"Babies lost in the womb were never touched by fear. They were never cold, never hungry, never alone and importantly always knew love" - Zöe Clark-Coates. Felt this kicked true with this masterpiece of song. Peace with you Joanna, and little runaway bunny x
I grew up with Joanna. I was 9 when her first album came out. She has been a bigger influence on millennial song writers than she could ever get credit for and could well be the greatest song writer of the 2000's.
Oh boy the line, "When it was dark I called and you came When it was dark I saw shapes When I see stars I feel your hand And I see stars and I reel again" is making me sob uncontrollably
For more than a year now, I have been absolutely unable to STAND this song. Not because it's bad, because it always, without fail, made me cry my eyes out. Tried listening to it again today and... wow, am I glad I did.
No one quite speaks to me the way she does. I can listen to so many other artists and enjoy their music, but I always come back to Joanna whenever I don't know what I'm in the mood for. She fills my soul.
I know this is a year late, but I just read your comment and I almost broke into tears. It's so cool that people find comfort in music. Hope you're doing fine.
It's strange. I returned here after another recent loss that broke the very core of me, just to find this old comment of mine. Hadn't seen your replies back then. Thank you, it kind of warmed my heart.
Just my little piece to add to the miscarriage interpretation - I believe the part about the bunny is a reference to or inspired by Mary Toft, a woman in the 1700s who claimed to have given birth to a litter of stillborn rabbits. She had a miscarriage after her reported fascination with the sighting of a rabbit and in her grief concocted a plan to try to rise out of poverty and never want for anything again. Part of the reason why she lost her baby was because she was a servant and was forced to work in the fields even while pregnant. She even managed to convince even the king's physicians that she was giving birth to rabbit parts, but was later discovered and thrown into jail for five years and was never able to have the baby she longed for.
7th hokage this is coming from the same artist that wrote the line “I’ve never seen such a terrible room! Gilded with the gold teeth of women who loved you!”
There’s also a boom called The Runaway Bunny by Wise Brown, which is about a baby bunny telling their mom that they are going to run and hide some place, and the mom going “I will find you”. And the baby bunny goes “but what if I ran ___and hid____” and the mom goes “I would still find you even if you ran ____ and hid ____” over and over again. It was popularized by the award winning play Wit which was made into a movie starring Emma Thompson about a woman who is a poetry professor who teaches a course in and is obsessed with John Donne and then gets ovarian cancer. Her whole approach to poetry has been clinical and her approach to her students was cold. One of her students is now her oncologist, and he is similarly cold. He is more concerned with learning about the cancer and how it responds to various treatments than with her suffering. Things go from bad to worse, and she ends up hovering on the edge of death when she is given a surprise visit by the professor who initially inspired her when she was in university. The professor offers to read her some Donne and she says gasps nooo. The professor sees a copy of The Runaway Bunny, (the dying woman’s favorite book from childhood) and offers to read that instead. She then reads several pages from the book and then pauses and says “how clever…a perfectly allegory of the soul. Wherever it runs, God finds it”. Joanna Newsom is so good that I believe she meant the several line allusion to be both to all of that, and to the woman who birthed the stillborn rabbits. Best songwriter around and it’s not close
It’s amazing how you can listen to an album once when you’re young and have it mean nothing, then listen to it again a decade later and have it blow your mind
Yeah that's me man, me and my other friend listened to this all the time at like 15/16 but as teenage boys we had no idea what it meant. Looking it up 15-20 years later and listening to it for nostalgia's sake and the pleasure only to find out the true meaning of the song as an adult hit home - it hits like a truck all the more
worst feeling in the world is begging the world to enjoy joanna just as much as you do and being ignored. She's too incredible to be ignored you fools!
Oh yeah, absolutely, THAT is the uncontested worst feeling in the world! Yup! You nailed it! Second to that is OBVIOUSLY being deprived the GLORY of being HONORED with a participation trophy, which is as UNACCEPTABLE and UNJUST a fate as the plight this composition highlighted, right?!?! OF COURSE, so PLEASE grant me the honor of heroically bestowing upon you THIS, most vital digital, symbolic "appreciation" trophy, CAUSE THIS, is what REALLY matters!! (P.S. next to not just ALL, but especially BLUE LIVES!! #self-sucking-support)
There are so many pockets of emotion in this song but the two lyrics that really land a critical hit on me are: 'Well I wish we could take every path, Could spend a hundred years adoring you' and 'Your eyes are green Your hair is gold Your hair is black Your eyes are blue' I absolutely love the way the second one captures the feeling of mourning over someone who never even took form... they are as much anything/everything as they are nothing. Joanna is incredible
Growing up my mother often read the runaway bunny to me. I went back a few years ago crying over the message it sent as I had often wanted to run away from my parents and the household they created. The line where joanna quotes the book hurts harder than ever and never ceases to make me cry.
A year ago today I lost mine. I never met him, but I knew him, and God I loved him. I still do, but over the year I've learnt to out that love somewhere good, and I've tried to give it to myself as well. Wherever you are, stay vigilant my love, one day we'll meet again ❤
The timeless emotional journey this song takes me on is unlike any other. Still makes me sob and experience emotions that have been laying low. It's been 7 years since I listened to this. Happy to still feel this way when hearing it.
I always picture the line " your eyes are green, your hair is gold, your hair is black, your eyes are blue" as an older woman who has passed away, meeting the child she never knew. And he is waiting for her.
I'm envious I didn't get to see this live. I like her music but I wouldn't exactly be a fan but this part is one of my favorite parts of any song I've ever heard...like the second half of PDA by Interpol...just a moment where a good artist transitions into something completely epic
She is a genius.. I don’t know how anyone can create something so pure, so raw, so ambiguous, yet so deeply relatable as this. I was just rocking my newborn baby to sleep, and totally struck down by this track. My love to all mothers who've lost one on the way.
I know, every time she sings the second “be at peace baby and be gone” I cried like a broken dam... like you can hear the pain in Joanna’s voice and how she’s reluctant to let go of the memory of her child which she either lost through a miscarriage or an abortion, but in order to move on with her life she has to say goodbye to that memory 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
music doesn't make me cry very often but i'm convinced half or more of newsom's discography has made me just sob at one point. it's like she has this very specific superpower, and it's to induce tears in people... addendum: a while ago this one hit me out of nowhere while i was on the bus so thanks for that, joanna
There never has to be one meaning to a song. The point is how we infer the meaning and internalize it, for ourselves. Such is the beauty of all art and especially music. This song gives so much to me, as someone who has recently suffered a great loss. That is what I adore- Newsom comforts me, she can comfort you.
one of my favourites. so incredibly raw and riveting. it manages to bring me to tears every time i listen to it, so i can’t even begin to imagine how she performs it live.
When performed live, this is one of the most perfect things in existence. The complete silence from the awed crowd is almost eerie, followed by the thunderous applause when she finishes.
the more i listen to her metaphors the more they seem like plain statements. i can't imagine this being about anything other than choosing not to have a baby, and knowing it was the right thing but feeling a deep loss and sadness none the less. i think to read anything more into it is sort of pointless. she's being super direct.
@@xiangxa9929 don't say that. this song was released nearly ten years ago, she's a wealthy, famous, successful married woman now. maybe it's simply the right time for her to have a kid now and it wasn't the right time then.
"i think to read anything more into it is sort of pointless." Relax. People find different meaning in lyrics and that's fine. It's not "pointless". To boil everything down to one interpretation and call everything else pointless doesn't sound very fun or nice.
I sometimes feel like the only person in the universe who feels so stongly for this music. I understand thats not true, but sometimes it doesn't feel real, as though it is merely a dream, and in the end, it is just joanna's music and I.
I live in the woods. This song evokes something in my soul, it's ineffable, but it feels like moonlight, love, and sadness in a glade. I just never understand how no one else knows it when there's so much forest and nature here.
she's incredible in concert. i've seen her three times in paris, and that can't understand all the words, but they get it, too. such a hushed and accute attention she demands.
I love this song so much. It really made me think about the older sister I never met, and the way her life and death affected my family, and myself even though our lifetimes never overlapped. Baby birch inspired me to write a song about her. This song really makes me think about how much I miss her. And how I can miss someone who I never met. The line "your eyes are green your hair is gold, you hair is black, your eyes are blue ." and "she ran, as they're liable to do" always make me tear up. Thank you, Baby Birch, for making me confront my feelings about this.
Actually, I'd say that, rather than being about a miscarriage, it talks about an abortion--"I hated to close the door on you /...and there is a barber who is cutting and cutting away at my only joy". Beautiful way of expressing profound sadness.
If you lose your pregnancy at a late stage, the procedure is a lot like an abortion, which is why, I think, the barber is cutting away at her 'only joy'.
@@King_of_carrot_flowers"And I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her and skinned her quick" Doesn't sound like a miscarriage to me. God forbid a woman has an abortion!
i hope she got the money for all these streams and adds...... Joanna Newsom is goddess supreme. This songs saved my life years ago. Her music is sacred. Again i hope she is getting every penny of these streams.
My friend has PCOS and has been struggling to conceive for the past ten years, and she took a lot of comfort from this song. She interpreted the lyrics to herself, as her own body destroying any babies she could have possibly created. She’s also very pro-life. For me and a lot of other fans, I interpreted this to be about an abortion after a bitter end to a relationship. I love that this song can reach people with different beliefs and affect them the same way.
Oh my god, this song. It feels like there is even too much emotion in it to listen to it often. It’s too much but at the same time it‘s so damn beautiful. Heartbreaking, whatever the exact story behind it is. Just the song itself. Heartbreaking and beautiful and truly a masterpiece. I’ve had this in my joanna playlist for _ages_ and for some reason always skipped it. Never again.
I think Joanna Newsom would want you to interpret the songs in anyway you'd like. I personally would like to think she'd want you to take what she says and turn it into your own personal experience. And as for this song.. I think she longs to be a mother. I'm a mother.. so I get a sense of urgency in caring for someone.
for the people who don't think that think this is about losing a baby(either through abortion or miscarriage), how do you explain the similar part in the song right after this, "On A Good Day"?
I will likely never be able to have children. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a baby whether intentionally or not. But this song always hits me in my rawest spot and makes me sob for the baby I wish so desperately I could have.
oh my goodness Have I ever heard such a heartbreaking song in my life I dont think so. This is the song for Baby Birch Though I will never know you And at the back of what we've done There is the knowledge of you And I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her and skinned her quick, held her there Kicking and mewling upended unspooling unsung and blue Told her wherever you go little runaway bunny I will find you And then she ran As they're liable to do Be at peace baby, and be gone
I just played this to my very manly, very dude bro doesn't cry at anything or show feelings because he's a heterosexual manly man flat mate and he actually had a wobbly bottom lip and misty eyes. That is the power of Joanna newsom
Whether it is about an abortion or a miscarriage, it is about the loss of the idea of a child. she gives that child she will not raise a name. and she sings it over and over again in this song. it's what makes it so sad. she is singing an existence that never was, or that only was in her mind. and that is, over and over again, when she sings it in this song. with all of the cruelty of that lack and what caused it. "be at peace, baby, and be gone."
I actually think it is about both...the first half seems to be a miscarriage due to some accident...then she imagines all the different possibilities of her child with different colors of hair and eyes...but the last bit is definitely about an abortion...she talks about how she(whoever the song is about) perceives children as a nuisance (dregs)..then the barber(who were surgeons way back when) is performing the abortion...and the rabbit is referring to the fetus of the child.
As to the comments regarding abortion vs giving a child away...couldn't the song just as easily be about someone who has decided to never have a child? That's the thing about a great and personal song, people are able to take the "meaning", and ascribe their own experiences to it.
@TheSuggly I think the abortion is the more likely, because of the way she speaks to the goose - doesn't want it's dregs, doesn't want a baby fussing all over her legs (or thereabouts), and that final, fantastic verse: she talks about the barber cutting her only joy (barbers used to be surgeons, and the verse mentions blacksmiths etc; this is not modern day imagery), and then she sings of skinning the live rabbit violently, its guts unspooling while it shrieks. That's no miscarriage!
huh, that's interesting! I always thought it was like "I dont want your dregs"(I dont want no damn gosling, relax! What I want is my little baby fussing on my legs---but she can't have that.)
But if you have a miscarriage late term, you do have to get a D&C, which is quite similar to an abortion, as you have to have the fetus surgically removed.
I was in a cabin in the woods with my family and I would fall asleep to her every night my parents asked who is that cat voiced girl youre listening to? I told them Joanna Newsom. They never understood. What a shame
@thatsamehawaiiankid Yeah that's about right, a journey of love and loss and (cliche alert!) coming of age. It's very hard to pin a single meaning to these songs, she has so much depth as a writer and singer.
+Feed My Ego I dont think she is regretting it all. I think it represents an incredible mix of intricate emotions and the word "regret" doesnt cut it. It's sad but it's bittersweet. maybe there's some regret in there but I dont think it's that simple.... birch trees represent new beginnings and hope in a lot of mythologies... I dunno. I just hate to see people simplify this song too much because especially at the 3:30 mark it becomes strangely upbeat. all of her songs have so many layers, this one is no different! :'D
I took it to mean stars are far away, out of reach and untouchable. Known for being beautiful, they can't be harmed. Maybe she is greatful something so precious can't be harmed? Or maybe i'm reading too much into it.
"Babies lost in the womb were never touched by fear. They were never cold, never hungry, never alone and importantly always knew love" - Zöe Clark-Coates. Felt this kicked true with this masterpiece of song. Peace with you Joanna, and little runaway bunny x
I feel it.
@@strangenessandcharmsI'm so glad it spoke to some people x. I love your covers! How are you enjoying the new Joanna songs from the Fleet Foxes show?
I grew up with Joanna. I was 9 when her first album came out. She has been a bigger influence on millennial song writers than she could ever get credit for and could well be the greatest song writer of the 2000's.
i got ys in 2006, when i was 13. her music has been the only constant in my life
she is the greatest songwriter of the 21st century
@@zxjacko Well, so far, it's still early. But I do think I agree with you for now.
What sets Joanna part and keeps me coming back to her music is the songwriting... it's exceptional
fiona for the 90s, and joanna for the 2000s
When the drum kicks in and she starts singing faster I always lose my shit and just start sobbing
Sobbing is pretty much my typical reaction to Newsom. Only artist that I have that reaction to except for Beethoven.
same
Oh boy the line, "When it was dark I called and you came When it was dark I saw shapes When I see stars I feel your hand And I see stars and I reel again" is making me sob uncontrollably
For more than a year now, I have been absolutely unable to STAND this song. Not because it's bad, because it always, without fail, made me cry my eyes out. Tried listening to it again today and... wow, am I glad I did.
No one quite speaks to me the way she does. I can listen to so many other artists and enjoy their music, but I always come back to Joanna whenever I don't know what I'm in the mood for. She fills my soul.
My family is dealing with a huge loss, and this song is a little comfort to me.
I know this is a year late, but I just read your comment and I almost broke into tears. It's so cool that people find comfort in music. Hope you're doing fine.
Lemony Chagall it's 2018 now, I hope you'll fine now. I had one too but I think I could handle this one.
A big hug for you.
It's strange. I returned here after another recent loss that broke the very core of me, just to find this old comment of mine. Hadn't seen your replies back then. Thank you, it kind of warmed my heart.
Just my little piece to add to the miscarriage interpretation - I believe the part about the bunny is a reference to or inspired by Mary Toft, a woman in the 1700s who claimed to have given birth to a litter of stillborn rabbits. She had a miscarriage after her reported fascination with the sighting of a rabbit and in her grief concocted a plan to try to rise out of poverty and never want for anything again. Part of the reason why she lost her baby was because she was a servant and was forced to work in the fields even while pregnant. She even managed to convince even the king's physicians that she was giving birth to rabbit parts, but was later discovered and thrown into jail for five years and was never able to have the baby she longed for.
Rachel Cardwell this could also tie into the song jackrabbits. “So I swung through here like a brace of jackrabbits with their necks all broke.”
Jackson Catlett that's a bit scary don't you think?
7th hokage this is coming from the same artist that wrote the line “I’ve never seen such a terrible room! Gilded with the gold teeth of women who loved you!”
There’s also a boom called The Runaway Bunny by Wise Brown, which is about a baby bunny telling their mom that they are going to run and hide some place, and the mom going “I will find you”. And the baby bunny goes “but what if I ran ___and hid____” and the mom goes “I would still find you even if you ran ____ and hid ____” over and over again.
It was popularized by the award winning play Wit which was made into a movie starring Emma Thompson about a woman who is a poetry professor who teaches a course in and is obsessed with John Donne and then gets ovarian cancer. Her whole approach to poetry has been clinical and her approach to her students was cold. One of her students is now her oncologist, and he is similarly cold. He is more concerned with learning about the cancer and how it responds to various treatments than with her suffering. Things go from bad to worse, and she ends up hovering on the edge of death when she is given a surprise visit by the professor who initially inspired her when she was in university. The professor offers to read her some Donne and she says gasps nooo. The professor sees a copy of The Runaway Bunny, (the dying woman’s favorite book from childhood) and offers to read that instead. She then reads several pages from the book and then pauses and says “how clever…a perfectly allegory of the soul. Wherever it runs, God finds it”.
Joanna Newsom is so good that I believe she meant the several line allusion to be both to all of that, and to the woman who birthed the stillborn rabbits. Best songwriter around and it’s not close
It’s actually a reference to the childrens book “the runaway bunny”. If you have read the book it makes sense
It’s amazing how you can listen to an album once when you’re young and have it mean nothing, then listen to it again a decade later and have it blow your mind
Yeah that's me man, me and my other friend listened to this all the time at like 15/16 but as teenage boys we had no idea what it meant. Looking it up 15-20 years later and listening to it for nostalgia's sake and the pleasure only to find out the true meaning of the song as an adult hit home - it hits like a truck all the more
worst feeling in the world is begging the world to enjoy joanna just as much as you do and being ignored. She's too incredible to be ignored you fools!
She's not for everyone. She's for us. That's enough for me.
or aborting the child you love
Brooooooo this was literally just going through my head as a friend left, unenthusiastic
Cat 1969.
Diese Musik ist nicht von dieser Welt. Das ist vielleicht etwas Schwierig zu verstehen.
Ich liebe ihre musik
Oh yeah, absolutely, THAT is the uncontested worst feeling in the world! Yup! You nailed it! Second to that is OBVIOUSLY being deprived the GLORY of being HONORED with a participation trophy, which is as UNACCEPTABLE and UNJUST a fate as the plight this composition highlighted, right?!?! OF COURSE, so PLEASE grant me the honor of heroically bestowing upon you THIS, most vital digital, symbolic "appreciation" trophy, CAUSE THIS, is what REALLY matters!! (P.S. next to not just ALL, but especially BLUE LIVES!! #self-sucking-support)
There are so many pockets of emotion in this song but the two lyrics that really land a critical hit on me are:
'Well I wish we could take every path,
Could spend a hundred years adoring you'
and
'Your eyes are green
Your hair is gold
Your hair is black
Your eyes are blue'
I absolutely love the way the second one captures the feeling of mourning over someone who never even took form... they are as much anything/everything as they are nothing.
Joanna is incredible
Growing up my mother often read the runaway bunny to me. I went back a few years ago crying over the message it sent as I had often wanted to run away from my parents and the household they created. The line where joanna quotes the book hurts harder than ever and never ceases to make me cry.
I don’t know anyone who can write a song like Joanna. Pure poetry. She might genuinely be the best lyricist of our time.
A year ago today I lost mine. I never met him, but I knew him, and God I loved him. I still do, but over the year I've learnt to out that love somewhere good, and I've tried to give it to myself as well. Wherever you are, stay vigilant my love, one day we'll meet again ❤
The timeless emotional journey this song takes me on is unlike any other. Still makes me sob and experience emotions that have been laying low. It's been 7 years since I listened to this. Happy to still feel this way when hearing it.
6:45 - 7:35 absolutely destroys me, some of the most violent and heartbreaking lines she's ever sung.
Some of the most violent lines I've heard ANYONE sing. And in such a beautiful song it's a great juxtaposition.
I always picture the line " your eyes are green, your hair is gold, your hair is black, your eyes are blue" as an older woman who has passed away, meeting the child she never knew. And he is waiting for her.
I go buck-wild whenever I hear the transition at 6:20. Omg i love it.
It was the greatest thing ever when I heard it live.
Wow! I know this was commented 10 years ago but I wish to one day see her live.
I'm envious I didn't get to see this live. I like her music but I wouldn't exactly be a fan but this part is one of my favorite parts of any song I've ever heard...like the second half of PDA by Interpol...just a moment where a good artist transitions into something completely epic
She is a genius.. I don’t know how anyone can create something so pure, so raw, so ambiguous, yet so deeply relatable as this. I was just rocking my newborn baby to sleep, and totally struck down by this track. My love to all mothers who've lost one on the way.
"Be at peace, baby, and be gone" This line destroys me.
why
Spencer 😭💔😕
Reminds me of Toni Morrison's 'Beloved'
I know, every time she sings the second “be at peace baby and be gone” I cried like a broken dam... like you can hear the pain in Joanna’s voice and how she’s reluctant to let go of the memory of her child which she either lost through a miscarriage or an abortion, but in order to move on with her life she has to say goodbye to that memory 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
@@Punkweed hope you are feeling good today
music doesn't make me cry very often but i'm convinced half or more of newsom's discography has made me just sob at one point. it's like she has this very specific superpower, and it's to induce tears in people...
addendum: a while ago this one hit me out of nowhere while i was on the bus so thanks for that, joanna
There never has to be one meaning to a song. The point is how we infer the meaning and internalize it, for ourselves. Such is the beauty of all art and especially music. This song gives so much to me, as someone who has recently suffered a great loss. That is what I adore- Newsom comforts me, she can comfort you.
That's so sweet, thanks Morgan. It's lucky you were around to share that.
one of my favourites. so incredibly raw and riveting. it manages to bring me to tears every time i listen to it, so i can’t even begin to imagine how she performs it live.
When performed live, this is one of the most perfect things in existence. The complete silence from the awed crowd is almost eerie, followed by the thunderous applause when she finishes.
the more i listen to her metaphors the more they seem like plain statements. i can't imagine this being about anything other than choosing not to have a baby, and knowing it was the right thing but feeling a deep loss and sadness none the less. i think to read anything more into it is sort of pointless. she's being super direct.
I agree. People read into art too much in my opinion.
well . she has a baby now.. guess the sadness won
@@xiangxa9929 don't say that. this song was released nearly ten years ago, she's a wealthy, famous, successful married woman now. maybe it's simply the right time for her to have a kid now and it wasn't the right time then.
isn't it about miscarriage?
"i think to read anything more into it is sort of pointless." Relax. People find different meaning in lyrics and that's fine. It's not "pointless". To boil everything down to one interpretation and call everything else pointless doesn't sound very fun or nice.
I sometimes feel like the only person in the universe who feels so stongly for this music. I understand thats not true, but sometimes it doesn't feel real, as though it is merely a dream, and in the end, it is just joanna's music and I.
Me too haha, I never meet people in real life who even know her!! Then I see all these wonderful comments online but then I'm like... are they bots? 😅
I live in the woods. This song evokes something in my soul, it's ineffable, but it feels like moonlight, love, and sadness in a glade. I just never understand how no one else knows it when there's so much forest and nature here.
she's incredible in concert. i've seen her three times in paris, and that can't understand all the words, but they get it, too. such a hushed and accute attention she demands.
Had the pleasure of hearing Joanna live in Dublin 10 years ago. Powerful.
7:16 - 7:20 when Joanna makes the harp sound like a rabbit running. She's amazing.
Her music brings me to tears
I love this song so much. It really made me think about the older sister I never met, and the way her life and death affected my family, and myself even though our lifetimes never overlapped. Baby birch inspired me to write a song about her. This song really makes me think about how much I miss her. And how I can miss someone who I never met. The line "your eyes are green your hair is gold, you hair is black, your eyes are blue ." and "she ran, as they're liable to do" always make me tear up. Thank you, Baby Birch, for making me confront my feelings about this.
I never "got" joanna newsom until my late 20s and then one day it just clicked.
Tim Gunn are you actually Tim Gunn?
of course, who would lie on the internet
@@esiotrot17 he was but now he's a Blastoise
@@charliez077 he's now goro majima from the yakuza series
Joanna's music is so beautiful that when I open my eyes after listening the world almost seems dull in comparison. This music is pure magic.
I agree with all of your analyses of the song. I think it's awesome that one song can mean something different for a lot of people. : )
Watching " The grave of fireflies " and now i come here listening to this song. Oh what a experience 🥲
An incomparably beautiful song, no matter how many times I listen, such achingly sweet pacing and marvelous sounds.
not a lot of music makes me cry but this song really kicks my ass. thank you joanna newsom
Actually, I'd say that, rather than being about a miscarriage, it talks about an abortion--"I hated to close the door on you /...and there is a barber who is cutting and cutting away at my only joy". Beautiful way of expressing profound sadness.
If you lose your pregnancy at a late stage, the procedure is a lot like an abortion, which is why, I think, the barber is cutting away at her 'only joy'.
@@King_of_carrot_flowers"And I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her and skinned her quick"
Doesn't sound like a miscarriage to me. God forbid a woman has an abortion!
i hope she got the money for all these streams and adds......
Joanna Newsom is goddess supreme. This songs saved my life years ago.
Her music is sacred. Again i hope she is getting every penny of these streams.
My friend has PCOS and has been struggling to conceive for the past ten years, and she took a lot of comfort from this song. She interpreted the lyrics to herself, as her own body destroying any babies she could have possibly created. She’s also very pro-life. For me and a lot of other fans, I interpreted this to be about an abortion after a bitter end to a relationship. I love that this song can reach people with different beliefs and affect them the same way.
Oh my god, this song. It feels like there is even too much emotion in it to listen to it often. It’s too much but at the same time it‘s so damn beautiful. Heartbreaking, whatever the exact story behind it is. Just the song itself. Heartbreaking and beautiful and truly a masterpiece. I’ve had this in my joanna playlist for _ages_ and for some reason always skipped it. Never again.
ok i held it until the "be at peace, baby, and be gone"
I got chills all over when those drums kicked in. This song is incredible!
Still listening... and crying
No song in all of music has had such a profound impact on me as this song has
this made me tear up a lil
Full tears streaming down my face right now. Happens every time I listen to this song...
This song is so heart wrenching
6:45-
I can't listen without crying.
this song, along with this whole album, is timeless. timeless I tell you!
Best song in the history of songs.
I think Joanna Newsom would want you to interpret the songs in anyway you'd like. I personally would like to think she'd want you to take what she says and turn it into your own personal experience.
And as for this song.. I think she longs to be a mother. I'm a mother.. so I get a sense of urgency in caring for someone.
As the son of a mother who lost a child before my birth I really agree with your reading.
for the people who don't think that think this is about losing a baby(either through abortion or miscarriage), how do you explain the similar part in the song right after this, "On A Good Day"?
I will likely never be able to have children. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a baby whether intentionally or not. But this song always hits me in my rawest spot and makes me sob for the baby I wish so desperately I could have.
oh my goodness
Have I ever heard such a heartbreaking song in my life
I dont think so.
This is the song for Baby Birch
Though I will never know you
And at the back of what we've done
There is the knowledge of you
And I had thought it'd be harder to do but I caught her and skinned her quick, held her there
Kicking and mewling upended unspooling unsung and blue
Told her wherever you go little runaway bunny I will find you
And then she ran
As they're liable to do
Be at peace baby, and be gone
I love this song so much!!! It gets me so emotional
I just played this to my very manly, very dude bro doesn't cry at anything or show feelings because he's a heterosexual manly man flat mate and he actually had a wobbly bottom lip and misty eyes. That is the power of Joanna newsom
oh man 😢
Did the whole room clap?
His bottom lip is still wobbling 6 years later
amazing grace
I loooove joanna newsom shes my favorite artist! This is one of my faves, know every lyric! :)
I will never get over that outro...goddamn
This is the song that gets me over that really nasty hill 5 miles into my 17 run!
Love this song so much :)))))))
this will always make me tear up 😭
serious chills
Never Not Be Sobbing Uncontrollably Again. Step 1: listen to "Baby Birch." Step 2: See title of tutorial.
When I thought I couldn't love Joanna enough, I hear this and love her more.
My all time favorite song.
My introduction to this song waa in San Francisco at the Stud during a drag show. Life changing.
From 5:49 to end is my favorite part. So powerful
This bird is bright
Well, don't assume that the song is about Joanna. The writer is not necessarily, or usually, the speaker.
Whether it is about an abortion or a miscarriage, it is about the loss of the idea of a child. she gives that child she will not raise a name. and she sings it over and over again in this song. it's what makes it so sad. she is singing an existence that never was, or that only was in her mind. and that is, over and over again, when she sings it in this song. with all of the cruelty of that lack and what caused it. "be at peace, baby, and be gone."
I don't cry. But my body is trying to remind me how to do it, throughout this song. Very beautiful
I actually think it is about both...the first half seems to be a miscarriage due to some accident...then she imagines all the different possibilities of her child with different colors of hair and eyes...but the last bit is definitely about an abortion...she talks about how she(whoever the song is about) perceives children as a nuisance (dregs)..then the barber(who were surgeons way back when) is performing the abortion...and the rabbit is referring to the fetus of the child.
Beauty at its finest.
If you hear/see Joanna, you’re getting nothing out of it. If you see/hear yourself, you’re doing it right.
As to the comments regarding abortion vs giving a child away...couldn't the song just as easily be about someone who has decided to never have a child? That's the thing about a great and personal song, people are able to take the "meaning", and ascribe their own experiences to it.
So much space..time to think. And so organic
@TheSuggly I think the abortion is the more likely, because of the way she speaks to the goose - doesn't want it's dregs, doesn't want a baby fussing all over her legs (or thereabouts), and that final, fantastic verse: she talks about the barber cutting her only joy (barbers used to be surgeons, and the verse mentions blacksmiths etc; this is not modern day imagery), and then she sings of skinning the live rabbit violently, its guts unspooling while it shrieks. That's no miscarriage!
huh, that's interesting! I always thought it was like "I dont want your dregs"(I dont want no damn gosling, relax! What I want is my little baby fussing on my legs---but she can't have that.)
But if you have a miscarriage late term, you do have to get a D&C, which is quite similar to an abortion, as you have to have the fetus surgically removed.
it is CRIMINAL that this isnt on spotify :(
Beautifully painful, painfully beautiful.
6:47 has me losing my mind, it is so beautiful
3 years later and I still come back
i wanna listen this song for hours and hours and hours....
BON SANG!!!
She should do a collaboration with her husband's band, The Lonely Island.
I'd so listen to that
The baroquely island
"I'm on a Boat" could have fit on Divers.
I was in a cabin in the woods with my family and I would fall asleep to her every night my parents asked who is that cat voiced girl youre listening to? I told them Joanna Newsom. They never understood. What a shame
we take a walk
Still cryin an dyin
very good idea !
I like it
@thatsamehawaiiankid
Yeah that's about right, a journey of love and loss and (cliche alert!) coming of age.
It's very hard to pin a single meaning to these songs, she has so much depth as a writer and singer.
sobbing
What a great song. Always wondered though, is the tune inspired by something? it sounds very national anthem-ish to me. beautiful none the less.
The first part of the song i mean, before it starts picking up.
It sounds like it's about abortion and regretting it later
Gud 1 m8
Might be miscarriage
+Feed My Ego I dont think she is regretting it all. I think it represents an incredible mix of intricate emotions and the word "regret" doesnt cut it. It's sad but it's bittersweet.
maybe there's some regret in there but I dont think it's that simple.... birch trees represent new beginnings and hope in a lot of mythologies... I dunno. I just hate to see people simplify this song too much because especially at the 3:30 mark it becomes strangely upbeat. all of her songs have so many layers, this one is no different! :'D
Nah son. I think the most gorgeous part is the hushed beginning.
until 1:15 i didnt think it was about an abortion but this line makes it more clear. im crying anyway tho
Ruby S she also says “I’ll be goddamned.”
she's so crazy for this
Really? Thanks for sharing. I never knew that, but it certainly helps to better understand the recurring references to rabbits.
what do you think she means by "stars in their bulletproof cars"?
I took it to mean stars are far away, out of reach and untouchable. Known for being beautiful, they can't be harmed.
Maybe she is greatful something so precious can't be harmed? Or maybe i'm reading too much into it.
@@mview4843 As well as as implying famous people in cars that keep them safe from the common folk?
Now that's what I call harp action
Pure beauty.