Geez…it has been sometime since I did one of these, I’d intended for it to be a monthly addition to the blog, but this semester has been a monster. Of late, given that it’s that time of the year, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the best records of the year. On of my early favorites was, and remains, Middle Cyclone from Neko Case. So, on the last day of the month, I take a deeper look at a lyrically perplexing song from one of the better records of the year.
This song, like probably 75% of all songs, appears to be about love, more specifically a woman who wants a man to know that she loves him. It’s the kind of woman that makes this song a bit perplexing. It might be autobiographical, Case has been described as a “force of nature” in her style and manner of singing, but she never seemed like quite THIS kind a woman.
I left them motherless, fatherless,
Their souls dangling inside out from their mouths,
But it’s never enough
To be completely honest, that sounds like the kind a woman I don’t ever want to meet. But just for good measure, Case continues to endear this “Tornado” to the listener…
Carve your name across three counties,
Ground it in with bloody hides,
Their broken necks will lie in the ditch,
Till you stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it,
Stop this madness,
I want you
Broken necks lying in a ditch, grounding my name into the bloody hides of lord knows what…This woman scares the hell out of me. When Case repeats certain phrases, such as “Stop it, Stop it, ” or “I miss, I miss…” it only cements the fact that this woman is Krazy, that’s right with a Capital K!
My love, I’m an owl on the sill
In the evening
But morning finds you
Still warm and breathing
Okay, not only is she a destructive force of nature, Krazy with a Capital K, she’s also damn creepy. She’s both a Tornado and an Owl, that means she’s a double harbinger of death, but some how her paramour survives. Perhaps because she’s still on the outside and not inside their heart completely.
I can completely understand why the object of her affection is on the run and unwilling to commit. After all, who wants love from a Tornado, they swoop in all the sudden, destroy every single thing in their path and then disappear leaving the destruction for someone else to clean up. Come to think of it, that does remind me of a few ex-girlfriends…
That the Tornado of a woman loves me or that her love is believeable isn’t the point. The point is, as sweetly as Case sings, as desperately as she pleads, what person in their right mind would want love from a Tornado!?!!?! Maybe I missed something…what do you think?
Neko Case – “This Tornado Loves You” – from Middle Cyclone (2009)
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 you
Carve your name across three counties
Ground it in with bloody hides
Their broken necks will lie in the ditch
Till you stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it
Stop this madness
I want you
I have waited with a glacier’s patience
Smashed every transformer with every trailer
Till nothing was standing
Sixty five miles wide
Still you are nowhere, still you are nowhere
Nowhere in sight
Come out to meet me
Run out to meet me
Come into the light
Climb the boxcars to the engine
Through the smoke and to the sky
Your rails have 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
I miss, I miss, I miss, I miss
How you’d sigh yourself to sleep
When I’d rake the springtime
Across your sheets
My love, I am the speed of sound
I left the motherless, fatherless
Their souls dangling inside out from their mouths
But it’s never enough
My 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?