I’ve been listening to Neko Case a bit lately, and I’ve been quite impressed with some of the imagery that she’s able to paint with words. In fact, I’m always a bit jealous when an artist is able to convey something so powerful within the constrains of a few verses, choruses, and (perhaps) a bridge.
I’m talking about songs here, of course.
On her latest album ‘Middle Cyclone’, Neko kicks off with a strange “love song”, of sorts. The object of affection is unnamed, unknown, and perhaps irrelevant, but the giver of affection is none other than a tornado. Yes… a tornado. Neko’s thought process, evidently, was “What would it look like it a tornado loved you? Probably pretty dangerous.” Strange and interesting, to say the least.
“This Tornado Loves You”, from Middle Cyclone
My love I am the speed of sound
I left them motherless, fatherless
Their souls dangling inside-out from their mouths…
But it’s never enough
I want youI carved your name across three counties
And ground it in with bloody hides
Broken necks will line the ditch
Til you “Stop it! Stop it! Stop the madness!”
I want youI have waited with a glacier’s patience
Smashed every transformer with every trailer
Til nothing was standing
Sixty-five miles wideBut still you are nowhere, still you are nowhere,
Nowhere in sight
Come out to meet me, run out to meet me,
Come into the lightClimb the boxcars to the engine
Through the smoke and to the sky
Your rails could always outrun mine
So I picked them up and crashed them down
In a moment close to now
Cause I miss, I miss, I miss, I miss
How you’d sigh yourself to sleep
When I’d rake the springtime across your sheetsMy love, I’m an owl on the sill in the evening
But morning finds you
Still warm and breathing
This tornado loves you
What will make you believe me?
Cool stuff.
Now that I think about it, is the “object of affection” here a train, perhaps? Hmmm…
Y.I.P.C.A.N.J.O 