¤ milky moon ¤

Everyone has probably figured this one out, too, but I am now really getting into Disc 2.

We know You and Me Bess and Have One On Me are both sort of fictionalized portraits of real people or stories, and I'm wondering if Go Long fits into that category, if only in brief references. She mentions that "your beard is still blue" and later on about being kept in a palace, where a woman's job is to "open doors."

If you're not familiar with Bluebeard, he had a numerous wives that all disappeared. He convinces a local girl to marry him and leaves the country, giving her the keys to the castle and telling her not to open one particular door. Her curiosity gets the best of her, and in the forbidden room she finds the bodies of all his previous wives on hooks.

I'll a few other references that I think could be interpreted as relating to Bluebeard.
-palanquin made of women's bodies (previous wives)
-limbs being at stake
-stopping when ready for change (murdering a wife when you're tired of her?)
-the person being addressed is said to have a blue beard
-being left alone in a palace (Bluebeard's castle)
-a woman's job is to open doors (he told each wife not to open the door, but each did - is it being said that this curiosity is intrinsic to women?)
-locking/unlocking said door (she's been given the key, but she seems to say she'd find a way in no matter what, key or no key - it's a woman's job)
-have never seen such a terrible room gilded with the gold teeth of the women who loved you (pretty obvious reference)

The question is whether or not this really does fall into the Dick Turpin/Lola Montez category of song - is it actually about Bluebeard? Or is the Bluebeard story being used as an analogy? You and Me Bess is pretty straightforward in terms of the story, though it reimagines the relationship between Turpin and Black Bess, while we know HOOM is a back-and-forth of Lola's life and an unnamed speaker. So is it about Bluebeard? Is it about Bill Callahan being compared to Bluebeard for being fickle? I guess it depends on who ended the relationship, if Bill had some secret, or if this is even ABOUT him at all.

What are your thoughts? This makes me wonder why RF chose to use the Kora in this song - despite the Bluebeard references, the India references make me think of the olden-timey concept of "The Orient" and Eastern cultures. Yet the Kora is West African? Maybe he just liked the sound of it? Perhaps the song is SO pertinent to Joanna's life that he felt this was the perfect to place to include it? Maybe the Bluebeard character was influential on her life as well, so adding the Kora kind of "brings it all together" in one song?

I have a feeling Bluebeard is somehow tied to Will Oldham aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy (he is from Kentucky, the last lines in the song reference song and album titles of his, and he is close friends with her ex boyfriend Bill Callahan) as well as her referring to the Louisville/Bardtown area of Kentucky when she says "Seat of the West" as this is what the catholic church called that area after they built the first catholic cathedral west of the Allegheny mountains - again where Will Oldham resides

Go Long is undoubtedly my favourite song on HOOM, and for about 6 months I have been planning to write an essay on my interpretation of it, but I've never really got around to it. Hopefully I'll have some spare time soon to do this; but I can give you the vague gist of my idea.
So the way I see it, Go Long is an intensely introspective and self-critical song, and possibly the track where I feel she bares her soul the most out of all of her music. My idea was that Bluebeard and the female protagonist are both Joanna, Bluebeard is the core of her which she sees as cruel and harsh, unable to work a relationship. The female persona is Joanna introspecting, looking in and trying to work herself out. But as the dead previous wives show, every time she gets close to really understanding herself the her that is introspecting is killed off. The fact that this reading makes her both male and female is key because what this song really seems to about for me is a mixture of her introspection and what it is to be woman, what it is to be a songwriter (a typically masculine domain). Then I could go on about themes of east and west, specific vocabulary, the use of the kora, the brilliant final verse where she seems to be talking about herself:

there's a man who only will speak in code
backing slowly, slowly, down the road
(joanna commenting on the cryptic and heavily metaphorical and difficult nature of her lyrics, perhaps suggesting that hiding them like this is the only way she can have these things exist in the world)
may he master everything that such men may know
about loving and then letting go

...anyway I'm really ill today so can't really get into this. But I think I have more to say about Go Long than any other Newsom song. If I ever do write up a full interpretation I'll post it here.

I have to agree with Wanbli about the last verse addressing Will Oldham, but I don't agree that the Bluebeard references are about him as well, only because the narrator always addresses the Bluebeard-analogue as "you," while Oldham is referred to in the third person.

I haven't come up with my own finalized ideas about the song yet. I don't agree with the idea of the narrator and the addressee as being parts of Joanna only because it DOES seem so masculinized and accusing. Wanbli also made the point that Bill and Will are friends. It seems that the song deals with influences - Will helped Joanna start her career, the kora influenced her musical style, Bill was a big part of Ys (was he?), and Ys dealt with important events in her life.

Perhaps now that she has reached a certain degree of success within her own self-made genre (when compared to the other men who helped her along - though I don't know much about them, I have the sense that she has succeeded more than they), perhaps she ran into a lot of criticism from these supposed friends? Is it a back-stabbing - like killing your wife whom you supposedly love? Who knows!

For my interpretation, it is entirely the point that he is so masculinized, this song is so much about gender and gender divide.

doublewuzzy wrote: Bill was a big part of Ys (was he?), and Ys dealt with important events in her life.

He was. I remember an article on Bill which Joanna stated what an influence he was on Ys. He was the one who urged her to work with Van Dyke Parks.

doublewuzzy wrote:I have to agree with Wanbli about the last verse addressing Will Oldham, but I don't agree that the Bluebeard references are about him as well, only because the narrator always addresses the Bluebeard-analogue as "you," while Oldham is referred to in the third person.

Agree with this.

Knowing much that I do about Bill, in my mind Go Long is unequivocally and almost explicitly Bill. References throughout the song are much of the same themes in Bill own songs. Not to mention the parallels with Bluebeard (Bill's own reputation as a lady killer)

I never knew there was definitively a Bonnie "Prince" Billy connection--I had wondered if the reference in "Occident" was tied to his "Then the Letting Go." ("I'll wait for you 'longside the ocean and make do with my no-skin" / "In the quiet of the day, well, I laid her low and used her skin as my skin to go out in the snow.")

Even though Arabian Nights is not set in any of the locales mentioned, I always get that feel from the beginning of the song. Similar theme to the Bluebeard story.

I was wondering if there's an Eastern version of Bluebeard, but I couldn't find much.

I think because I'm writing all this on my phone as I've had no internet for a month (a month!) I'm making my point staggeringly unclear. Either way, I think one of the best things about this song is how interpretable the narrative and the meaning are, particularly the flexibility of voice and metaphor.

i hate relying on a reading of her work as autobiographical and normally caution against it. however, if these are indeed references to bonnie prince billy, a friend of bill callahan's, did he perhaps cryptically warn her against getting involved with bill--who had somewhat of a lady killer reputation (his treatment of chan marshall was terrible)?

she either couldn't or wouldn't understand and accept the warning, but by the time she realized the truth it was too late...

i'm reluctant to even post this just because i hate commenting on her personal life, so please don't crucify me!

Hey! Bring out the cross!