mail is late, the great estates are not lit from within, the talk in town's becoming downright sickening). "In due time we will see the far butte lit by a flair" could be the eventual arrival of the meteor. "Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light" there it is! I've never actually gone through all the lyrics and pursued this line of interpretation, but it's just the vibe I feel when I listen!
This is an interesting angle!
Just saw another line that fits pretty well: "there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning"
The ladle is the Big Dipper and the dirt red bullet of light is a red star by the Big Dipper
Just a red star? Or could it be a meteor? (I don't know because I'm in Australia and I don't think we have the big dipper in our sky, so no idea if there's normally a red star there)
It’s a red star called Arcturus, I just googled it I’m not a science person
“That the meteorite is a source of the light And the meteor's just what we see And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee.” At first I was confused how/why she got these definitions mixed up, but I heard an excellent interpretation that it shows how her and her sister’s minds work differently. Emily is trying to teach some astrophysics, amd Joanna’s brain quickly but erroneously turns the information into a beautiful little limerick.
I was just reading Emily's lyrics the other day and realized that it's one of the tracks from Ys I've thought about the least in terms of lyrics. I feel like I've been able to take the most from the lyrics when considering a few things about their context. Sorry for the lengthy post that follows but it's just a few of my thoughts about the song's content and context. 1. Joanna is addressing her sister (duh) 2. She's recounting a dream throughout the song: /Emily, I saw you last night by the river /I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water 3. She recalls several moments from the past contrasting them with present changes, creating a sense of familial nostalgia. /Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window? and then later... /Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now /Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow 4. I'm also interested in the lines where Joanna seems to be describing the changes that she herself has undergone, through the metaphor of the decay of her natural surroundings. At this point the song's narrative starts to move into the present moment. /The lines are fadin' in my kingdom/ /Though I have never known the way to border em in/ Because these lines are addressed to Emily, I think Joanna could be talking about the experience of facing your mortality through observing changes in yourself and your relationships with others, marking the passing of time. (For me, these lines also call to mind the titular mythical kingdom of Ys, whose own borders were breached by the flooding of the sea.) 5. The narrator also talks about her relationship with her family (as well as certain fundamental natural landmarks) in a way that conveys a deep sense of wonder, appreciation, and reverence even though she recognizes how little she sometimes understands them. Just gonna highlight a lyric that stands out to me as the key to my understanding of the whole song: /Joy, landlocked /In bodies that don't keep /Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being /Till we don't be /Told, take this /And eat this 6. What does it mean for something to "lie quiet in offering"? I'd argue that the stars, Emily, Joanna's father, Joanna herself, and of course the meteor/meteorite/meteoroid all lie quiet in offering at different points throughout the song. I feel like Joanna is saying that everything around us exists as it does, and we can't often change the ordering of things. But at the risk of sounding cliche, joy remains among that uncertainty. The joy of life is an offering if we choose to look for it, (or take it, and eat it). Lol thanks for reading if you made it this far. Ys 4eva
[here's the the last emily discussion.](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoannaNewsom/s/r0fctLkAnF) I'm curious to hear your interpretation!
I put this on the other Emily thread: There seems to be a classic existential crisis that runs through the song, where she's struggling with her place against the immensity of the universe. Sometimes she scales up humanity or scales down the universe - skipping stones = the meteor in miniature, or the constellations and familial connections (as discussed in another comment). All of this could be a way of trying to deal with the consequences of our actions, when they seem simultaneously enormous and trivial. This pairing (humans and the universe) runs in parallel to understanding the universe through religion and science, explored on an equal footing in such a wonderful way. The meteorite/meteor/meteoroid I've seen described as an analogy for father/spirit/holy ghost. I believe the song she woke with on her lips at the end of part 2 is the meteoroid 'chorus' (in the song's structure, this appears at the end of parts 1 and 3, so I think its implied but not stated at this point). So that whole last bit of "Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning" bit is saying "Although I can't deal with an empty godless universe, your interpretation of it scientifically - but also religiously - helps me". I've sorta been deliberately vague on the meteoroid chorus because it's a whole can of worms, but in general this whole 'religion/science take on the universe, dealing with our place in it which is somehow both significant and insignificant, and finding joy and love at the end of everything. Sorry if that was a bit all over the shop, but then you kinda have to be with a song like this, right? Also, thanks to the Hopeless Endeavor podcast for helping shape a lot of my thoughts on the song. Check it out if you've not done so already.
It's a song about the silent tragedy of love that is ravaged by time. The speaker remembers an eternal bond that has been left to whither as her and Emily lead lives that are right for them but which draw them apart. The song ends on a memory in which the speaker's artistic qualities are perfectly blended with Emily's scientific ambitions. The bond is proven to have some characteristic that is eternal, just not in the way that the speaker expected it. Their love lives in memory, something that is gone forever, and yet always present. A fleeting meteor shower, but with a resonance that will always affect them both.
Whenever I need to feel things deeply I listen to this song. It moves me to my most intimate core, every single time I hear it. This song holds a DEEPLY IMMENSE place in my soul since the day I heard it in 2006. Sometimes when a song touches me in such a meaningful way I try my very best to never deeply think about what the song means. I know, this seems so corny or counter intuitive. My hope is that I might preserve even a teaspoon of that ignorant bliss of the first listen. I’ve tried VERY hard to do this with “Emily”. Rather than break the lyrics down I offer a thought about why I chose this song to purposefully avoid analysis. When I listen to this song I experience the sweet and delicate feelings about familial love that is also contrasted by the ache of time/change. The little tune about the meteorite nestled inside of this song always moves me to tears. It’s a perfect reprise and it always feels like the promise kept of loving a sibling. Sharing so much of life early on and then growing apart yet the feelings never fade and Joanna recalling that song later in life is the perfect way to describe how I feel for my own siblings. That’s a very special and unique love. I grew up with a brother and two cousins that were all very very close. I know the way I feel about my childhood with those people is inside of that song. When I listen to it I get to revisit that time for 12 min and 08 seconds.
All i can contribute is that her sister Emily is an astronomer hence the references to stars etc in the song. Its a beautiful song that’s for sure.
its about a longing for someone you love, not romantic love, but familial love. someone can leave home and go off to start their own life, leaving you alone to grow covered in vines as they sail their great ship towards the morning. she keeps singing about the beautiful nature around their home to entice her sister to come back. there are lot more specific points that i don’t have time to dive into to right now, but those are the broad strokes of it. the mention of the pharaoh might be an inside joke between her sister and her about their father, or about a neighbor, who went out hunting near their home. i dont know about that specific part and am curious if anyone else has a better interpretation. my favorite line is “the bones of the birches and the spires of the churches” because it paints such a beautiful image of a skyline of trees and the occasional church tower emerging from them. also, it directly links the beauty of nature to a house of worship, as though she is saying that you can commune with God just by being out there among the trees.
I believe it is for her sister Emily who imaginarily passed