Joanna Newsom - Only Skin

album: Ys (2006, Drag City)

[@whoisxenon]

catch me at the function begging the DJ to play this

[@72marshflower15]

If she’s not Zionist, then we’ve a standing chance

[@Mad_Cool]

me as well, weeping on my knees

[@jimjimogen]

this is the greatest song ever written. im so glad to be alive at the same time as this masterpiece

[@momo-hs5jn]

Period!!! Just being capable of listening to this is a lifetime experience on its own and makes worth living at least for 16:53 minutes...

[@Tactcat]

NO TEMPORAL INFIDELITY IN THIS HOUSE

[@dionysianmystery]

I agree! This is a masterful piece of work

[@lanac8318]

Me too :)

[@indecay8756]

that's not true tho, the greatest song ever written is Lock your doors by Death Grips

[@canadey97]

This will always be, in my opinion one of the greatest songs ever written. The lyrics alone just in this one song are comparable to some of the best poets of all time. Literally made my wig FLY the first time I ever heard this and continues to.

[@bumblebootwiddletoes5185]

100% agreed. This whole record is an absolute top level master class in poetry, symbolism, metaphors, allegory, & music composition, production, & mixing. There exists no other recording artist who can bring me to tears every single time I listen to their work. Joanna does it every single time.

[@vagarisaster]

The 'wig fly' caught me off-guard. '😭'

[@lucaswallo8127]

How so

[@George_Harold_Burns_]

truly. find something new everytime

[@Godloveszaza]

Yall overrate her for sure.

[@lisarodjer4898]

dude when she says "scrape, your knee, it is only skin" it gives me FULL BODY chills every time no exception

[@danielbeller3245]

The word "violins" immediately following that line just slays me.

[@strangenessandcharms]

Same, dear.

[@strangenessandcharms]

@@danielbeller3245 or violence

[@Chulpansilu]

Yessssss

[@elena09music]

oi

[@7bean3]

I could live a 1000 years and never write something as incredible as this song and it is only one of five miracles from the album. like, what the hell, how are we the same species?

[@amgm1996]

when the seagull weeps "so long!" and the beat drops 🔥

[@prestonschmitt5356]

I was so excited when I first heard this track and noticed Bill Callahan doing vocals on it. I think it's natural that two great folk artists work so well together

[@cas8419]

So vulnerable and comforting, it's insane that this exists. Inhuman how beautiful this is and how everything flows with so many different parts

[@karlklee9418]

Some Years ago, I had a terrible cold. I was laying in the in the sun and listened to Only Skin and Emily. While I listened, I was shivering the whole time. After that I stood up and my cold was completely blown away. Like a miracle.

[@strangenessandcharms]

What really?!

[@karlklee9418]

Yes, I never had such an experience again, unfortunately.

[@strangenessandcharms]

I love this. That's the proof that Jo's music heals.

[@rodriogq]

your account is infinitely interesting to me! i believe something big takes place when our bodies shiver and shake. it seems to me this music helped you unleash some great protective power within, a call for life. i love joanna's music and i loved hearing your account, thanks for sharing!

[@BipolarBear_pen15]

I think this might genuinely be the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.

[@ruthdixon7807]

joanna's vocal-harp epic stretches effortlessly to fill almost twenty minutes...superb music.

[@darcydiabolical]

more than a decade later and this is still the most beautiful song i've ever heard

[@AdrianskiASMR]

I'm personally very careful with this song. It's without a doubt the most powerful and well written song I've ever heard in my entire life and could be the best one I will ever hear. I shiver every time and hear it and tear up 70% of the time so I only listen to it when I feel I need to be vulnerable. It's like a supplement to help me effectively go through a cathartic moment if that makes sense. Thank you, Joanna Newsom. I'm full grown man who doesn't ever idolize celebrities, but if I saw her in real life I would literally fall to the ground crying.

[@drakocapone2741]

I’m a rapper And she gives me so much peace ☮️ as a grown man and breaks my heart for me when I want to but I’ve become too hardened by the world I would love to compose a song with her to show her my range it wouldn’t even be rap but in a way she’s as lyrical as a rapper but has sooo much more soul and is honestly the truth I feel so out of place for finding peace in her voice because it’s outside of the norm but I march to the best of my own drum 🥁

[@shawfestify]

"use the song carefully" You understand. It's to be used with great care. I know how beautiful it is, but it also makes me feel like I'm going to die soon--as we all are. Use with care.

[@smnoy23]

I don't even know how you begin to come up with this much lyrical imagery over a lifetime, let alone in one song

[@xylan9543]

5:33 - 8:26 is the best thing i've ever heard in my life

[@laura-mt3tb]

6:02 the most beautiful thing i have ever heard i love u joanna

[@tristantexas]

spitting straight bars

[@strangenessandcharms]

I cry every time

[@tomsturgeon100]

Unreal

[@tomsturgeon100]

But you need 5:45 onward to truly get

[@cameroncorp]

Yesss! That pentatonic melody is one of my favourite melodies in any song

[@soleywolfgangsdottir]

And there was a booming above you That night, black airplanes flew over the sea And they were lowing and shifting like Beached whales Shelled snails As you strained and you squinted to see The retreat of their hairless and blind cavalry You froze in your sand shoal Prayed for your poor soul Sky was a bread roll, soaking in a milk-bowl And when the bread broke, fell in bricks of wet smoke My sleeping heart woke, and my waking heart spoke And there was a silence you took to mean something Run, sing For alive you will evermore be And the plague of the greasy black engines a-skulkin' Has gone east While you're left to explain them to me Released from their hairless and blind cavalry With your hands in your pockets, stubbily running To where I'm unfresh, undressed and yawning Well, what is this craziness? This crazy talking? You caught some small death when you were sleepwalking It was a dark dream, darlin', it's over The firebreather is beneath the clover Beneath his breathing there is cold clay, forever A toothless hound-dog choking on a feather But I took my fishingpole, fearing your fever Down to the swimminghole, where there grows bitter herb That blooms but one day a year by the riverside, I'd bring it here Apply it gently To the love you've lent me While the river was twisting and braiding, the bait bobbed And the string sobbed, as it cut through the hustling breeze And I watched how the water was kneading so neatly Gone treacly Nearly slowed to a stop in this heat In a frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath Press on me, we are restless things Webs of seaweed are swaddling And you call upon the dusk Of the musk of a squid Shot full of ink, until you sink into your crib Rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes I heard your song, before my heart had time to hush it! Smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened Smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking And when the fire moves away Fire moves away, son Why would you say I was the last one? Scrape your knee, it is only skin Makes the sound of violins And when I cut your hair, and leave the birds all of the trimmings I am the happiest woman among all women And the shallow Water Stretches as far as I can see Knee-deep, trudging along The seagull weeps "so long" Humming a threshing song Until the night is over Hold on! Hold on! Hold your horses back from the fickle dawn I have got some business out at the edge of town Candy weighing both of my pockets down 'Til I can hardly stay afloat, from the weight of them And knowing how the common-folk condemn What it is I do, to you, to keep you warm Being a woman, being a woman But always up the mountainside you're clambering Groping blindly, hungry for anything Picking through your pocket linings, well, what is this? Scrap of sassafras, eh Sisyphus? I see the blossoms broke and wet after the rain Little sister, he will be back again I have washed a thousand spiders down the drain Spiders ghosts hang soaked and dangelin' Silently from all the blooming cherry trees In tiny nooses, safe from everyone Nothing but a nuisance gone now, dead and done Be a woman, be a woman Though we felt the spray of the waves We decided to stay till the tide rose too far We weren't afraid, 'cause we know what you are And you know that we know what you are Awful atoll Oh, incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow Bawl, bellow Sibyl sea-cow, all done up in a bow Toddle and roll Teeth an impalpable bit of leather While yarrow, heather and hollyhock Awkwardly molt along the shore Are you mine? My heart? Mine anymore? Stay with me for awhile That's an awfully real gun I know life will lay you down As the lightning has lately done Failing this, failing this Follow me, my sweetest friend To see what you anointed in pointing your gun there Lay it down, nice and slow There is nowhere to go, save up Up where the light, undiluted, is weaving in a drunk dream At the sight of my baby, out back Back on the patio watching the bats bring night in While, elsewhere, estuaries of wax-white Wend, endlessly, towards seashores unmapped Last week our picture window produced a half-word Heavy and hollow, hit by a brown bird We stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake And paint and labour over every intake I said a sort of prayer for some sort of rare grace Then thought I ought to take her to a higher place Said "dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you And though you die, bird, you will have a fine view" Then in my hot hand She slumped her sick weight We tramped through the poison oak Heartbroke and inchoate The dogs were snapping And you cuffed their collars While I climbed the tree-house Then how I hollered Well, she'd lain, as still as a stone, in my palm, for a lifetime or two Then, saw the treetops, cocked her head and up and flew While, back in the world that moves, often According to the hoarding of these clues Dogs still run roughly around Little tufts of finch-down And the cities we passed were a flickering wasteland But his hand in my hand made them hale and harmless While down in the lowlands the crops are all coming We have everything Life is thundering blissful towards death In a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness You stopped by, I was all alive In my doorway, we shucked and jived And when you wept, I was gone See, I got gone when I got wise But I can't with certainty say we survived Then down, and down And down, and down And down, and deeper Stoke without sound The blameless flames You endless sleeper Through fire below, and fire above, and fire within Sleeped through the things that couldn't have been if you hadn't have been And when the fire moves away Fire moves away, son And why would you say I was the last one? All my bones they are gone, gone, gone Take my bones, I don't need none Cold, cold cupboard, lord, nothing to chew on Suck all day on a cherry stone Dig a little hole, not three inches round Spit your pit in a hole in the ground Weep upon the spot for the starving of me 'Till up grow a fine young cherry tree Well when the bough breaks, what'll you make for me? A little willow cabin to rest on your knee What'll I do with a trinket such as this? Think of your woman, who's gone to the west But I'm starving and freezing in my measly old bed Then I'll crawl across the salt flats to stroke your sweet head Come across the desert with no shoes on I love you truly, or I love no one Fire moves away Fire moves away, son Why would you say That I was the last one Last one Clear the room! There's a fire, a fire, a fire Get going, and I'm going to be right behind you And if the love of a woman or two, dear Couldn't move you to such heights, then all I can do Is do, my darling, right by you

[@markrussell3809]

Thanks for jotting all that down. Beautiful

[@bbuuttercupp]

I don’t understand how or why but this song is actually too short. I just click start and before I know it, I gotta replay

[@TheGamerprod]

she was 24 when this album came out,,, how

[@bbuuttercupp]

Wait forreal?????? HOW? What the HELL!! The TALENT, the WRITING, everything! At 24???

[@ilikematches2]

she's an alien princess, true story.

[@chim-choo-ree]

@@ilikematches2 That's the only valid explanation.

[@balyasulistiyono7447]

She's an immortal ancient being collecting wisdom.

[@bbuuttercupp]

@Matheus Borges That is .... wow. Just wow. She was a year older than I am now. I cannot even begin to imagine.

[@melteddali8000]

It's 3 am and I'm crying alone in my apartment to this

[@dukegreened]

I'm so glad everyone is figuring out what a lovely masterpiece it is

[@jadeniskiev4323]

Me too literally

[@dustincecil9640]

we've all been there..!

[@toonsandro]

Feel you

[@ivan1793]

Mood

[@BlobBlobsen]

THE SKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY WAS A BREAD ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL

[@geometricallegory]

This is the only song that really matters to me.... All the others? Nahh... This is the song that makes sense to my person. When I'm an old man in an old folks home I hope that some underpaid nurse thinks to put this song on my headphones.... I'll be happy then.

[@dukegreened]

I'm so glad everyone is figuring out what a lovely masterpiece it is

[@thomasc7379]

Why she gotta be underpaid?? Weirdo

[@desireandfire]

@@thomasc7379 yeah that was uneccesary to say, let's hope in the future people get paid wages they can actually live well on

[@cpt.kimintuitiondemon]

@@thomasc7379 I'm pretty sure it was meant in a supporting and nicest way possible. Aknowledging nurses are underapreciated, overworked, hoping they still be able to put on the headphones of the old people. Cut eachother some slack, it's to easy to go to war for misunderstandings. While in truth we want the same.

[@kateevans2976]

Same

[@NIMRODakaNIMROD]

This is the most song I've heard in quite a while. "The most WHAT?", you might ask. Well, it's just the most.

[@zee9134]

literally THEE most song of all time

[@Brah027]

I haven't heard this song in years!

[@momo-hs5jn]

whenever i listen to only skin i just sit in complete awe of its sheer beauty while i cant stop tears from falling over my whole face...

[@fatedfragment]

i honestly think this song is what it means to be alive. we’ve found the answer

[@ab4845]

This album is the closest we'll get to Opera when it comes to Contemporary Popular Music. Such an Infinite Masterpiece...

[@begiraffe8711]

What the fuck are you going on about?!

[@pedroantonio5565]

Idk, I think The Money Store by Death Grips comes pretty close to it as well

[@promethiamoore6462]

What does opera has to do with this song? It's a great song for sure But not operatic at all

[@samanthajones87886]

this is more classical / baroque music mixed with medieval folk than opera tbh

[@ab4845]

13:35 - 15:26 : Oh, such Magnificence... Such Crescendo... Gives me **CHILLS** every single time.

[@Shabi96]

Mine too.

[@erikakayne146]

Awful, atol! O incalculable! Indiscreetness and sorrow, bawl, bellow. Sybil sea-cow all done up in a bow. Toddle and roll, teethe an impalpable bit of leather while yarrow, heather and hollyhock awkwardly molt along the shore. The best part!!!

[@carlmarcs3647]

so true

[@hanto144]

she spittin bars here🔥

[@desireandfire]

@@hanto144 I'll pretend my vocabulary is large enough to understand any of those words 🔥

[@chim-choo-ree]

Are you mine?

[@skankhunt-sf1to]

She's so talented. It's unbelievable

[@haylar2310]

It’s 4am and I’m crying out my eyes to this masterpiece

[@luna-tr5nb]

13:38 - 15:08 pure beauty

[@joshk2181]

we know what you are and you know that we know what you are

[@hahaloves]

11:57 - 12:14 literal chills every time

[@deadsoap1222]

I love this. its brilliant. I found out about it through ms lola's video essay on Marge Simpson. great essay. great song.

[@gwencere9383]

omg I found it there too lol

[@marciamakesmusic]

Same!

[@soleywolfgangsdottir]

if hieronymus bosch was an musician, this is how his paintings would sound. these lyrics are absolutely epic!

[@yanstein8464]

i'm getting more breugel the elder vibes honestly, with folk themes as seen by an intellectual it has bosch's elegance, but not much of his macabre atmosphere

[@breadrubber]

ur so right

[@emmajasminemusic]

i love everyone else who loves this song. you all get it

[@bumblebootwiddletoes5185]

I agree with this sentiment. You have my love as well, Emma 💙 Hope you're well! 👍

[@MegaCirse]

Comme la première lumière du crépuscule, cette femme artiste nous ouvre les yeux à de vieilles promesses et à toutes les anomalies bienfaisantes de la nature. Evocatrices de pouvoirs au-delà de l'observation, sa musique tire les ficelles du cœur, attire les nostalgies et réveille les tourbillons, les vies écorchés et la torpeur des veilleurs tourmentés.

[@charliealves9148]

I love listening to this. I also just want to take a moment to appreciate the fact this song is in sonata form

[@komiago2149]

hell yeah

[@shearwaterfilmsNY]

The hustling breeze. Jeez

[@ssannaevee]

can't someone put this on spotify, i do really need it

[@liltick102]

Wow, similar feels to what Björk gives me. Great music, weird I never dove deeper into Newsom’s music earlier than the few track’s I knew.

[@samlotusblossommoon]

it's similar to body memory when it comes to length and lyrics inspired by nature, but their voices share some idiosyncrasies as well :)

[@liltick102]

@@samlotusblossommoon mother heroic is closer to Joanna imo

[@liltick102]

@@samlotusblossommoon body memory is an utterly incredible track though and I agree

[@yungspaghetti]

That little section around 5 and a half minutes in is stunningly beautiful

[@christinemontero922]

That key change🥺

[@versterker1981]

😍

[@futuropasado]

One of the songs of this century

[@oweng3281]

Every second of this song is otherworldly but that faint, single violin that plays in the background at 9:28 is my favorite moment in all music

[@hoodwinkedDaDon]

damn this will never not make me cry

[@rodsmade]

not trying to nitpick or go to great lengths just to find hidden secrets or anything, it's just occurred to me: "Come across the desert with no shoes on" seems to answer the question poised in Go Long: "Do you know why my ankles are bound in gauze?" i just always wondered why were the narrator's ankles the only ones bound in gauze when they both danced in the lodge...

[@strangenessandcharms]

Omg I never thought of that!!! Goosebumps

[@bumblebootwiddletoes5185]

If you walked across a desert with no shoes on you'd need gauze on both entire feet

[@duckfield2520]

This may be the greatest song ever written.

[@maggiejohnston8010]

Oh nothing, just listening to "Only Skin" to reaffirm my existence

[@ghoul5371]

The best song of all time nobody can top it

[@ericdeltoro4955]

The song ever

[@KidzBopOfficial]

That's an awfully real gun...

[@4Track-Mind]

Chaotic beauty

[@Onche518]

What an ungodly masterpiece holy fucking shit She is the best female musician of our generation

[@sacredgeometry]

She's one of the best musicians of any generations.

[@liltick102]

Björk is p fire but yes Joanna is

[@elsike]

Glad to see good ol' Bill appearing in the best part

[@twod0ves]

fire moves away, son

[@missbritt288]

This is what my maladaptive fantasies used to feel like - Thanks alot internet for ruining that

[@Roguechild]

Life did that...everything feels flat ever since

[@adrianllanos8562]

Everyone has a different favorite part

[@user-fi5cq8tq7g]

Just to create this song would be the masterpiece of a lifetime for most people. For her it was just a day in the studio

[@usia6196]

i love you truly or i love no one....so true bestie🥺

[@gluntford]

How can you go on living after writing this?

[@imOverWhere]

You marry a funny man

[@tea7that7is7hot]

0

[@briannawarren4174]

@@imOverWhere omg XD

[@heitorpurcino7971]

I'm tired of seeing this comment everytime I come here 😴

[@Exurb1a]

Oh God, I know

[@DiabolicalDrEly]

the vignette about the brown bird stops me dead every time

[@ericlohk]

A Masterpiece of Harp music!

[@gemmahunt4468]

From 13:35 onwards...spine tingling...

[@erikbateson]

+Gem Kray You misspelled 0:00

[@gemmahunt4468]

+Erik Bateson ha! Fair play ;)

[@erikbateson]

All kidding aside, I agree that the last four or five minutes are especially amazing. :)

[@anatherezarivas1098]

Yes! I get chills every single time!

[@cnon.]

Yeah last 3 minutes is nuts, crazy good.

[@sabrinaxuan4863]

maybe the best song on the album

[@isgonrain]

all time

[@WoodBalloon23]

Worst

[@bumblebootwiddletoes5185]

@@WoodBalloon23 🤨🙄🤦‍♂️💩

[@rhysnymph4444]

5:56 chills, be a woman is beautiful

[@bumblebootwiddletoes5185]

Has anyone else listened to Ys while peaking on LSD? If you haven't done so yet I highly recommend it. Thank me later.

[@imDezrt]

my internal dialogue whenever I hear this song: 5:33 YESSSSSSSSSSS

[@boogiebrett]

This would be a cool song to listen to while I smoke but I would need a bowl the size of Babel

[@NealCatastrophe]

Do it, I believe in you

[@sunra8382]

Che Sun Ra la possa illuminare!!!

[@xCaroIsAParasite]

This song is too short

[@dan_rad]

Thanks Lisa!

[@liltick102]

As far as I can tell the artwork is packed with reference to other art

[@kateevans2976]

So if I absolutely had to pick one favorite song it's this.

[@tanmang42]

Absolutely incredible- good lord

[@ericlohk]

4th movement of Concerto Suite for Harp and Voice "Ys"

[@alongalostaway]

Collapsing speckled many Among berthing fray - Euphony beyond a set, Calliphony toward the day

[@LovelyLori193]

God I get goosebumps every single time I listen to this song, it's soooo pretty sooo good

[@carve0472]

You saved my friend, this song helped him he was poisoned from alcohol and from singing this for 12 mins he threwwww up and got the shit out of his system and survived

[@allpeachesaredelicious]

6:10 - If you're here from the Ms. Lola video essay.

[@rodriogq]

what essay is that

[@allpeachesaredelicious]

@@rodriogq the marge simpson one

[@chim-choo-ree]

@@allpeachesaredelicious apparently, it's on a James Franco video, too.

[@xgum]

8:00 bars

[@williamglenn777]

Rabbit, my sister, study this song for as long as it takes you know the part I love. You’ll feel it. Bury me in candlelight! You’ll feel the candle light. Don’t fear where you bury me if you feel it too, Make sure you’ve stared at that old hag in the mirror She is an old hag, by the way Don’t get lost by the hairless blind Calvary.

[@tatianaaa4569]

what the fuck did i just listen too (i say that in the best way possible, i am blown away holy shit)

[@FlikFlaxx]

Good

[@mikehack422]

10:33, “wearing a diaper, you will have a fine view” was actually “and though you’d die, bird, you will have a fine view”

[@bumblebootwiddletoes5185]

It doesn't really sound like "wearing a" tho

[@gilespeterson6832]

My god this was worth analyzing the shit out of

[@ab4845]

7:52 - 8:09 .

[@giuliariguete9199]

3:13 - 4:30 i'm flowing

[@isobeljames1328]

Sounds like a young non electronic Bjork + young Kate Bush( first 3 albums backing vocals) + harpe = piano Tori Amos..... the climax, interesting part is at 13:50 mn... 2nd song I listen after Sapokanikan...... I try... Ricans gave Kate Bush bad reviews for her voice, and they have miss Newsom....

[@evenzero]

wow nobody could explain west coast racism any better

[@aniaa8645]

The melody from 6:00 onwards sounds so familiar but I can't place it. Anybody help?

[@marciamakesmusic]

It's a major pentatonic melody, really common set of notes used together in pop melodies. Not a bad thing, but it is something you hear a lot, so if you try you can hear that kind of sound pop up everywhere!

[@amgm1996]

i always associate these with oriental music for some reason

[@PolarisStargazer]

Do you watch video essays? This part was played near the end of Lola Sebastian's first video on James Franco.

[@girlswatchporn]

Have you watched Samurai champloo? It reminds me of one of th ending songs

[@girlswatchporn]

Shiki no uta is the song

[@pigfaceturboslug4650]

Love her, absolutely amazing!

[@reacaoanimada9455]

What exactly this song is talking about? I dont know why but sometimes I listen to it and cant avoid toconnect it with a "dark souls" vibe, like a corpse forming again into life.

[@ubixl]

8:31 💃🏽🕺🏻

[@froggy556]

She sounds like a cross between Bjork and Melanie. Love this!

[@metalyuncle3106]

Melanie…. Martinez? Please tell me that’s not what you meant

[@arcadia8057]

Melanie Martinez?

[@froggy556]

@@arcadia8057 Melanie the folk singer who performed at Woodstock.

[@froggy556]

@@arcadia8057 No, Melanie The Folk Singer, who performed at Woodstock.

[@yanstein8464]

melanie is incredible, more people should know about her yeah, her and joanna really do have a similar vibe

[@zacharyzaller1525]

Crazy she married Andy Samberg, My sister might’ve known her but we both grew up in Nevada City, we were practically neighbors. Lol

[@lasststarr]

this version so raw

[@vaila1315]

only version

[@humanmodeproductions]

weep upon the spot for the starving of me...

[@tanmang42]

Reminds me so damn much of Gabriel Kahane's Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.)- I wonder if he took inspiration from Joanna?