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I am my mother's only one
It's enough
I wear my garment so it shows
Now you know
Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon
I am my mother on the wall, with us all
I move in water, shore to shore;
Nothing's more
Only love is all maroon
Lapping lakes like leary loons
Leaving rope burns
Reddish rouge
Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon
It's enough
I wear my garment so it shows
Now you know
Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon
I am my mother on the wall, with us all
I move in water, shore to shore;
Nothing's more
Only love is all maroon
Lapping lakes like leary loons
Leaving rope burns
Reddish rouge
Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon
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His love for his mother has resulted in his own confidence and acceptance of who he is, because, after all, he's a resemblance of his mother and her traits, which he loves. ("I wear my garment so it shows.. Now you know.")
His mother passes away (..I don't think this is necessarily based on real life). The world has sorta stopped for him. He's overwhelmed by a sense of nothingness now. He doesn't know what to do, or how to be. ("I am my mother on the wall, with us all.. I move in water, shore to shore; nothing's more.")
The three choruses bring home the feeling of sadness and emptiness that he feels upon his mother's passing, as well as emphasize the love he felt for her. He metaphorically describes her continued role as his protector by saying that she's the "moon" and the "sky is [her] womb" (as he is still on earth, and the sky surrounds the earth). Along these lines, "lapping lakes like leery loons," "maroon," and "reddish rouge" all share similar feelings of sadness/emptiness/depression/etc. Additionally, "maroon" and "reddish rouge" both contain a sense of heartbroken-ness, or at least love in general. Finally, the "gluey feathers" represent the attachment he has to his mother, which is causing him to not be able to move on yet in life (which is a similar interpretation to orionsbelt81).
BUT that's just what I think. I'm such an amateur. ;D
THAT IS AXIOM!
THAT IS AXIOM!
It's enough
- he's saying this because he was abandoned/betrayed by people close to him
I wear my garment so it shows
Now you know
- he's naked and vulnerable. now you know what it looks like to see him without his masks.
Only love is all maroon
- maroon is the color of dried blood. not only does love hurt, but it doesn't quite look as glorious after it's done with you.
Gluey feathers on a flume
- pieces of himself left behind as he parted ways...
Sky is womb and she's the moon
- womb is new birth. he's journeying down the flume. moon- could be guidance. he's still attached to whatever he left behind.
I am my mother on the wall, with us all
'
- mother on the wall is a photograph of someone who passed away. she is not "with us all". neither is he.
I move in water, shore to shore;
Nothing's more
- again, he is wandering down the river/stream..
Lapping lakes like leary loons
- feeling so alone it's driving him mad. same idea implied with the moon.
Leaving rope burns
Reddish rouge
- rope burns don't happen unless he tried to hold on... he did. it hurt. he had to let go. now he's wounded reddish rouge.
that's how I understand it. - Stefan
All living species of loons are members of the genus Gavia, family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes.
Gaviiformes are among the few groups of birds in which the young moult into a second coat of down feathers after shedding the first one, rather than growing juvenile feathers with downy tips that wear off as is typical in many birds.
Q. Why do loons molt?
A. Feathers get worn out, frayed and weakened. Body plumage must be strong and tight to keep the loon warm and dry in very cold water, and flight feathers must be strong to withstand hard flapping over a long migration twice a year.
Q. When do loons molt?
A. On the breeding grounds in late summer, a loon molts out of its beautiful breeding plumage. It grows plain brownish gray feathers on its back, top of neck, and head over a white belly and throat. Loons molt again in late winter before they leave their wintering grounds, changing from the brown winter plumage to the full breeding plumage. During this molt, all the flight feathers are lost at one time, making the loon temporarily unable to fly. These new flight feathers will carry the loon to the ocean, and back again in the fall. If one of the flight feathers gets broken, the loon will be stuck with it until next winter. But if it is pulled out at the base, the loon will grow a new one even when it isn't normal molting time.
Facts about Loons
Ecology
Q. What do scientists hope to learn by banding loons?
A. Scientists are able to identify individual birds and collect information on many topics. They collect data on mercury in loons' bodies, behavior, mating, return rates of loons to lakes, and other natural history information.
Q. How do researches get tags on the loons to track them?
A. Dave Evers explains: In order to band loons, you must of course be able to capture and handle the birds. The method that researchers are using now is to go out at night with a small boat and outboard motor. The boat holds three people to run a large light, a tape recorder, and a big fish net. In the spring when the loons have chicks you can lure the adult birds near the boat by playing a loon call. When the loons come to investigate the "strange bird" on their lake you shine the light in their eyes and slowly motor up to the bird. Then you dip the net under the bird and pick it up into the boat. We then take the loon back to shore and put metal Fish and Wildlife Service bands on their led (with an identification number) using a pliers. We also put colored leg bands on the bird so we can see them from a distance and identify which bird it is without having to capture them again. For example we might mark a bird with a red band over blue band on the left leg. This marking method has been very successful and safe for the loons as well.
Q. What do loons eat in their summer breeding grounds?
A. Year round, loons are opportunistic foragers, feeding on fish, aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates, and once in a while plants. During the summer, the loon's favorite food is yellow perch, but they will eat whatever is available and what they can catch. This includes trout (though trout tend to be too fast for loons) and aquatic insects like dragonfly larvae.
Q. What do loons eat in their winter feeding grounds?
A. During the winter loons eat, among other things, flounder, crabs, lobster, shrimp, gulf menhaden, bay anchovies, and silversides. Menhaden may be so important that it can influence loon migration.
Q. Why do migrating loons frequently fly with their mouth open?
A. This may allow them a greater flow of air than flying with their mouths closed. Loons frequently make their tremolo call in flight, and they always open their mouths to make this call.
Q. How far (long) can loons fly at one period of time?
A. Dave Evers says: To my knowledge, there is no definitive information on how far loons fly without stopping. They have been clocked at up to 90 miles per hour and we know that they migrate considerable distances (such as Wisconsin to Florida) but they do stop en route to feed and rest.
Q. How do loons manage to time their arrival on a lake for the very day of, or the day after, ice out?
A. Here's a good guess: The Great Lakes open up before smaller northern lakes. Many loons fly across Pennsylvania and New York to reach the Great Lakes. Then they make exploratory flights each morning, moving closer and closer to their nesting destination, and flying back if they don't find open water. Sometimes a loon begins checking its lake several days before the lake opens up. That means that the loon will certainly be there the day the ice finally goes out.
Q. What if loons head north too early?
A. In most years loons arrive back before ice-off and have to wait for a small section of their lake territory to open before they can land. Keep in mind that loons need a running start to take flight so they have to be careful. If a lake were to re-freeze they could get trapped. It seems the loon has adapted its behavior for this special circumstance because we have not seen this in the spring.
Q. What do loons do in most years when they find their lakes frozen?
A. Remember they can't stand on land! They fly to large rivers larger or bodies of water like the Great Lakes. Then they wait for the small lakes to open to begin the nesting season. They keep checking the situation at their home lakes by taking day trips back and forth.
Q. Why do loons migrate to the ocean instead of spending the winter on inland lakes that don't freeze?
A. Loons leave their breeding lakes because they freeze up. They don't go farther south, where lakes don't freeze, because a new set of dangers awaits: preying alligators, water that is too warm for loons, or too shallow and murky for diving and hunting. Loons need VERY clear, deep, open water for diving and catching fish. The ocean is the right place for loons in winter.
Q Why would it be a problem for a loon to be on a lake when ice starts forming?
A. These heavy birds with large feet must run across the water for about a quarter of a mile before taking flight. Like jets, loons need long runways to gather speed before lifting off. If there's ice on the lake, they can't run for lift-off, and they may become trapped on the lake. Trapped loons are at risk of death.
Q. Where do loons stop to rest during their migration?
A. As they fly from the oceans to their nesting grounds on inland lakes, stopover points are critical to loons. Because the Great Lakes are ice-free in early spring, these sites are some of the first places loons appear in the spring.
Q. How do loons, who breed in fresh water lakes, adapt to salt water when they migrate to the oceans for wintering?
A. Loons have a special adaptation to handle salty fish and salty water. They have salt glands in their skull between their eyes. These drip almost constantly during the winter season. Dr. Judith McIntyre, an authority on the Common Loon, found that "even young chicks, no more than two weeks old, are competent to remove salt if they are fed saline (salty) solutions."
Q. Why do loons molt?
A. Feathers get worn out, frayed and weakened. Body plumage must be strong and tight to keep the loon warm and dry in very cold water, and flight feathers must be strong to withstand hard flapping over a long migration twice a year.
Q. When do loons molt?
A. On the breeding grounds in late summer, a loon molts out of its beautiful breeding plumage. It grows plain brownish gray feathers on its back, top of neck, and head over a white belly and throat. Loons molt again in late winter before they leave their wintering grounds, changing from the brown winter plumage to the full breeding plumage. During this molt, all the flight feathers are lost at one time, making the loon temporarily unable to fly. These new flight feathers will carry the loon to the ocean, and back again in the fall. If one of the flight feathers gets broken, the loon will be stuck with it until next winter. But if it is pulled out at the base, the loon will grow a new one even when it isn't normal molting time.
Q. Why do loons lose and then grow all their flight feathers at once, instead of one or two at a time like crows, hawks, and eagles do?
A. Loons are completely flightless without every single one of their feathers. But wait-there's more. Loons have relatively heavy bodies and small wings-both adaptations for diving deep into water. With a complete set of flight feathers, their wings have just about the minimum amount of surface area to hold up their bodies. If a loon were to try to fly while missing three wing feathers, the surface area of its wing would be too small to hold up its body! To minimize the time that they are flightless, loons molt all the feathers at once.
Q. How does molting affect a loon?
A. It takes a lot of energy and body resources to grow feathers. Loons grow a lot of large, stiff feathers all at once. There are 11 primary feathers and 22-23 secondary feathers on each wing. That's a lot of feathers, and they're big! Loons are flightless for about 2-3 weeks while their new feathers develop. This is the time when loons are in greatest danger. Not only are they unable to fly, but they must expend a lot of energy to grow feathers. Since they are using their energy stores they are less able to deal with diseases at this time. They can become severely stressed if they are already weakened from some disease, for example. Or, if they have toxic chemicals stored in their body fat, these toxins can suddenly flood a loon's system when the fat is used for feather growth. Sometimes the loons even may die. A few times, there has been a large loon die-off in the ocean. When this tragic event happens, it's usually February, right when loons are molting and most vulnerable. When the molt is finished, they have brand new feathers for their trip north.
Source: learner.org/jnorth/search/…
Q. Why do loons lose and then grow all their flight feathers at once, instead of one or two at a time like crows, hawks, and eagles do?
A. Loons are completely flightless without every single one of their feathers. But wait-there's more. Loons have relatively heavy bodies and small wings-both adaptations for diving deep into water. With a complete set of flight feathers, their wings have just about the minimum amount of surface area to hold up their bodies. If a loon were to try to fly while missing three wing feathers, the surface area of its wing would be too small to hold up its body! To minimize the time that they are flightless, loons molt all the feathers at once.
Q. How does molting affect a loon?
A. It takes a lot of energy and body resources to grow feathers. Loons grow a lot of large, stiff feathers all at once. There are 11 primary feathers and 22-23 secondary feathers on each wing. That's a lot of feathers, and they're big! Loons are flightless for about 2-3 weeks while their new feathers develop. This is the time when loons are in greatest danger. Not only are they unable to fly, but they must expend a lot of energy to grow feathers. Since they are using their energy stores they are less able to deal with diseases at this time. They can become severely stressed if they are already weakened from some disease, for example. Or, if they have toxic chemicals stored in their body fat, these toxins can suddenly flood a loon's system when the fat is used for feather growth. Sometimes the loons even may die. A few times, there has been a large loon die-off in the ocean. When this tragic event happens, it's usually February, right when loons are molting and most vulnerable. When the molt is finished, they have brand new feathers for their trip north.
There are lines in this song that pull so hard on me when I think of the song as that metaphor that it has simply come to mean that for me.
I see the song as relating, and speaking with the mother and child as one, back and forth, the feelings they share, expressing themselves in unison at times.
"I am my mothers only one, it's enough"- my thoughts are that a child in the womb may have few thoughts or feelings outside of the notion that they occupy the space, that they are enough for the space, and that yes, one child is enough, as humans we do not expect to have more than one at a time. This is a feeling probably shared by the mother and child alike and it's a subtle one but so very tender and dear.
"Only love is all maroon, Gluey feathers on a flume" this part is hard to articulate. I see the duality of life in these lines. The maroon color of the memory of being in the womb and the feeling of love from the mother (moon) and looking at unborn children as loons in a lake, they must pass down the flume and into the world. There are lots of reason unborn souls may not want to come into this world. For some reason I feel the gluey feathers to me are the birds that were crushed and killed by logs on their way down the flume. I see it as stating in a way that even unborn children have fear and are "leary" about entering this world. There is a gruesome element to it that feels very real to me.
A flume is a hard thing to find a picture of on the web that isn't an amusement park ride.
Definition is:
1. A deep narrow channel or ravine with a stream running through it.
2. An artificial channel conveying water, typically used for transporting logs or timber.
I'm thinking more of definiton #2
The place of the womb is "only love" and "all maroon" who would want to leave this place? Many of us have that urge, that feeling of safety in the womb.
"I am my mother on the wall, with us all" a child and mother as one seeing their future family (with us all) as a picture on the wall. The child is not just itself, it is the beginning of a new family.
"I move in water, shore to shore" Floating in the womb, The child moves only in water from the beginning to the end of life (shore to shore) as in, never emerged from the womb alive.
That is what this song has come to mean for me.
And it's so amazingly beautiful, it has carved out a comforting spot for itself in my heart and memory.
I did more research on "loons", which some people think is a reference to some kind of crazy, as in looney but I disagree. I think it refers to the bird, the loon. The loon is an aquatic bird, that often dives underwater. Also, I don't believe that the line "Leary loons" has any connection to Timothy Leary, as someone else stated. It's probably a misspelling. I think it's supposed to say "lapping lakes like LEERY loons." Leery (not Leary) means cautious or distrustful. This wary bird must be symbolic of something. The bird explanation makes more sense to me, especially when you refer to the part that says "only love is all maroon, gluey feathers on the flume." What would make the feathers "gluey"? Blood. The bird has been shot or hurt in some way. It's not a literal bird he's singing about, of course, I think he's just meaning that there's an intense pain or suffering of some sort going on here. Maroon could represent the color of the blood, and the consequent pain brought on. The rope burns could support that also. I'm trying to see how the womb and the mother reference could tie into all of this but I just can't seem to put it together. I do not think it's about a literal pregnancy of any sort though. Help, someone:P
It is so subtle, this song tells me about a dead child.
I think she was the sister of singer, but she died before to born:
"I am my mother's only one, it's enough" (trying to overcome this tragedy)
"I wear my garment so it shows, now you know" (using irony to answer when someone ask "why're u so upset?": the garment shows that his pretty little sis is dead. Now you know, then get off.)
The Chorus come to break our hearts:
"Only love is all maroon" ( Maroon - a deep red, like the blood flowing out of control. an abort? I gess if you see your mother bleeding around trying to save the child, the only thing you'll remember is how maroon the maternal love is.)
"Gluey feathers on a flume" ( well his sister was an angel but her wings were sticky with blood, and he saw only gluey feathers on the flume)
"Sky is womb, she is the moon" (obviously comparing the size of his little sis. and saying she is the most shiny thing in the night sky - his sky.)
Now he plays his sister:
"I am my mother on the wall, with us all. (his sister left only memories of pregnancy, in photos hanging in a wall.)
"I move in water, shore to shore, nothing's more" (his sister lies in the Amniotic fluid. pheraps the water that flows in the flume is this "water".)
"only love is all maroon,
Lapping lakes like leary loons
leaving rope burns
reddish rouge" (I guess he like the loons, as he love his sister. This rope could be the umbilical cord. and more "red as blood".)
as i said, this song is amazing.
He’s the only one there for his mother, but satisfying--as one--so close
He's Exposed/ashamed
Boundless love between mother and son
Drifting-sticking-leaving (gluey feathers on the flume)
Drifting everywhere
Only there for himself--mother figure to himself through mom's death?
Deceitful cycle of wandering which leads to anguish
Sky is womb and she's the moon--Mother regarded positively as the bright moon which gives birth to day, but passes in order for the day-indicating her death
--All in all, a lovely song.