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Re: Over-The-Rhine Digest V2 #473
---Mike McVey <mmcvey at uic_edu> wrote:
> What on earth is Baby Jane, from the Eve album, about? It is the
> best song on the album, even though I don't understand it.
>
well, my reading of it goes like so:
firstly, it's dedicated to someone (Ntawugashira) so it may always be
cryptic in some regards, a sort of "for your eyes only" to him/her.
sleep baby jane
sleep baby jane
-this sets us up for a degree of annonymity- "jane" being the name
given to unknowns, and alos being the name of that girl who hung out
with dick and spot the dog back in first grade reading class...
the sleep could be actualy sleep, or death, or ignorance.
the baby could be an infant or a lover or a child
suicide suicide
katie's talking suicide
honicide homicide
mama killed my man
-whew. this is *loaded.* first, we have references to death-
premeditated death at that, violent death. notice that, for whatever
reason, the two people (katie and mama) who are contemplating or doing
the killing are female. this will remian the case (we'll meet ruby and
see mama again, as well as being referred to jane.)
turpentine turpentine
potion for my valentine
take a ride and take it
in a long black hearse
- ok- so the singer is feeding turpentine, a deadly chemical, to her
(his?) valentine. and then we take a ride in a hearse.
sleep baby jane
sleep baby jane
-right now "sleep" seems to say "death" to me
vaseline vaseline
ruby's selling vaseline
kerosene kerosene
everyone's a fetus
-somebody else will have to figure out the vaseling reference- i never
use the stuff and have no idea what it might be doing in this verse.
the everyone's a fetus line could be a clue to something though- we've
been hearing about premeditated killing. i betcha most of us associate
the word "fetus" with the abortion debate, and abortion is
premeditated killing. the song *could* be making it analagous to
suicide and murder, which, like abortion are both mortal sins in the
Church. and we have been talking about "baby" jane.
chamomile chamomile
someone spiked the chamomile
shake it mama shake it
it was my idea first
chamomile is a kind of tea that puts one to sleep...
on top of that, it's "spiked"
the "it was my idea first" is very chilling...
if you think i'm jane
let me kiss you
if you think i'm jane
if you think i'm jane
let me call you an angel
-this is about where i get lost.
by using "jane," there's auniversal femininity that is called into
play here, and the singer wants us to identitfy ourselves as fetuses
(or babies)- so are we *all* baby jane? this would work if you take
into account some buddhist ideas like the one that suggests we are all
one in a sense. this is also in another way a christian idea; do unto
others, etc.
but the song stolidly remains ambiguous. and this is coming froma guy
who knows what "swan swan h" by r.e.m is about...
hope that helps...
john.
np- still mingus
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