rose of sharon lyrics

[addictedtosound]

anyone have them or have a good idea of them?

[dr. strangelove]

there's a lyric sheet with the 7"... it's a color copy, handwritten... here's what's there:

Xiu Xiu
"Rose of Sharon"


It's light outside
when you finally see
the quiet failure sleeping
next to you
( pre ) Don't Think, Don't try
( ch ) Don't rush away
When I say you deserve less
( ch ) You try so hard to be as sweet
( ch ) as you can for me
( ch ) But I don't see you for who
( ch ) you are
( ch ) Rose of Sharon in my
( ch ) failing light
Ringless finger
pretend you don't know
how you stand it
But you know you are nobody

-Pre ch
-Ch




Jamie Stewart - Vox, Harmonium, Synth
Roberta the Cat - Uncontrollable Meowing

[addictedtosound]

merci

[Beryan]

i would hate to be the girl who that song is written about.

[addictedtosound]

what is the reference to 'rose of sharon'?
i realize it's referencing something, im just not familiar with it.
a song, im thinking, but what about?

[carla]

i think its a reference to Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath". There's a character in the book called Rose of Sharon.

carla

p.s.
this is reject all fr. your lj friends.

[todayswoot]

Hey,

Apparently, "Rose of Sharon" is a named used in the Bible to refer to Jesus.

But i prefer to go with the idea that it's written with the charcter from Grapes Of Wrath in mind, whose actions can also be seen to be a biblical illusion. For those of you who haven't read the novel, it is set during the Great Depression, with thousands of families travelling West (?) to California in search of work. Unfortunately, there is little work and thousands live in poverty and face starvation.

Rose Of Sharon is part of the Joad family, a family which has decided to travel to California in search of work. She is also pregnant, and in the story her husband ends up leaving her.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, her baby ends up being stillborn and is placed downstream in an old apple container (biblical allusion alert). Anyway, it is at the time of a flooding and Rose of Sharon and her mother find an empty barn to stay in. They believe the barn to be empty, but in the corner, there is a starving father and his young son.

With Rose Of Sharon's recent pregnancy she is still producing milk and she looks at her mother, who then exits the barn with the man's son. Rose of Sharon then proceeds to breast-feed the starving man. She smiles. Novel ends.

Now, i am just doing this quickly (and most likely over analysing), but:

It's light outside
when you finally see
the quiet failure sleeping
next to you

could mean the man being the "quiet failure" as he has given all the food to his son, and subsequently starves.

Rose of Sharon in my failing light

Pretty obvious, she is saving his life.

Ringless finger

Could be referring to the husband that abandoned her.


Anyway, take it or leave it, either i got the point or missed totally, and ended up looking like an absolute tool. Anyway, i love the lyrics to this song, and whether they mean what i think they mean or not, i will probably still make them mean what i want (like all good lyrics).

[addictedtosound]

ahh
that makes sense
thanks
that would also explain when i did a google search for it and found like 3 different bible songs

and hi carla

[the genius of seth]

rose of sharon is also a flower that grows in extreme heat
found in deserts and in the middle east

[todayswoot]

B: Which authors, philosophers, poets or songwriters have inspired your music?

JS: Hmmmm...Junot Diaz, Dennis Cooper, the Swans, the Smiths, the visual art scene in L.A. from 1990 to the present, Jesus, Charles Bukowski , Sandra Cisneros, Miya Osaki, Rob Fisk, Vaginal Davis, This Song Is a Mess But So Am I, the book Grapes of Wrath, Ice Berg Slim, war photography and journalism, my dad, Cory McCulloch, Arvo Pärt, Otis Redding, Toru Takemitsu…I could go on forever.

SCORE!