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?