Lyrics for Baobabs as interpreted by zoolah

Baobabs Lyrics
You have tamed me
Now you must take me
How am I supposed to be?
I don't have my thorns now

And I feel them sprouting
They'll grow right through if I don't watch it
They'll grow through even if I watch it
And a sunset couldn't save me now

These baobabs, and baobabs
And baobabs some more
But you cant out-wait fate

You have tamed me
Now you must take me
Ta ta ta

And I wouldnt raise my child inside the city, anyway
They grow up too savvy and they grow up too fast
And they know about buying shit and they know about sex
And they know about investment banking and also about brokerage firms
And the know about the numbers and they know about the words
And they know about the bottom lines and also about stones
And they know about careers and about the real deals
And they all grow up and become peoples' people with people skills

You have tamed
Now you must take me
How am I supposed to be?
I don't have my thorns now

You have tamed me
Now you must take me
How am I supposed to be?
I don't have my thorns

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zoolah
08-15-2005

Rated 0 
I think I got the lyrics right. Its quite tricky to copy down the lyrics at parts. Also, sorry for any typoes. If they bother you extremly Ill change um, but I dont care about them.

Oh yeah, if I put a question mark inside ()'s or []'s it means Im not sure about the ylrcis.

Okay, bye bye


(fyi, I dont know what this is about)

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fromthehouseoflords
08-31-2005

Rated 0 
its about the book "the little prince" by antoine de saint-exupery. the prince speaks about how he has baobabs on his planet, and if they get too big they will grow straight through his planet and destroy it. the thorns are a reference to the rose which he loves having thorns which cannot protect her from his sheep. also, he speaks about how his planet is so small that the sun sets and rises many times a day, so he only has to move his chair forward a little bit every few minutes to watch the sunset for an entire day.



you should read the book. its incredible.



corrections:

And I wouldnt raise my child inside the city anyway
They grow up too savvy and they grow up too fast.

And they know about investment banking and also about brokerage firms

And they know about careers and about the real deals
And they all grow up and be come people's people with people skills.


sweet. its a wonderful song.

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Sostak
11-12-2005

Rated 0 
Wow Le Petite Prince, i read that book in French Class and that never even crossed my mind, thats actually quite clever!

Its a beautiful song, i have been trying to figure out the baobabs part. i always kinda thought that she was not making up her own words exactly, but just swinging. I cant really describe it.

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Sostak
11-12-2005

Rated 0 
Wow Le Petite Prince, i read that book in French Class and that never even crossed my mind, thats actually quite clever!

Its a beautiful song, i have been trying to figure out the baobabs part. i always kinda thought that she was not making up her own words exactly, but just swinging. I cant really describe it.

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stwongbad85
03-03-2006

Rated 0 
In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's story The Little Prince, the Little Prince was worried that baobabs (described as "trees as big as castles") would grow on his small asteroid, take up all the space and even split it in pieces.
.
If you are wondering what these trees look like, it is an African tree that Rafiki makes his home out of in the Lion King Animated feature film.

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Yuyi
04-12-2006

Rated 0 
Awsome song, and what a wonderful analogy with the story of the book. To me, the baobabs growing out of control mean the city that is threatning to live in and raise your kids in. And, in the beggining the part about taming is perhaps, that she has been tamed by a man...she is in love...and cannot be protected because she has no thorns...(just like the rose in the book)

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Noise n Kisses
06-12-2006

Rated 0 
the first time i heard the baobabs i thought of the little prince, i love that book
and i love regina spektor...she's so incredibly talented

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Noise n Kisses
06-12-2006

Rated 0 
the first time i heard the baobabs i thought of the little prince, i love that book
and i love regina spektor...she's so incredibly talented

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kylebank
08-30-2006

Rated 0 
there's a whole other side to this song too.... all of that little prince stuff (brilliant book!) in the context of a relationship between two people. she has changed, been tamed, given up her thorns. now what? she feels defenceless. her walls are down and she is at the mercy of this other person, this great love, and i think the person she has become for this relationship is threatening to take over the real 'her', split her in two. and without her thorns, the world is scary, the city is terrifying, and the whole thing is threatening to overwhelm her and make her (and the children she wants to have) into something she doesn't want to be.

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Bast
09-25-2006

Rated 0 
kylebank, I think you are right on target. Two more observations that testify to Regina's incredible talent for complex poetic lyrics. For one, Regina is known as a "anti-folk" singer- part of the group that wants to put the raw and real back into the folk scene, which, let's face it, has become jaded and a little smarmy. Well, I think she pays tribute to the Little Prince, but also pokes at it alittle- it is a classic beautiful book, but a touch preachy/saccharine. So she makes the rose's thorns split the rose herself apart-- the meanie baobobs from the book become the rose's thorns, tearing herself apart.

Also, the line about "a sunset could not save me now"-- that's pretty cynical taken in conjunction with the book- it's a jab at St. Exupery's (the little prince's author) simplistic solutions....

What do people think?

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Ofcourse56
10-12-2006

Rated 0 
This song is truely amazing! I've just recently read The Little Prince after hearing this song, and it's rather clever how Regina can take things like this and use them in comparison to real life situations. She's amazing.

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Windgirl
11-01-2006

Rated 0 
"How am I supposed to be/ I don't have my thorns now.." The thorns made her, her. She is questioning how, this person in her life would want her tame, when the thorns are what gave her personality. She is throwing it back at this person what they want to tame, they can't because they too would be disatisfied because she would no longer be her. does this make sense? I think it may have to do with rebellion too in a way.

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envirohodges
02-07-2007

Rated 0 
i have also read Le petite prince...in french and english...and i believe it is more beautiful in french...the words have clearer meanings....some things get lost in translation. there are four clear parellels to the book in this song...
Baobabs, tameness,fate, and thorns...

in the story the princes planet is so small he must constantly pick the seedlings for fear of his planet being torn apart by baobab roots. "These baobabs, and baobabs And baobabs some more But you cant out-wait fate" the prince has to leave his planet and he wont be able to pick the baobabs and must let fate take over...

the fox that the prince meets on earth begs him to "create bonds" or tame him so they will always be friends and not be alone. " You have tamed me
Now you must take me"
the prince correlates his to his reationship with his rose...

this rose friend has thorns to protect her from things just like us humans have thorns in the metaphorical sense...of sarcasm and humor things that protect our feelings. "How am I supposed to be?
I dont have my thorns now" how can we live without protection??

fourtly fate is a big theme in the bok....with the prince dying and the pilot exclaiming stoicly that the body is only a shell giving hope that maybe the prince is in a better place....

this is a great song and a great book.....even for adults...

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CivilLies137
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
The little prince visits the different planets.

1. There's the man who counts "des chiffres" the numbers. The one who counts the stars and thinks he owns them.
(And the know about the numbers )
2. The Fox teaches the little prince about people and relationships
(people's people with people skills )
3. The first chapter is about children seeing what adults can't see (Wouldn't raise my child...). In the song it's like how children become adults too fast. St. Exupery stressed children growing up all through the beginning of the book.

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cleverlines
04-21-2007

Rated 0 
i also think that it has to do with the little prince, but when i first heard it, it kindof reminded me of "the taming of the shrew". because he wanted to tame kate, and then she was nothing. so yeah.

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envirohodges
04-30-2007

Rated 0 
well im pretty sure its deffinatly about LPP....i dont know any other books that talk about baobab destroying planets, or thorns.... the taming part is clearly the renard, who is so sweet i might add...you feel so sorry for him.

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philaphobic
06-19-2007

Rated 0 
i think the song is regina's response to the book and her it could apply to a real woman's life. the rose in the book has thorns and tries to act coldly to the prince. regina is worried about letting down her guard too, who will she be without her cool and prickley exterior defense?
i think baobabs are the uncontrolable factors in life. they will afect her relationship and later her children. I think the book got regina thinking about children, her own in the future in particular. Life the book warns, she doesn't want her children to grow up to quickly.
while the prince does "tame" the fox, i think regina's analogy has more to do with his taming of the rose. this posissioning of regina as the rose is very interesting because i think most readers place themselves as the pilot (the narrator).
i love the book, movie, and now song about the little prince.

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crow_heart
06-29-2007

Rated 0 
i'm sorry.. but
what is a baobab?

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sandcastles123
07-18-2007

Rated 0 
I HATE SEEING THESE LYRICS WRONG ON HERE.
No offense, but you have to change it.

And I wouldnt raise my child inside the city anyway
They grow up too SAVVY and they grow up too fast
And they know about buying shit and they know about sex
And they know about investment banking and also about brokerage FIRMS
And the know about the numbers and they know about the words
And they know about the bottom lines and also about stones
And they know about careers and about the real deals
AND THEY ALL grow up and become PEOPLES PEOPLE WITH PEOPLE SKILLS


the stuff in caps is how it should be.

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baileyjayne
09-16-2007

Rated 0 
in addition to all that up there this song definitely has references to the short story "The Rhinoceros" by Eugaene Ionesco.
in the story, the people start turning into rhinos...and they all eventually grow horns and such. therefore...i took the thorn growing and all that as saying that people are, are in a way, all turning into the same thing and doing the same thing. they are yuo know jumping on the band wagon or whatever. so the "how am i supposed to be...i dont have my thorns now" would make sense with that theory. what do you guys think?

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pumpkinsoup
11-14-2007

Rated 0 
When I was little I read Le Petite Prince and I remember that I loved the way it talked about this innocent and magical, if it can be said ,boy
But for me this song it's like a girl point of view,
she's afraid to get hurt,
she is afraid of life,
so, when says " tamed me"
she may be talking that she finally felt inlove with a guy so he must not hurt her cause she is defenseless to this new feeling,
I think that when she talks about Baobabs she is just referring to these really big trees and she is relating them with fate, cause just like baobabs grow and no one cant avoid it, also life and fate will happen to her and she can't stop it, she can't scape from all this thing aven if she's not prepared.
And in the second part she's just describing how boys are, cause they're all the same,
thinking only about sex and because they think they know it all but they're really just naive and kind of stupid.
well that my idea
and I might be wrong
:)

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undercover
01-12-2008

Rated 0 
I think baobabs are a metaphor for anything that could threaten to tear their lives apart (just as the baobabs on the Little Prince's planet would do if they were allowed to grow big enough).

That is why she says 'they'll grow through even if I watch it' and 'you can't out-wait fate' - because even though she has chosen to love this person, there will always be things that life throws at them that they are powerless against and that could change their love.

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sophiaclovee
02-13-2008

Rated 0 
I love the reference to the little prince thing.

But when I hear this song I think of the man who changed me. When we met I was the person who in the song was raised in the city. And he being from a small town changed me drastically, well because he moved on and back to the small town. And even though I said I would never leave this city in a million years, I will.

To me it’s about how you’re willing to change what you know and grew up around for somebody else, because even though it shaped you to be that “thorny” person, you got rid of them (the thorns). But when they leave you (the lover); you’re like, “No!” you changed who I was, you altered me, and you did this to me… the feeling does become; now you must take me. And you become angry and the thorns start to grow back wether you like it or not.

Yeah it’s a pretty personal scenario but that’s what comes across to me. The same way the song ends with, “How am I supposed to be? I don't have my thorns.” You’re left feeling lost and unsure of how you’ll go on. And yet at the same time in conjunction with the beat of the song, you feel relieved that that person did change you.

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mnemonicrhyme
04-17-2008

Rated 0 
actually this always made me think of the taming of the shrew :/ I've never read that french book but you're assumptions seem pretty accurate. Plus, my conclusion derives solely from the chorus. I'll have to read this other book :]

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morikahjo
09-27-2008

Rated 0 
since i never read The Little Prince, all I could think about was Torey Haydens Book: One Child. the book is refrenced in that book.

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