There is no question the song is about a failed relationship. The give away is at the end when he wonders when he will ever see "her" again. He is expressing frustration at the difficulty in human relationships. The music expresses a melancholy mood. The challenge is to make a relationship work. The maid is a symbol of a substitute woman that gives him everything else he needs to function except genuine human connection-- which is just too painful and too risky to actually experience. He is thinking that it would be "easier" than a genuine relationship if he just had this woman who came over and did everything that he needed or wanted out of a human relationship (except love) and then just go away. It's a very sad, sad song, and is meant to express a pathetic point of view. I have heard over the years that women libbers think the song is a diss of women. Absolutely not. If anyone is getting dissed, it's Neil dissing himself for being unable to handle a genuine relationship with a female partner. It is not a suggestion in any way that women are somehow subordinate to men.
There is no question the song is about a failed relationship. The give away is at the end when he wonders when he will ever see "her" again. He is expressing frustration at the difficulty in human relationships. The music expresses a melancholy mood. The challenge is to make a relationship work. The maid is a symbol of a substitute woman that gives him everything else he needs to function except genuine human connection-- which is just too painful and too risky to actually experience. He is thinking that it would be "easier" than a genuine relationship if he just had this woman who came over and did everything that he needed or wanted out of a human relationship (except love) and then just go away. It's a very sad, sad song, and is meant to express a pathetic point of view. I have heard over the years that women libbers think the song is a diss of women. Absolutely not. If anyone is getting dissed, it's Neil dissing himself for being unable to handle a genuine relationship with a female partner. It is not a suggestion in any way that women are somehow subordinate to men.
As a flaming feminist, I absolutely agree.
As a flaming feminist, I absolutely agree.
@tpk56 Fantastic, yes I couldn't agree more with what you say and you said it very well.
@tpk56 Fantastic, yes I couldn't agree more with what you say and you said it very well.