So, I'm running with this, having taken it from the "Chicago Reader", but "Colleen" can be seen as a story about the expectations and gender roles placed on women, and, in Colleen's case, her hidden desire to break from these roles.
"I was blessed among all women,
To have forgotten everything." seems to say that the luckiest women are those that do not think or question or remember a life before servitude and "the gilded cage".
Joanna references that Colleen, despite her inability to keep plants alive, is starting to go down the path towards motherhood, that her subconcious dreams of "a funny sea,
as soft as a newly born baby", which she cannot grasp entirely.
But this aching is interrupted by a deeper self that is angered at Colleen for having not only abandoned her wild and free roots, but has, in a certain way, lashed out against them. The most pivotal line, "is that my very own baleen?" reveals the link between victorian era (or any era, really) roles for women and the ocean.
While the ocean serves as a metaphor for freedom from the expectations of men and society, it can also be read literally; the ocean has always represented the great unknown, a place that we once came from but can never truly return to, despite our best efforts to. But I digress.
Similar to the painting, "The Gilded Age" in which a woman looks out her window longingly at the dancing gypsies, Colleen comes into contact with some travellers from the sea, whose leatherbound book reveals to Colleen her connection to the ocean. It must be noted that it was not a book found in a study, or given to her by a scholarly man, but travellers from the ocean, living a free life out on the sea. Colleen is deeply connected to a life she does not lead, a life of freedom and seafaring and no expectations.
In the end when she dives into the ocean and forgets everything, the story has come full circle: She was taught all of the things of servitude and womanhood to wipe from her mind the memories of her old life, one that society puts on par with being a "thief or a whore", but now she has forgotten all of those things, " so, soon", as Joanna aptly puts it.
And yeah, the squeak is brilliant. I'd be hard-pressed to find another song where the chorus of the song is just a little yelp in the middle.
So, I'm running with this, having taken it from the "Chicago Reader", but "Colleen" can be seen as a story about the expectations and gender roles placed on women, and, in Colleen's case, her hidden desire to break from these roles. "I was blessed among all women, To have forgotten everything." seems to say that the luckiest women are those that do not think or question or remember a life before servitude and "the gilded cage".
Joanna references that Colleen, despite her inability to keep plants alive, is starting to go down the path towards motherhood, that her subconcious dreams of "a funny sea, as soft as a newly born baby", which she cannot grasp entirely.
But this aching is interrupted by a deeper self that is angered at Colleen for having not only abandoned her wild and free roots, but has, in a certain way, lashed out against them. The most pivotal line, "is that my very own baleen?" reveals the link between victorian era (or any era, really) roles for women and the ocean. While the ocean serves as a metaphor for freedom from the expectations of men and society, it can also be read literally; the ocean has always represented the great unknown, a place that we once came from but can never truly return to, despite our best efforts to. But I digress.
Similar to the painting, "The Gilded Age" in which a woman looks out her window longingly at the dancing gypsies, Colleen comes into contact with some travellers from the sea, whose leatherbound book reveals to Colleen her connection to the ocean. It must be noted that it was not a book found in a study, or given to her by a scholarly man, but travellers from the ocean, living a free life out on the sea. Colleen is deeply connected to a life she does not lead, a life of freedom and seafaring and no expectations.
In the end when she dives into the ocean and forgets everything, the story has come full circle: She was taught all of the things of servitude and womanhood to wipe from her mind the memories of her old life, one that society puts on par with being a "thief or a whore", but now she has forgotten all of those things, " so, soon", as Joanna aptly puts it.
And yeah, the squeak is brilliant. I'd be hard-pressed to find another song where the chorus of the song is just a little yelp in the middle.