Only Skin (16:49)
426,563 plays (81,684 listeners)
The longest song on Newsom’s second album, it had a complicated creation. Incorporating different bits of songs and the whole of a song only played live named ‘Be A Woman’, the song took the longest to write of all of them.
Newsom talked about it’s creation;
“The evolution of the song took a long time. I knew from very early on in its life that I wanted it to be a very long song, that it would be vulgar to make it short. But it took me a long time to finish it.
I worked sectionally, I guess - I knew where each section was supposed to go, I knew the story I wanted to tell, more or less, and the order in which I wanted each piece of the story to appear. I know I’m using the word ‘story’ real loosely here, but the song is telling a story, from where I’m standing.
But some of the pieces were a long time coming. I might have had some lyrics, and some instrumental passages, and then I’d get a bit more in the way of words, or a bit more in the way of music, and I’d just kind of whittle away at the thing awhile and then wait it out again.
As far as the specifics of the verse, the “poetic devices” employed and all that - I have to say that it makes me feel uncomfortable to think too much in those terms when I’m looking at my own songs. I love looking at other people’s music real close-up, like that, but I feel like I worked hard enough writing the dang thing, and I shouldn’t really have to go back and explain what I was doing from a technical standpoint or analyze my own style - just makes me feel squeamish and claustrophobic.
Newsom talked about it’s creation;
“The evolution of the song took a long time. I knew from very early on in its life that I wanted it to be a very long song, that it would be vulgar to make it short. But it took me a long time to finish it.
I worked sectionally, I guess - I knew where each section was supposed to go, I knew the story I wanted to tell, more or less, and the order in which I wanted each piece of the story to appear. I know I’m using the word ‘story’ real loosely here, but the song is telling a story, from where I’m standing.
But some of the pieces were a long time coming. I might have had some lyrics, and some instrumental passages, and then I’d get a bit more in the way of words, or a bit more in the way of music, and I’d just kind of whittle away at the thing awhile and then wait it out again.
As far as the specifics of the verse, the “poetic devices” employed and all that - I have to say that it makes me feel uncomfortable to think too much in those terms when I’m looking at my own songs. I love looking at other people’s music real close-up, like that, but I feel like I worked hard enough writing the dang thing, and I shouldn’t really have to go back and explain what I was doing from a technical standpoint or analyze my own style - just makes me feel squeamish and claustrophobic.
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Shouts
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fireworksss wrote:
epic
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stephanielynn02 wrote:
Are you mine...my heart, mine anymore?
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womanonfire wrote:
pretty song. glad i listened to it today. snow falling slowly.
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dreadfullbass wrote:
13'40'' = heaven on tape.
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thefinaldavid wrote:
I can't think of anything I;d rather listen to.
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thefinaldavid wrote:
It is not almost half an hour long.
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_pinksandposies wrote:
well, what is this? scrap of sassafras, eh Sisyphus?
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Huhviss_aship wrote:
All my bones they are gone gone gone - take my bones cos I don't need none!
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avataraera wrote:
Despite it being almost half an hour long, this is a mesmerizing song. And there should be no end to something so siren-like...
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ifeltyourshape wrote:
When Bill Callahan's voice comes in, the song becomes transcendent.
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closedmouth wrote:
6:00++++++++++++++++++++++
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_pinksandposies wrote:
life is thundering blissful towards death in a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness.
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PomeLast wrote:
the word beautiful is used too much in relation to music. this is one of the only songs i can truthfully call beautiful, and it's definitely one of the songs most deserving of that description that i've ever heard. cosmia is a close second.
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takeforexample wrote:
Picking through your pocket lining, well what is this? Scrap of sassafras, eh Sisyphus? That line conveys such betrayal. Heart breaking.
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lvor wrote:
I have washed a thousand spiders down the drain
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Haskampagne wrote:
...what a big, big song !
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Ursulabear wrote:
really, weirdelves? i have monkey andbear themed bedroom!
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staticfuzz wrote:
be a woman now
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Lookyoobrate wrote:
Beautiful, almost oriental. <3
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oh-alexandria wrote:
i listen to this song constantly, it is absolutley beautiful. her voice gives me the chills, i love this song.
Joanna Newsom
Only Skin
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mikey0929, overrcast and cyberliche loved Joanna Newsom – Only Skin. 26 minutes ago
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fireworksss tagged Joanna Newsom – Only Skin with beautiful and epic. Monday evening
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MMcNichols74 tagged Joanna Newsom – Only Skin with mellow, new weird america, freak folk and 5 other tags. 15 days ago
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