Song of the Day #42 - Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions Paving Company

The hook upon which everyone hangs...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STwVx6ynYjk

Despite this being one of the more popular songs on last.fm and iirc the track Pitchfork put on their best tracks list etc etc it actually took me awhile to get into this one... or like, I thought it was a fine track or whatever, but now I think it might be in my top 10 on this album (man, how amazing is this album that saying that is supposed to be impressive lol). Anyways, the reason it initially bugged me is super silly... I misparsed the first line really badly. I thought she was saying "Hello: my old country 'hello'", like, she's saying "Hello" and describing that as her "old country 'hello'", like, the "old" greeting she used when she was back in the "country"... uhh... no idea how I came to that conclusion, maybe projecting a bit, but I thought this was like... a really super uncharacteristically cheesy line. Like, I think if I have any complaint about Joanna Newsom, and I probably just don't, it's that sometimes she feels like she's almost cheesy... I dunno. Anyways it was only recently that I realized that hey wait she means she's saying "hello" to her "old country", OBVIOUSLY. And when I realized that a bunch of other lines that seemed sorta corny for some reason suddenly revealed their actual super poetic beautiful nature...
"No amount of talking is gonna soften the fall/But like after the rain, step out of the overhang, that's all"
"Watching me sit bolt upright and cry/For no good reason at the Eastering sky"
"You ranged real hot and real cold but I'm sold/I am home on that range"
"When I only want for you to pull over and hold me/'Til I can't remember my own name"
and my favorite:
"And in our quiet hour/I feel I see everything/And am in love with the hook/Upon which everyone hangs"
Oh man!

Like, almost corny... but instead it's just amazing.