I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow
Set to the sky in a flying spree
For the sport over the pharaoh
Little while later the Pharisees dragged comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?
There is a rusty light on the pines tonight
Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow
Into the bones of the birches
And the spires of the churches
Jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope
In the mouth of the south below
We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
From that snow in the night time
Just going, and going
And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning, in the morning
Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been
And, Emily, I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror
Anyhow, I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed, in December
I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember
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
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I'm in
Threw the window wide and cried, amen, amen, amen
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering
And you looked down and saw now what was happening
The lines are fadin' in my kingdom
Though I have never known the way to border 'em in
So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows, and the grouse, and the horse and the hen
Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen
And the mail is late and the great estates are not lit from within
The talk in town's becoming downright sickening
In due time we will see the far buttes lit by a flare
I've seen your bravery, and I will follow you there
And row through the night time
So healthy
Gone healthy all of a sudden
In search of the midwife
Who could help me
Who could help me
Help me find my way back in
And there are worries where I've been
And say, say, say in the lee of the bay, don't be bothered
Leave your troubles here where the tugboats shear the water from the water
Flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper
Emily, they'll follow your lead by the letter
And I make this claim, and I'm not ashamed to say I knew you better
What they've seen is just a beam of your sun that banishes winter
Let us go, though we know it's a hopeless endeavor
The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever
Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning
There is a song I woke with on my lips as you sailed your great ship towards the morning
Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now
Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow
Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow, with
Hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up their brow
And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
Butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours
And my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
Come on home now, all my bones are dolorous with vines
Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light
Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders
Just asterisms in the stars' set order
We could stand for a century
Staring, with our heads cocked
In the broad daylight at this thing
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
Told, the meteorite is the 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
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
Set to the sky in a flying spree
For the sport over the pharaoh
Little while later the Pharisees dragged comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?
There is a rusty light on the pines tonight
Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow
Into the bones of the birches
And the spires of the churches
Jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope
In the mouth of the south below
We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
From that snow in the night time
Just going, and going
And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning, in the morning
Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been
And, Emily, I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror
Anyhow, I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed, in December
I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember
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
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I'm in
Threw the window wide and cried, amen, amen, amen
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering
And you looked down and saw now what was happening
The lines are fadin' in my kingdom
Though I have never known the way to border 'em in
So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows, and the grouse, and the horse and the hen
Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen
And the mail is late and the great estates are not lit from within
The talk in town's becoming downright sickening
In due time we will see the far buttes lit by a flare
I've seen your bravery, and I will follow you there
And row through the night time
So healthy
Gone healthy all of a sudden
In search of the midwife
Who could help me
Who could help me
Help me find my way back in
And there are worries where I've been
And say, say, say in the lee of the bay, don't be bothered
Leave your troubles here where the tugboats shear the water from the water
Flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper
Emily, they'll follow your lead by the letter
And I make this claim, and I'm not ashamed to say I knew you better
What they've seen is just a beam of your sun that banishes winter
Let us go, though we know it's a hopeless endeavor
The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever
Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning
There is a song I woke with on my lips as you sailed your great ship towards the morning
Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now
Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow
Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow, with
Hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up their brow
And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
Butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours
And my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
Come on home now, all my bones are dolorous with vines
Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light
Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders
Just asterisms in the stars' set order
We could stand for a century
Staring, with our heads cocked
In the broad daylight at this thing
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
Told, the meteorite is the 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
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
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she has got meteorites and meteoroids mixed up
I don't think they're mixed up; I think she was intending to say something rather important with how she describes them.<br /> <br /> The meteorite is the only object of the three that resides here on Earth, that we can actually touch. She claims that this now-Earthly object is the true source of the light. Yes, it is no longer lighted, but the meteor, as it travels through the atmosphere is just what we see, not touch, and the meteoroid, though pre-light, is merely just a stone in space, and has no mark of the fire that later brings it to Earth.<br /> <br /> See?
I agree with this. The meteoroid doesn't show any light until it interacts with Earth's atmosphere. It's "devoid of the fire" in that it hasn't let off any flame yet. People might be reading "devoid" as the stone missing something that it previously had, but devoid just means something is absent, and it does not imply that something was there and then went away.
I would love to find a way for Joanna to not have mixed these up, but in the interpretations given by littlelifegiver and chopperj, isn't it a bit strange that she would then say "that propelled it to thee"? That to me strengthens the interpretation of "devoid" as lacking something that it previously had.
The song is indeed about two sisters. In an interview, Newsom said that the song is a deeply personal narrative to her sister:
"Like every other song on this record, "Emily" is deeply biographical. The Emily in the song is my sister, who's an astrophysicist; the narrator is myself, who is not an astrophysicist. Emily is the wanderer; she lives in Argentina and sometimes New Zealand. I'm not a wanderer, which is funny because I'm on tour half the time. I'm a home, hearth and family kind of person. It's difficult for me to make too many intelligent comments about [the symbolism in this song] because the song really is a very personal reaction to real life."
And in response to Shefik: Van Dyke Parks was only in collaboration for the production and recording, so it is unfair to call him "Joanna's producer". His task was mostly writing string parts for the orchestration, which he certainly did an excellent job of. And his role in Ys cannot be underestimated. However, the production was still mostly the work of Joanna, and the recording/mixing was headed by Jim O'Rourke, Steve Albini, and Tim Boyle (Albini recorded Joanna's vocals and harp, whereas Boyle recorded the orchestral additions. The mixing was done by O'Rourke).
I think valrus (who seems to be rather intelligent and insightful) hit the nail on the head with "Sometimes we forget even if we promise not to"... I believe that this idea works, and is probably the only meaning that maintains textual integrity.
It's clearly not an unintended error, so don't let it bother you: you can tell because it's such a central part of the song that, firstly, she would have checked her definitions whilst writing; and secondly, if it were a mistake it would most likely have been picked up in the publishing process. Joanna Newsom is incredibly clever: she pays attention to detail and scrutinises her work laboriously. The simplicity of these two stanzas and the way they stand apart structurally/conceptually is also perfectly inclined towards a deliberate play with ideas: assuming that valrus' suggestion is correct, we have here an example of Joanna taking her concept, and wrapping it up neatly into a couple of lines of condensed metaphor. This is very characteristic of her poetry, and is therefore not surprising enough to be assumed a mistake.
The idea itself also fits really well in its context, and I think is very clever, very deep, and brilliantly penned. The the speaker she is trying to hold onto her memory of her sister's closeness, but it slips away into the mists of memory and the distance caused by Joanna not having access to the depths of her sister's world. This is part of the "sky that is gaping and yawning", and echoes the ideas of loss, distance and desire that's just out of reach, which fill the entire song. This is redeemed by the fact that "the ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold [them] close forever", but nonetheless the intensity of the feeling is real.
Anyway, ten gold stars for you Robindra, for picking it up! Not a great deal of the audience would, I assume... I'm pretty impressed :-)
I agree that the switching of the definitions is not an accident, and this is supported in the line,<br /> <br /> "Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning".<br /> <br /> She of explains there that nothing will help her understand the stars or space like her sister does.
That's okay, she's not an astrophysicist. It wouldn't surprise me if it were intentional, following as it does the line "I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember." Sometimes we forget even if we promise not to.
she definatly gets them wrong, meteorites are what theyre called once on earth and therefore 'devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee' or a 'bone thrown from the void' i.e. come from space, a meteroid is what travels through space and 'is the cause of the light' when they burn up in the atmospheres causing meteors wich she correctly says is what we percieve, shooting stars. Just seems weird she says she would set it in verse to her sister so she would remember and then get it wrong although it does suggest that she often got it wrong. Dunno it bothers me.
dang, shot down by teh astrophysicists :(
It seems odd to me how little comments this song has gotten.
I read on a blog somewhere how the writer saw joanna at a party, and went to talk to her. All he said was "Youre joanna newsom... i love you." And then he left the party to go home.
I didint really understand how anybody could do that at the time. After Emily though... i would have done the same thing. And give me the situation, i will do the same thing.
I made an account on SongMeanings with the singular purpose of saying that I have adored Joanna Newsom for a long time now, but she somehow has outdone herself. This is the sophomore trump that every songwriter wishes they could be so bold and so thoughtful to execute.
Would that I could write a song with as much beauty and as beautifully nuanced imagery as Joanna Newsom's "Emily". The meteor chorus just kind of rips me apart a little bit. Thank you, Ms. Newsom, and I hope you'll be accepting my forthcoming marriage proposal.
ikefox - thanks so much for making reference to that interview! I read it and am very glad.
If people are interested, it can be found here: pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/39700/Interview_Interview_Joanna_Newsom
As an actual astrophysicist, I have to say she did get the definitions backwards. But the song is still amazing- I like vairus' take, it lets me pretend Newsom did it on purpose.