[Spelunker]

i've been listening to this album for a couple of days now, and there seem to be a few references to joanna's music.

'one fine morning'

One fine morning
I'm gonna ride out
Yeah, one fine morning
I'm gonna ride out

Just me and the skeleton crew
We're gonna ride out in a country kind of silence
We're gonna ride out in a country silence
Yeah one fine morning

Yeah it's all coming back to me now
My apocalypse, my apocalypse
The curtain rose and burned in the morning sun
Yeah the curtain rose and burned in the morning sun

And the mountains
And the mountains bowed down
In the morning sun
Like a ballet of the heart
Yeah the mountains bowed down
Like a ballet
In the morning sun

And the baby and we all lay in state
Yeah the baby and we all lay in state
And I say "Hey! no more drovering!"
I say "Hey! no more drovering!"

When the earth turns cold
And the earth turns black
Will I feel you riding on my back?
Yeah when the earth turns cold
And the earth turns black
Will I feel you riding on my back?

And for I am a part of the road
Yeah I am a part of the road
The hardest part
The hardest part

My apocalypse
DC 4 5 0
DC 4 5 0

which could be a reference to:

"Do you want to run with my pack?
Do you want to ride on my back?
Pray that what you lack does not distract"

'universal applicant'

Without work's calving increments
Or love's coltish punch
What would I be?
An animalis isthmus
Beyond the sea

Oh bees only swarm when they're looking for a home
So I followed them
I found the bees nest in the buffalo's chest
I drank their honey, that milk
I've seen this taste cased in almost every face
That's working to see it in all
And this kidnaps me

Tied up in a boat and kicked off to sea
In tight baby binding technique
My arm chews through the swaddling slings
There's a flare gun in my hand
I point it straight and point it high
To the universe it applies

It lit things up in lavender
Where I'd been was my goal
I saw the calf
I saw the bees
I saw the buffalo and the colt
Well I'm sure they all laughed at me
At me so low in my boat

The flare burnt and fell
The boat burnt as well

And the punk
And the lunk
And the drunk
And the skunk
And the hunk
And the monk in me
All sunk
Sunk, sunk, sunk, sunk, sunk

this reminded me of one particular verse in only skin:

"Press on me: we are restless things
Webs of seaweed are swaddling
You call upon the dusk
Of the musk of a squid
Shot full of ink, until you sink into your crib

Rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes
I heard your song, before my heart had time to hush it!"

and then of course, there is 'babys breath', which to me seems like a response to joanna's 'baby birch', but i know that's already been discussed here.

i'm not clever / academically minded, so i'm sorry if this seems crude to some of you.

[claire]

I feel like I could write a book about the interplay between their lyrics. Well, maybe not a book, but at least a very long, boring essay. They're my two favorite artists so I've spent a LOT of time listening to all of the songs that were written during and after their relationship.

I think that on Apocalypse there's a lot less reference to Joanna ("Baby's Breath" excepted), but I did have the same reaction to the highlighted portion of One Fine Morning. Also in that song, the mountains bowing down line reminds me of the mountains kneeling in "Emily." But I'm not sure all of it is intentional. I think the two of them had a lot of influence on each other in terms of the kinds of symbols they used.

I always find the album "Woke On a Whaleheart" interesting because a lot of songs on that album ("From the Rivers to the Oceans" in particular) can be read as love songs about Joanna, but in my opinion that's one of his weakest albums! And the lyrics to "From the Rivers to the Oceans" are super cheesy.