fox woman.

|
I wrote this while on a plane from Houston to Raleigh ON MY CELL PHONE:

--

While I was in Chicago, I had the good fortune to rent a car with XM radio. Now, I don't think I'd ever subscribe to xm radio myself since I rarely listen to the radio, but it was really sweet to have a radio that would play something other than top 40 while I was scooting around the city and its suburbs.

Anyway, while I was zipping about taking a gazillion pictures, I pretty much kept the radio tuned to xm's chill station. As I was driving out to Stickney, Fever Ray's "Keep the Streets Empty for Me" played. It's an amazing track - a very deliberate, subtly echoing beat underlying this sort of ... barren, minimalist soundscape, and all of it overlaid with vocals that are at once poignant and raw. Anyway, the road, the snow, the grey skies and this music fused into this remarkable, singular experience that instantly rocketed this song into my all-time favorites list.

So of course when I got home I downloaded it, and now I pretty much have it looping whenever I have a spare moment to listen. The more I listen, the more it reminds me of that old japanese folk tale about the fox woman. Wikipedia relates it like this -- a very sparse bare-bones retelling that nonetheless is way better than any I could put together:

Ono, an inhabitant of Mino (says an ancient Japanese legend of A.D. 545), spent the seasons longing for his ideal of female beauty. He met her one evening on a vast moor and married her. Simultaneously with the birth of their son, Ono's dog was delivered of a pup which as it grew up became more and more hostile to the lady of the moors. She begged her husband to kill it, but he refused. At last one day the dog attacked her so furiously that she lost courage, resumed vulpine shape, leaped over a fence and fled.

"You may be a fox," Ono called after her, "but you are the mother of my son and I love you. Come back when you please; you will always be welcome."

So every evening she stole back and slept in his arms.

I don't know what exactly about Keep the Streets Empty For Me reminds me of that story. Everything about it, I guess. Some distinct parts of the lyrics ("I'm laying down, eating snow/my fur is hot and my tongue is cold/on a bed of spiderwebs/I think of how to change myself"; "take me home before the storm"; "morning, keep the streets empty for me"; "uncover our heads and reveal our souls") definitely struck a chord, but more than that, I think it's just the sound of the song -- a little bit lonely, very poignant, a little bit alien, and just a touch erotic. The almost-feral rawness of the vocals, too, strewn over that wintry beat.

Anyway. I definitely associate it with fox-women now. :]

Listen here:

2 comments:

kai said...

I love that story. :]

Damon said...

Aw, me too :] I love the way wiki tells it too. Simple, but evocative!

Post a Comment