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Well Jolene unlocked the thick breezeway door
Like she'd done one hundred times before.
Jolene smoothed her dark hair in the mirror.
She folded the towel carefully and put it back in place.
Yeah I want to pull you down into bed.
I want to cast your face in lead.
Well every time I pull you close
Push my face into your hair
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke
That sickly scent is always always there.
Jolene heard her father's uneven snores.
Right then she knew there must be something more.
Jolene heard the singing in the forest.
She opened the door quietly and stepped into the night.
Yeah I want to throw you out into space.
I want to do whatever it takes, takes, takes.
Well every time I pull you close,
Push my face into your hair,
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke,
That sickly scent is always, always there.
Like she'd done one hundred times before.
Jolene smoothed her dark hair in the mirror.
She folded the towel carefully and put it back in place.
Yeah I want to pull you down into bed.
I want to cast your face in lead.
Well every time I pull you close
Push my face into your hair
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke
That sickly scent is always always there.
Jolene heard her father's uneven snores.
Right then she knew there must be something more.
Jolene heard the singing in the forest.
She opened the door quietly and stepped into the night.
Yeah I want to throw you out into space.
I want to do whatever it takes, takes, takes.
Well every time I pull you close,
Push my face into your hair,
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke,
That sickly scent is always, always there.
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With regards to the other stanzas, where the singer expresses his feelings, what is not clear is who is the singer. I see 2 assumptions:
First, it is Jolene and maybe she refers to her facther because he did bad things to her and she has to escape his psychological reach: she wants to put him in bed, cast his face in lead, and she is obsesses with his "sickly scent" because it reminds her what he did to her (possibly sexual assault).
Second assumption: it is someone else, but in this case it stays very obscure...
I love this song - it's my favorite song by Cake. However, unlike many comments I don't believe the song speaks of abuse. I can see where that interpretation might come from, but to me it just seems like she is bored with her life, she still lives at home but is old enough to leave, and she wants to make something of her life while the man singing wants to show her what's really out there. just my opinion.
Jolene was also a song by Dolly Parton about a woman named Jolene who stole her lover away from her...could this possibly be a "musical rebuttal" to Parton's song?
whose to say it isn't?
tell me what you think...any ideas.
>> Well Jolene unlocked the thick, breezeway door,
>> Like she'd done one hundred times before.
>> [...]
>> Jolene heard the singing in the forest.
>> She opened the door quietly and stepped into the night.
With this in mind, "Like she'd done one hundred times before" does not imply that she's bored with her life--it means she's contemplated leaving a hundred times (she "unlocked the thick, breezeway door") but has never gone through with it.
Otherwise, I agree with some of the posters here, namely:
- It's a song with two separate but related sets of lyrics (narration of Jolene standing in front of the door and eventually leaving it; and the singer's own angst/lust/other confusion over how he feels about Jolene and wanting to save her from the life she has).
- The narration of Jolene implies abuse of some sort by her father.
- The cacophonous ending of the song, while quintessential Cake, is indicative of the singer's confused and angsty thoughts.
I just get the impression he's trying to save her from her unfulfilling life. She starts to get restless too ("Right then she knew there must be something more"), and she eventually, well... steps into the night. Tries to leave it behind. I don't get the impression that she completely does, though, because of how desperate the song gets toward the end (with the singer shouting and pleading).
The song is about his love and desire for her, but it is even more about saving her from her background (lower class I'd wager, and possibly abused). He wants to be her escape, and wishes for superhuman powers to do so.