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My lover comes to me with a rose on her bosom
The moon's dancin' purple
All through her black hair
And a ladies-in-waiting she stands 'neath my window
And the sun will rise soon
On the false and the fair
She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain
Her skin fits her tightly
And her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it
In front of my eyes
I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
The satin she's wearin'
Is shimmering blue
Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
My dogs have gone hunting
The howling is through
So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
And her hair turns to splinters,
And her flesh turns to brine
She leaps cross the room, she stands in the window
And screams that my first-born
Will surely be blind
She throws herself out to the black of the nightfall
She's parted her lips
But she makes not a sound
I fly down the stairway, and I run to the garden
No trace of my true love
Is there to be found
So walk these hills lightly, and watch who you're lovin'
By mother the mountain
I swear that it's true
Love not a woman with hair black as midnight
And her dress made of satin
All shimmering blue
The moon's dancin' purple
All through her black hair
And a ladies-in-waiting she stands 'neath my window
And the sun will rise soon
On the false and the fair
She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain
Her skin fits her tightly
And her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it
In front of my eyes
I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
The satin she's wearin'
Is shimmering blue
Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
My dogs have gone hunting
The howling is through
So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
And her hair turns to splinters,
And her flesh turns to brine
She leaps cross the room, she stands in the window
And screams that my first-born
Will surely be blind
She throws herself out to the black of the nightfall
She's parted her lips
But she makes not a sound
I fly down the stairway, and I run to the garden
No trace of my true love
Is there to be found
So walk these hills lightly, and watch who you're lovin'
By mother the mountain
I swear that it's true
Love not a woman with hair black as midnight
And her dress made of satin
All shimmering blue
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>I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
and then...
>So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
Like he crosses a boundary, by touching her, and awakens her fury. Seems the song is kind of about the tension between desire and boundaries.
>Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
>My dogs have gone hunting
>The howling is through
Whats that all about? Perhaps it represents that these guards are down, and so he thinks he can cross the boundary. But he can't. I'm reminded of the fool Tarot card, and how the dog represents guiding conscience.
It's interesting the comparisons people have drawn to Lilith. Lilith left the garden of Eden because she refused to be subservient to Adam. From my perspective, this story seems to be about a woman who draws her own boundaries, and wont tolerate them being crossed.
I wouldn't go looking for meaning in the mundane, or the particulars of his life. This is something mythical. This is an encounter with the Crone, or something of the kind.
Townes had a link with a Muse. Calling him gifted is an understatement.
But I also feel there is a level of symbolism possibly about drugs and drink in the song.
The siren is some kind of representation of the temptation of drugs and drink and fame, and the singer is drawn to it, but just as things seem great it all goes down hill.
And the curse of the first born to be blind could be about how sometimes taking drugs can lead to ill effects in your children.
Just guessing of course, to be honest I have only recently discovered his music and from what I have read of his life this could be one way to look at it. Whatever the case, hidden message or not, I love this song.
My daughter couldn't get to sleep that night, I felt terrible.
Anyways, I always felt that this song is so much E.A. Poe, whatever the symbolims in it might mean.
There's a mythical creature that lures the careless into death.
"Two - a lure, a lie. Oh.": clearly, you must recognize the name of Lorelei, the legendary syren from the river Rhein.
According to the legend, she used to sit under a huge rock on the bend of the river, luring sailors to never come back. The explanation is that it is the narrowest and the most dangerous part of the mighty river, with strong currents, causing many shipwrecks in the past.
Of course, mountains could be as seductive as the rivers.
In this song we have some kind of mountain creature with similar powers. And in Slavic tradition there are tales of snakes turning into brides (clearly invented by overprotective or selfprotective mothers).
It's a game of words, with multiple explanations, offering very different pictures which are not at all contradictory.
Singing 'Two: a lure, a lie. Oh.'
(It refers to the fact that 'We Are All One', but we keep eating that fruit we were warned about...)
There's a mythical creature that lures the careless into death.
"Two - a lure, a lie. Oh.": clearly, you must recognize the name of Lorelei, the legendary syren from the river Rhein.
According to the legend, she used to sit under a huge rock on the bend of the river, luring sailors to never come back. The explanation is that it is the narrowest and the most dangerous part of the mighty river, with strong currents, causing many shipwrecks in the past.
Of course, mountains could be as seductive as the rivers.
In this song we have some kind of mountain creature with similar powers. And in Slavic tradition there are tales of snakes turning into brides (clearly invented by overprotective or selfprotective mothers).
It's a game of words, with multiple explanations, offering very different pictures which are not at all contradictory.
The correct lyric, by the way, at the end of every verse is "Two - a lure, a lie. Oh."
This line refers to the fact that our apparent separation from Mother Earth is a lure and a lie. We are One with Mother Earth.
Remember that story about not eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In that story the ideas of "good and evil" represent the idea of Duality, or "Two">
And we were cautioned not to eat that fruit. But we were, ummm, lured in...