Joanna Newsom - Sawdust And Diamonds - End Of The Road Festival 2011

Live at The Woods Stage, End Of The Road Festival,The Larmer Tree Gardens (North Dorset/Wiltshire borders, UK) - 04.09.11

[@emilypecor9178]

feel so lucky to exist on this planet at this same time period as her

[@thespyinthecab7538]

Great way to put it. I always say that with my favorite music........ How lucky I am to have been born in the same time frame where people/artists like Joanna, Thom Yorke, Kurt, etc. have all written their music and have been able to experience it.

[@joshuabrown733]

I say that all the time about her too

[@gluntford]

she always looks off into the distance when she says "waves, which are pawing like dogs", like she sees them. i think that when she sings this, she's surrounded by very particular visions of old memories and imaginings

[@Kivalt]

If aliens ever consider annihilating us, we'll have to show them Joanna. If that doesn't warrant saving our species, nothing will.

[@Nonnitot]

Joanna is definitely an alien though.

[@benjaminobrien1801]

yes they would see we have suffered enough.

[@NathanHiggers-mp2eo]

what a wanker

[@PONK029]

​@@benjaminobrien1801.?????

[@72marshflower15]

@@benjaminobrien1801 ~ surely we are better with you as an ally.. please be kind..

[@adrianheiney7235]

It’s been well over 10 years and this is one of the best musical performances I have ever seen. The studio version doesn’t capture the spell she casts in this video. It’s truly a masterpiece.

[@inflivia]

There was something in the air that night! Very powerful. We are lucky it was captured so well.

[@LEANTOARCH]

Yeah, I always come back to this performance. Still blows my mind.

[@webstercat]

How rare it is to find a unique voice and style such as Joanna . A person either "gets it" or they don't.

[@mp48930]

yep. when i lived with my sister, she didn't let me play Joanna out loud when she was at home. whereas I think she's one of the most extraordinary things to ever happen to modern music

[@strangenessandcharms]

True.

[@gibberconfirm425]

Kinda true but I remember being obsessed with "Milk-Eyed Mender" before I even processed the lyrics were Emily Dickinson caliber. It was a slow realization. Like this song is THAT good, and who knew it the first time.

[@iantbailey]

I can't listen to the "long face" passage of this song without getting choked up. 😭❤❤

[@p0ssesst]

Agreed... I will swallow your sadness, and eat your cold clay Just to lift your long face And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave Your precious little long face

[@noradosmith]

"I will take to the grave your precious little long face" That's so sad 😞

[@leanna3724]

me too!

[@scherzo8022]

@@noradosmith I do not understand the lyrics. Can you please explain? What is sad?

[@rainevivian]

We all talk about how terrible humans are... But humans are also f-ing amazingly complicated, emotional, and spectacular creatures. This video is more proof of that fact.

[@nibblynobbler7064]

+Raine Vivian I hope english is not your first language.

[@rainevivian]

+Nibbly Nobbler fuq. you.

[@RSchep2]

You've proven the first part of his statement though.

[@r.sebastianvasquez8961]

This is by far the best performance I have seen in my life, It's so poignant that I'm crying a lot and I wished I was there live. God Bless Joanna Newsom

[@FlyBird]

She goes so hard

[@skriisi]

So much fury, anger and strength, expressed in such an unlikely format. shes incredible.

[@sandre_sandre]

Among all this perfection, her vibrato is amazing.

[@roguealien423]

Joanna Newsom, Yoko Ono, Kate Bush, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Björk, Maggie Nicols, June Tabor: all women fiercely committed to following their creativity wherever it needs to go - and there's plenty more where they came from. This is wonderful.

[@iamme1743]

Yoko Ono….

[@theesadev]

This is the weirdest, most captivating and brilliant thing I have ever seen.

[@TheStonyField]

I was dancing with my friend to this song when I first realized without a doubt that I was falling for her. We're still in love with each other, but separated by 7000 miles. I can't listen to this song without crying. But I still do because it makes me feel close to her.

[@bromunculus6117]

TheStonyField this makes the fact that I'm separated from my love by 160 miles pretty tiny by comparison :o

[@crackbaby4444]

Are you still in love with each other?

[@zoe_gevalt]

​@@crackbaby4444 No, I'm a couple heartbreaks on from that relationship and in a much more content one. We haven't spoken in years, but I hope she still thinks of me fondly on balance, as I do of her. Strange how that last verse can still bring a tear to my eye, though. Music like this is so powerful.

[@ellenrosenblatt5463]

talent in every finger, songwriter extraordinaire. 21st century's answer to joni mitchell

[@micaaaaaaaaaaa]

!!!!! exactly

[@innocent_outlaw]

returning to this video 8 years later. i'm a different person now. now i'm weeping listening to this now where I used to get chills. weeping for my mother who just passed. 😭

[@sensunory]

this song is incredibly difficult to perform live, she nailed it

[@jackwinkles3050]

Yes

[@chowitabonita]

I can't even express what this song means to me. It may be the most beautiful I have ever heard/seen. People close to me give me shit for making them to watch this video. I think it just hasn't hit them yet.

[@gibberconfirm166]

I spent like 7 years trying to make people listen to John Coltrane My Favorite Things Live at Newport '63, just forget it. They don't get it.

[@kashmir87]

this is easily one of the greatest live performances i've ever seen and it says something that the video alone transmits an intensity that normally only comes through when i'm there in person.

[@cainbelling5402]

Same ❤️❤️

[@realfakejayme]

I’ve listened to Joanna since I was in high school... 2006/2007... and I just found this version of Sawdust and Diamonds now, in 2021. I have been missing out on this since it was posted in 2011. It’s a gut wrenching version and I can’t stop listening to it on repeat.

[@Dtchmastrkilla7]

i also started listening to her in HS around then. and never stopped really

[@yotube1ful]

Moved to tears. Big 6.1 215 blk guy here.

[@bobdole6398]

woah

[@SoyBioIogia]

Well, I’m a short skinny white guy, but we’re all crying here.

[@TheIskra127]

when she sang "you make your first incision" it sent shivers down my spine

[@wildflowersnhoney]

On the one hand, she looks so sad that it absolutely breaks my heart. On the other hand, it is so astounding to see how the music absolutely roars through her, spread through the harp like some large lost appendage she couldn't do without. I mean, look from 7:42. It's a part of her. I love how she leans her head against it and becomes enveloped in it, while holding her whole self around it, her arms. I don't know. Somehow, that's the best.

[@neonfear]

every time i hear the first notes on the harp i start to cry. and i just have so many feelings throughout

[@onagooday]

This is the best version of sawdust and diamonds ever, i mean you can see that her voice has changed but it's like she regresses to what her voice was like in Ys. oh it's just so incredible

[@gabrielalisboa894]

She seems almost like crying in the intire song. This gives me a beautiful sentiment, like happy sad. She is truly amazing

[@DakiniBorealis]

Every string struck, weeping beauty in sound form. Her every movement and nuance, shocking reminders of how every moment could be. So much love, magic and surrender. Heartbreaking perfection. I love her, this messenger from our most true being.

[@Ididntaskforahandleyoutube]

I typically don't say this on KZbin but that is well constructed, short breakdown of her music. A tip o' the cap to you, mate. Cheers.

[@chloe2zzz]

one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen or heard

[@Ididntaskforahandleyoutube]

Almost a religious experience.

[@coryjohnson6965]

All of her songs are, read the lyrics.

[@gibberconfirm166]

​@@coryjohnson6965 it's like Walt Whitman, or something, I don't disagree.

[@babylonian.captivity]

No almost about it.

[@robertmitzenheim]

oh so many times I have seen this, it still makes me cry so much. I appreciate her so much, so very much.

[@joshuagthomas]

Sometimes pure talent is so very moving, she's such a phenomenon. I'll never forget her live shows in Auckland, NZ, defining moments in my life, I know that sounds over the top, but it's true!

[@idSuperego]

This isn't my favourite Joanna Newsom song, so I wasn't seeking it out, but I saw how many views it had and thought I should check it out. I'm glad I did. This is the most spectacular performance I've ever seen.

[@poppyalice3950]

idSuperego what is your favourite Joanna Newsom song? i think mine might be In California or Ribbon Bows :)

[@mariamaggard]

even if you don't like her music or voice, you gotta admit she is so damn interesting and talented. so glad i discovered her music, now she's one of my favorite musical artists

[@thespyinthecab7538]

This song. . . . This artist....my god........ It never fails to pierce inside me, even when i don't think it can. Such a perfect potion of Love, Sad & Joy. I honestly liken her ability to write words to Dickenson, Wilde, Keats & Shakespeare. . . . . . She is without a doubt the most underrated artists, musician of our time. . . . . It's an honor and gift to have found her.

[@babylonian.captivity]

Yes.

[@innocent_outlaw]

this... this is so incredible.. my favorite song on the whole album. she has this face of such pain as she is playing and I know she isn't doing it for views. she's so compassionate.

[@FolkyFan15]

Come on people. Don't fight on a Joanna video. She's too good for that. If the haters want to stupidly comment on something this beautiful, then let them. At the end of the day, they're the ones missing out on this fantastic music. If they don't have any heartstrings that can be powerfully tugged by Joanna and her songs, then let them fuck off to thier cold little world.

[@Macabresque]

I cried. Her passion is so gorgeous.

[@idreamofglitches8733]

After searching for other places song was played, none of them were quite like this. There is something mystical about this particular live performance that bleeds emotion. I find myself coming back again and again years later. Thank you Joanna, this is truly beautiful. I don't know why I am crying. but I am

[@nathy12ful]

From the top of the flight Of the wide, white stairs Through the rest of my life Do you wait for me there? There's a bell in my ears There's a wide white roar Drop a bell down the stairs Hear it fall forevermore Drop a bell off of the dock Blot it out in the sea Drowning mute as a rock Sounding mutiny There's a light in the wings Hits this system of strings From the side while they swing See the wires, the wires, the wires And the articulation In our elbows and knees Makes us buckle as we couple in endless increase As the audience admires And the little white dove Made with love, made with love Made with glue, and a glove, and some pliers Swings a low sickle arc From its perch in the dark Settle down Settle down my desire And the moment I slept I was swept up in a terrible tremor Though no longer bereft, how I shook and I couldn't remember Then the furthermost shake drove a murdering stake in And cleft me right down through my center And I shouldn't say so, but I know that it was then, or never Push me back into a tree Bind my buttons with salt Fill my long ears with bees Praying: Please, please, please Love, you ought not! No you ought not! Then the system of strings tugs on the tip of my wings (Cut from cardboard and old magazines) Makes me warble and rise like a sparrow And in the place where I stood, there is a circle of wood A cord or two, which you chop and you stack in your barrow It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood Streaked with soot, heavy booted and wild-eyed As I crash through the rafters And the ropes and pulleys trail after And the holiest belfry burns sky-high Then the slow lip of fire moves across the prairie with precision While, somewhere, with your pliers and glue you make your first incision And in a moment of almost-unbearable vision Doubled over with the hunger of lions 'Hold me close', cooed the dove Who was stuffed, now, with sawdust and diamonds I wanted to say: Why the long face? Sparrow, perch and play songs of long face Burro, buck and bray songs of long face! Sing: I will swallow your sadness and eat your cold clay Just to lift your long face And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave Your precious longface And though our bones they may break, and our souls separate Why the long face? And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil Why the long face? In the trough of the waves Which are pawing like dogs Pitch we, pale-faced and grave As I write in my log Then I hear a noise from the hull Seven days out to sea And it is the damnable bell! And it tolls - well, I believe, that it tolls - for me! It tolls for me! Though my wrists and my waist seemed so easy to break Still, my dear, I would have walked you to the very edge of the water And they will recognise all the lines of your face In the face of the daughter of the daughter of my daughter Darling, we will be fine, but what was yours and mine Appears to be a sandcastle that the gibbering wave takes But if it's all just the same, then will you say my name Say my name in the morning, so I know when the wave breaks? I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight No, I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright So: Enough of this terror We deserve to know light And grow evermore lighter and lighter You would have seen me through But I could not undo that desire Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh desire Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh desire From the top of the flight Of the wide, white stairs Through the rest of my life Do you wait for me there

[@giuliariguete9199]

OI NAT VOCE POR AQUI

[@nathy12ful]

@@giuliariguete9199 OII

[@DHMakin84]

I've heard it before, but I've never seen it. My god. Some music makes you feel happy, some makes you feel sad, or cool, or nostalgic or wistful. This just makes me feel transcendent. I know this song so well and yet every movement comes as a surprise. Thank you for uploading

[@jonnyboyca]

So powerful

[@kingoaxe]

10mins + and I still don't want it to end, not many artists that can do that.

[@ReelMan729]

I love the cinematic flourish she gives this when she adds the pause between "hear it fall forever...more" and then launches into that gorgeous melody

[@yesrelationthesequel]

YASSS Joanna! I need to see her live one day!!!

[@SrSacaninha]

this is so fucking beautiful. I'm all tearing up.

[@mahglazzies]

This might be the most beautiful thing I've heard in my life. Oh wow.

[@martian1138]

all the hair on my body moves in waves

[@MarkBrasuellArtist]

One of the most beautiful performers of all time.

[@o_deabanana4355]

"And grow evermore lighter and lighter.." uhg :'( even though I don't fully understand the messages, I feel like this is the anthem of human existence

[@squishykitty12]

I pray that she never stops creating.

[@HouseofJello]

10 minutes of pure F R I S S O N

[@m3lloncolli3]

Damn. That last refrain is SO powerful.

[@hjklthsajkldghfsafd]

Tears. Every time.

[@Nidhogg]

This song is impossible.

[@BrunosCRF]

isnt;

[@TiempoNegro]

@@BrunosCRF Eye opener comment

[@gluntford]

she loves this song so much, i think it might actually be her favourite

[@7bean3]

i think it's my favourite for what that's worth

[@MrDanielleann]

how does anyone experience this and give a thumbs down?? it's a fucking masterpiece!

[@donfatale]

To think this was recorded by a chap in the crowd. The video and audio quality are both fantastic. I was there. The atmosphere was amazing, so supportive and communal and it felt really special. I hope JN thinks the same way. As of 2023 she's performing some new material and I can't wait to see her performing again. Mostly I go to classical concerts and opera but JN is something else!

[@ryannosker9806]

"And though our bones the y break and our souls separate.....Why the longface?"

[@danbabs]

Did this make anyone else cry beautiful tears?

[@bondingtapes6509]

There are only three moments in music that makes me shed a tear. 1. Prince - Purple Rain when he yells I know times are changing. 2. Pet Shop Boys - It’s alright when the gospel singer sings its going to be alright. And number 3, this song when at the desire part! Every time!

[@jackwinkles3050]

What a true artist, insanely talented. You’d think this song is studio trickery to an extent but you hear it here and it’s even better, voice and all. A treasure

[@chucklehead2000]

Still hits me right in the heart.

[@ericdeltoro4955]

An ad in the middle of the song ooo KZbin I'm stealing something out of your headquarters

[@aaroninlatin]

She is one of best songwriters of all time. Her live shows are amazing.

[@neezusssssss]

always come back to this. i swear, hauntingly beautiful.

[@leojames7331]

She's a musical genius. It's that simple.

[@itsjuno4467]

complicated as her relationship with her voice has been over the years it really is such a powerful instrument

[@IDriveAnAudi]

Wow! This is ethereal! Heading to Amazon to buy all of her albums now.

[@joeagger]

she's just my fav ever. she inspires me endlessly.

[@rhymeandreasoning]

I just now discovered this amazing talented lady..wow !! I am hooked.. Kirk..Montreal, Canada

[@melange6631]

Life changing

[@samsuzza2008]

This song really does something to me. Not sure what that is but it’s a good thing

[@thismessismine]

This is a very special masterpiece, got me into Joanna Newsom

[@grahamjones2153]

I think you'll find that the tears are those from an unexpectedly cold evening, late summer on the Dorset/Wiltshire borders; the lack of summer weather in the UK will seem to match this period of economic gloom; Joanna was one of a number of outstanding performers and singer-songwriters at the excellent End of the Road Festival. Laura Marling benefitted from an earlier slot, and possibly a tad more localised nous as regards to the way temperatures can plummet in even this rural splendour.

[@merrywench8208]

The heartbreaking fragility when she sings "Couldn't remember"...That whole passage struck my heart and resonated through my soul.

[@rebeckery]

there's something about that added "you know" [desire] at the end that makes this extra fucking awesome

[@NateGBakker]

Joanna is the best gift of my generation, her artistry brings me so many emotions. So many feelings. .

[@noradosmith]

I feel like after watching that performance the world feels a bit different

[@user-uz4vo6hb6h]

Incredible performance!

[@geometricbass]

It should be a crime to interrupt this trance with an ad 😡

[@jiae6374]

She is amazing. ✨✨✨ I'm so glad I checked her art. My love for every B99 cast and B99 brought me here. I love her so much already. 😭 I'm also a fan of folk and classical music so this really hits home. It's just so immaculate and wonderful. 😭✨💖

[@thespyinthecab7538]

She never ceases to amaze me, what a wonderfully talented human she is. I am hypnotized by the rhythm she produces while singing, it seems very difficult yet she does it with ease. I play bass guitar and my brain was racked. . . Amazing. I may be wrong but she seemed to be quite emotional while singing this particular song. . . . Again, I could be wrong though, maybe she was just freezing.

[@rachellubeck]

She's the goddess of goddesses. Please start touring now that you've had your kid Joanna :) would so love to see you

[@pabloyacoli9227]

I wish, from the top of my heart, Joanna comes to Argentina once again.

[@Matias-si7cf]

seeeeeeeeee q vengaaaaaaaaaa lpm

[@TheRabidfan]

My god that was incredible

[@poppyalice3950]

god this is the most beautiful thing i’ve ever set my eyes and ears upon

[@gridnik]

Wow. Just...Wow

[@evandavies1858]

This is astonishing.

[@teosiriosica]

More people like you, more humans like you are coming to this Earth, to make it anew. Oh, heavenly music : ) Thank you, Joanna Newsom

[@parallellions]

Whoa!!

[@juli3836]

she's the best 💜🎶

[@ALVARITO2370]

She looks like an angel

[@chowitabonita]

One of the best I've ever seen.

[@jjaesse]

I love that she sort of gives a bow to her harp at the end, like the instrument played its own role

[@neonfear]

I cry with the first note. She's so amazing

[@alexruuska]

Beginning at about 1:06...That harp. The emotion escaping from her face. Fucking brilliant performance.

[@itsjuno4467]

jesus this is like witnessing a exorcism. incredible to get the cute banter right beforehand, it really shows that she never knows whether a given performance is going to take her into that raw and dangerous place until she's already deep in it

[@itsjuno4467]

the very end is like she's strangling a demon to death with her bare fucking hands

[@glimmo43]

Hope to see her live someday….

[@ReelMan729]

Goddamn. This is one of the most moving performances I've ever seen.

[@innsider6624]

da fallen schon mal ein paar tränen......eigentlich weiß ich dann auch nicht warum.....so bestimmt und so berührend.....ich bin froh den text nur bruchstückhaft zu verstehen.....ist vielleicht eh nicht so wichtig....ein starkes stück von joanna newsom....danke für dieses geschenk

[@billyxenakis2756]

Absolute perfection. I wish she toured more

[@CantSeeTheStars]

@ptercottontail She had nodules on her vocal chords or something like that before her "Have One On Me" album, which is why I assume she sounds different, and it seems like she's trying extra hard to sing as it sounded in Ys. So beautiful!! She's definately dedicated!