Gillianizmo, I've always thought the line was "Come chain yourself round my ankles", though I could be wrong, and so I pictured this as Neko's offer to let the 'pretty girl' attach herself to Neko and ride in her wake (figuratively, I pictured it as soaring freely over the land), seeing the world from Neko's perspective and thus freeing the girl from the hellish waiting room she's trapped in. I like your comments about guilt. Guilt is definitely a presence here, especially in the penultimate stanza with the 'and lovers who won't understand' - so Neko underscores her understanding of the girls and their feelings of guilt with the repeated "and I won't say that I told you so", because 'i told you so's are all about creating or encouraging guilt and shame.
I never thought of the girls as dead, because this song is about overcoming the stigmas and restrictions people want to put on you, and it's hard to overcome this when you're gone.
I like Peaches' reading of "Come chain yourself round my ankles" as the speaker offering the girls her perspective, although I would strongly caution, especially with an artist like Neko Case, to differentiate between the artist and the fictional construct which the lyrics imply.
I like Peaches' reading of "Come chain yourself round my ankles" as the speaker offering the girls her perspective, although I would strongly caution, especially with an artist like Neko Case, to differentiate between the artist and the fictional construct which the lyrics imply.
Gillianizmo, I've always thought the line was "Come chain yourself round my ankles", though I could be wrong, and so I pictured this as Neko's offer to let the 'pretty girl' attach herself to Neko and ride in her wake (figuratively, I pictured it as soaring freely over the land), seeing the world from Neko's perspective and thus freeing the girl from the hellish waiting room she's trapped in. I like your comments about guilt. Guilt is definitely a presence here, especially in the penultimate stanza with the 'and lovers who won't understand' - so Neko underscores her understanding of the girls and their feelings of guilt with the repeated "and I won't say that I told you so", because 'i told you so's are all about creating or encouraging guilt and shame.
I never thought of the girls as dead, because this song is about overcoming the stigmas and restrictions people want to put on you, and it's hard to overcome this when you're gone.
I like Peaches' reading of "Come chain yourself round my ankles" as the speaker offering the girls her perspective, although I would strongly caution, especially with an artist like Neko Case, to differentiate between the artist and the fictional construct which the lyrics imply.
I like Peaches' reading of "Come chain yourself round my ankles" as the speaker offering the girls her perspective, although I would strongly caution, especially with an artist like Neko Case, to differentiate between the artist and the fictional construct which the lyrics imply.