Leslie Ann Levine

I enjoy all the interpretations here, especially lamp shade's, however; I saw Colin Meloy live at the Beachcomber in Cape Cod, MA and I recorded most of it, so for you, I will transpose his explanation:

"So let me explain something: so the earlier song, "we both go down together," is really intended to be the prequel to this song. Yeah, but, but, I,but theres a little bit of explaining that needs to be done. So in that song, the two are perched on the cliff ready to dive off, when in fact, the woman steps away, the man, the cad, falls off to his death. But the women, impregnated, has, has the baby, in a ditch, and dies. So its all really tragic but thats sort of how it goes. So anyway, we'll continue."

cad (as defined by the american heritage dictionary): A man whose behavior is unprincipled or dishonorable.

I kind of hate to put an end to the whole abortion idea and whatnot but I thought some of you would really like to know what Colin said.

"...the dolefully doomed tale of a cast away child abandoned by her loafer of a mother. The mother births the babe prematurely and both succumb: 'I still cling to the petticoat of the girl who died with me.' Still harboring angst over her mother's relationship with a man of lower class, which resulted in her own birth, the wraith of Leslie Anne aimlessly haunts the town's balconies with rattle in hand, jangling outside its inhabitants windows; finding fancy in another reject such as herself--the chimney sweep. In the 17th century, a Master Sweep would teach Sweep Boys, usually orphans or young children sold into the position by their parents, to climb the flues and brush them clean. Death often came at an early age- from dust inhalation or cancer contracted from accumulated soot. It is insinuated that Leslie saved this sweep who was 'lost and lodged' inside the chimney flue. Bitter and irresolute, Leslie's specter continues haunting her purlieu although she has long outlived all her antecedents."

stylusmagazine.com/feature.php

agreed, lovemotionstory

the song is about actually about a flying machine created by Lord Quentin Cavendish Levine who's wife died in childbirth on the same day as the machines fist voyage. He named the machine after his still born daughter who was to be named Leslie Ann.

this song is very haunting.

Mr. Meloy does say at the Beachcomber show that we both go down together is a prequel to LAL. In we both go down together they were about to jump when the lass steped back at the last second letting the cad fall to his death alone. Then in LAL the mother and child die in birth. I know it seems unlikely but I also know what he said. And if yall can download the beachcomber show it was amazing.

according to the oed, a "mésalliance" is anglicized french for 'a union between two people that is thought to be unsuitable or inappropriate; esp. a marriage with a person of a lower social position.'

I think that works, and it seems to be current given that the last citation was 1972.

shrug Dem Decemberists and dere obscure words!

Here’s how “We Both Go Down Together” and “Leslie Anne Levine” are connected… It actually makes sense, but you can’t put WBGDT right before LAL, but rather interject them together at parts….

WBDGT is slightly out of order in terms of chronological order… The songs starts at the cliffs, but the story starts at the labor camp… A young girl in the labor camp catches the eye of a rich young man. The man probably fins her to be incredibly beautiful and falls in love with her. The young girl probably does not feel the same for the man, but knows his money can save her and possibly her family from a life of poverty. So she then falls in “love” with him and willing consents to a relationship and sex, hence her weeping during the love making on the grass of the clearing.

Up to this point the man could easily leave the young girl to avoid punishment from his parents, and thus does not need to go to the extreme of suicide… HOWEVER, the girl becomes pregnant, as having unprotected sex usually results in. Now the man is trapped, for he seems to honestly love the girl and their unborn baby. NOW he has to resort to suicide, knowing his “parents will never consent to this love”. He asks the girl to meet him on his extravagant porch (the vast veranda), then they travel to the cliffs of Dover.

By the time the would have known she was pregnant , (because this is in the 19th century, no “First Response”, lol) she probably would have been far along enough to be showing, maybe six months or so… On the cliffs, she could have become overly excited or dizzy (thus, “Your head is spinning”) from the anxiety or nervousness of going through with impending doom of her and her child’s life. (Remember, she didn’t really love the man and would not have the same feelings of being trapped and suicide being the only way out). This could result in her going into labor… (“hold tight it’s just beginning”)

The girl would not have been able to just jump off the cliffs if she was indeed going into labor… not only because labor pains often incapacitate the mother, but also because she’s not in love and does not want to end her and her child’s life. So the man delivers the baby playing the part of the “Wastrel Me sallied ” who brought the fate on LAL (a wastrel me sallied can be defined as a wasteful person, as in a rich person spending lavishly on unnecessary things, who’s in an unbecoming relationship with someone of lower class.)

This explains being “birthed too soon” and why Leslie Anne would have died “by noon” being premature and being born atop a cliff. Since Leslie Anne does die, the parents would have laid her somewhere, like a dry ravine/ditch… NOT thrown her over the cliff… she loved her baby as the father probably did too, they would have laid her down somewhere and possibly bury her in a ditch, making her body “in it’s grave, in a ditch not far away”. If she died as a result of the impact of the fall, she would not have been “birthed” in a “dry Ravine,” but rather would have been killed inside the womb in a watery grave.

Now that the only ting keeping the girl from jumping with the man is gone, she also feels intense anguish and takes the man’s hand then jump off the cliffs of Dover as seagulls cry out, and hence the line “We fall but our souls are flying,” (as in their souls leaving their falling bodies.) Both the man and the girl “go down Together” and there’s also “No one left to mourn” for Leslie Anne Levine.

As for Leslie Anne Levine, she haunts the area near the vicinity of her death along with another spirit. The spirit is that of a young chimney sweep, (who were often young orphaned boys) who died while being “lost and logged inside a flue” (a flue is the pipe used to vent the exhaust from a fire). As for the line “clinging to the petticoats of the girl that died” with her, I don’t believe this needs to be taken literally but helps explain why she still haunts the area fifteen years later. She rightfully blames her parents, esp. her mother for her death, and thus is clinging to her.

To whoever was wondering what "mesallied" means, I found something like it in the dictionary. It comes from a french word

Dictionary
mésalliance |ˌmāzəˈlīəns; ˌmāˌzalˈyä n s| noun a marriage with a person thought to be unsuitable or of a lower social position. ORIGIN French, from més- ‘wrong, misdirected’ + alliance (see alliance ).

chiya, that is exactly the word I was going to post. Colin apparently invented his own verb form of the word. answers.com/mesalliance&r=67

There's an E in Anne.