[Alex Photographer]

I wrote a blog post on PPP a few months back, I've cut/pasted it below for anyone who's interested.

Here's the performance I talk about:


This is one of my favorite Joanna Newsom songs, and although it’s a fan favorite, I think its genius is often overlooked because, at least in studio form, it’s lacking some of the musical complexity of her later work, and like most of “The Milk-Eyed Mender” album, the vocals are painful to listen to. Luckily, the most recent live performances of the song showcase a much-improved vocal performance and a powerful new arrangement. The drums kicking in at :45 propel the song forward even more than Joanna’s nimble and skilled harp playing, while the strings and trumpet* provide a beauty and sadness that matches with the lyrics and serves as a nice counterpoint to the pound of the drums. The 2-minute instrumental that concludes the song allows Joanna’s stunning harp skills to take center stage and ending this song on such a quiet and delicate note after building the sound up for much of the song is an unusual choice but one that is entirely fitting.

Lyrically, I find this much easier to interpret than most of Joanna’s songs. At its core, it’s about a relationship gone wrong and reflecting on how and why that happened. The first two verses are fairly self-explanatory: She runs into an old flame in a store, and finds them oddly attractive again initially, but the guy gives her the brush-off (you’re well on your way) and it makes her self-conscious and upset. I’m less certain about my reading of the third verse:
And the gathering floozies
Afford to be choosy
And all sneezing darkly
In the dimming divide
But I can picture the scene she describes in the first two verses, and then add in some friend(s) of the man coming up, looking at her disdainfully (although that attitude is shared, as evidenced by the floozies line) and sneezing to get his attention and break up the conversation, even as he’s trying to get away from the situation. The next verse is my favorite, with simple but stunning lyrics:

And I have read the right books
To interpret your looks
You were knocking me down
With the palm of your eye

She’s smart, she knows he’s trying to get out of this encounter and to push her away and down, but just because she knows that’s what he’s doing doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt or work. What an evocative and poetic way to express something simple. These lines are some of the most relatable and emotionally charged in the song, and that comes through in Joanna’s delivery.
The next verse begins her reflection on the relationship and what went wrong in earnest, using an extended metaphor comparing the two characters to horses. She lost control of her feelings and the relationship, unexpectedly going from wild horse to rider (I was riding its back when it used to ride me) and things began to get away from them as they rushed towards love or a deeper relationship (galloping manic to the mouth of the source) even as that freaked both of them out (swallowing panic in the face of its force)
As the song moves toward its conclusion, Joanna disarms the listener with lines (And I was blue, I am blue and unwell) that are completely direct, which are moving precisely because of that directness and simplicity. The following line made me bolt like a horse concludes the metaphor from earlier (although its actually a simile at this point) and reveals that it was she that ran away from the relationship after her issues got the better of her. In the next verse, she accepts that the relationship is finished though and gives up on the reignited hope she had upon seeing the man again (Now it’s done, watch it go), and acknowledges that he’s different now than he was then. The final verse is the one that carries the most weight in the song though, and serves as a melancholy conclusion to the entire story:


Am I so dear?
Do I run rare?
And you’ve changed so
Peach, plum, pear
Peach, plum

She questions herself, wondering if she’s as special as she thinks she is and if she’ll always be running away from intimacy or if it was just with that person. The repetition of you’ve changed so in this verse represents the narrator talking about herself, not the other person, and acts as a reassuring answer to the questions. Peach, plum, pear represents the stages of her sexual life and the relationship that’s the subject of the song. A peach is often used as a metaphor for a young, beautiful woman (Don’t tell me you’ve never heard some old man refer to a girl as “a peach” before.) and they’re juicy and fresh like a new relationship. Saying something is plum (a plum job, for example) is saying something is good, but doesn’t carry the same connotations of newness and innocence. She’s older and more mature, but still desirable, and the relationship was still good as it moved out of that initial phase where everything is exciting. Ultimately though we end up at pear, since everything’s gone pear-shaped, or awful. Pear-shaped is not a descriptor you want applied to you, and ending on pear shows that she feels used up and unattractive, but the repetition of the line that ends on plum reveals that she hasn’t hit that point yet and can regain the confidence lost in this encounter. There’s always hope for the future, even if that relationship is finished.