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So so long ago and so far away
When time was just a line that you fed me when you wanted to stay
We'd talk as soft as chalk till morning came, pale as a pearl
No time, no, no time, now I have got all the time in the world
Say, honey, did you belong to me
Tell me honey, was your heart at rest
When darlin, all the mourning doves were howling us
A song of love's oh godawful lawlessness
Lawlessness
Say, honey, did you belong to me
Tell me honey, did I pass your test
I lay as still as death until the dawn
Whereupon I wrested from y'r godawful lawlessness
Lawlessness
I roam around the tidy grounds of my dappled sanatorium
Coatless I sit amongst the molds adrift and I dote upon my pinesap gum
And the light through the pines in brassy tines lays over me, dim as rum
And thick as molasses, and so time passes, and so, my heart, tomorrow comes
I feel you leaning out back with the crickets
Loyal heart marking the soon-ness, darkness tonight
Still, the mourning doves will summon us their song
Of love's neverdoneing lawlessness
Lawlessness
While over and over: rear up, stand down, lay round
Trying to sound-out or guess the reasons
I sleep like a soldier -- without rest
But there is no treason where there is only lawlessness
Lawlessness
In the last week of the last year I was aware
I took a blind shot across the creek at the black bear
When he roused me in the night and left me cowering with my light calling out
Who is there
Who's there
Who is there
I watched you sleep repeating my prayers,
You give love a little shove and it becomes terror, and now I am
Calling in a sadness beyond anger and beyond fear
Who is there
Who's there
Who is there
I glare and nod like the character God bearing down upon the houses and lawns
I knew a little bit, but darling, you were it, and darling, now it is long gone
Sweetheart in your clean bright start back there behind a hill and a dell
And a state line or two I'll be thinking of you, yes, I'll be thinking and be wishing you well
We land, I stand, but I wait for the sound of the bell
I have to catch a cab and my bags are at the carousel
And then, Lord, just then, time alone will only tell
Go on little dove
When time was just a line that you fed me when you wanted to stay
We'd talk as soft as chalk till morning came, pale as a pearl
No time, no, no time, now I have got all the time in the world
Say, honey, did you belong to me
Tell me honey, was your heart at rest
When darlin, all the mourning doves were howling us
A song of love's oh godawful lawlessness
Lawlessness
Say, honey, did you belong to me
Tell me honey, did I pass your test
I lay as still as death until the dawn
Whereupon I wrested from y'r godawful lawlessness
Lawlessness
I roam around the tidy grounds of my dappled sanatorium
Coatless I sit amongst the molds adrift and I dote upon my pinesap gum
And the light through the pines in brassy tines lays over me, dim as rum
And thick as molasses, and so time passes, and so, my heart, tomorrow comes
I feel you leaning out back with the crickets
Loyal heart marking the soon-ness, darkness tonight
Still, the mourning doves will summon us their song
Of love's neverdoneing lawlessness
Lawlessness
While over and over: rear up, stand down, lay round
Trying to sound-out or guess the reasons
I sleep like a soldier -- without rest
But there is no treason where there is only lawlessness
Lawlessness
In the last week of the last year I was aware
I took a blind shot across the creek at the black bear
When he roused me in the night and left me cowering with my light calling out
Who is there
Who's there
Who is there
I watched you sleep repeating my prayers,
You give love a little shove and it becomes terror, and now I am
Calling in a sadness beyond anger and beyond fear
Who is there
Who's there
Who is there
I glare and nod like the character God bearing down upon the houses and lawns
I knew a little bit, but darling, you were it, and darling, now it is long gone
Sweetheart in your clean bright start back there behind a hill and a dell
And a state line or two I'll be thinking of you, yes, I'll be thinking and be wishing you well
We land, I stand, but I wait for the sound of the bell
I have to catch a cab and my bags are at the carousel
And then, Lord, just then, time alone will only tell
Go on little dove
Lyrics submitted by animalcollector
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The slow simple chords of the first three verses kind of denote what I interpret as passive-aggression and the creeping scorn she feels for her lover. The drums picking up the pace at the fourth verse is where her true feelings come to the surface and she begins to stop disguising them.
The shift at "and I feel you leaning out back with the crickets" denote the chaos (or rather, "lawlessness") that quickly ensues as the lovers turn on one another; the music and her voice both are somewhat wild and therefore express a kind of anger.
The the instrumental is where it dawns on her that breaking up is inevitable, until she reaches the verse where she's speaking about the black bear, where she expresses fear and paranoia and confusion.
She goes on to say that her sadness is "beyond anger and beyond fear" - anger and fear, respectively, being the driving emotion of the previous two movements, and thereby the previous two emotional phases she felt about the disintegration of her relationship. The grief in knowing that their love is gone, overshadows the anger and fear she had felt.
The last movement is her picking herself up again and decidedly ending the relationship with clarity and logic, wishing him well instead of parting ways on bad terms.
while, over and over--
rear up! stand down! lay round!--
trying to sound-out,
or guess the reasons,
I sleep like a soldier, without rest.
But there is no treason,
where there is only lawlessness.
Sounds a lot like them to me. Also, her voice can have the same kind of quality as Grace Slick from time to time. Love it.
Glare is disapproving, nodding would be approving.
The piano is great but, like with everything Newsom, is also telling of another layer: mania.
The song is intentionally slowed down in certain sequences but allows for breaks of unhinged rag piano playing which would represent a loss of mind/manic state.
It is in this song, I think - in the tapestry of Have One on Me - that she has officially decided to end the relationship.
It’s pretty straight-forward. Joanna has even mentioned in reviews lately that some of the songs on Have One on Me are very straight-forward and this is one of them.
our narrator has known the relationship was ending for some time, and this song is an after-the-fact reflection of the relationship's slow unravel. she reflects on when the relationship was young and things were good. she then asks her lover whether his heart was ever really in it, whether he ever really belonged to her in the first place.
a repeated theme in this song is the "lawlessness" of love. when she knows it is over, she sleeps, "like a solider, without rest-- but there is no treason where there is only lawlessness." this means that she can't blame him, she can't blame anyone. with a lawless thing like love, in which there are no set rules, it's really impossible to place blame. the "terror" that she speaks of is, i think, the fear that she experiences while waiting for something to happen. will it end, as she knows it will? when? waiting can be terrifying. the thought of losing love after it has been pushed too far can be terrifying. however, she probably blames herself more than anything, as sonikyouth has said. she says that when she leaves, she will bear her former lover no ill will: that she will, in fact, be thinking of him and wishing him well.
then comes the last verse: "we land, i stand, but i wait for the sound of the bell. i have to catch a cab, and my bags are at the carousel. and then-- lord, just then-- time alone will only tell." she leaves to go back to her hometown, but has not yet taken her things from her lover's home or officially ended things between them.