what does this mean to you?

[Guest]

i'm writing a story and I need your mind please. It's a song by Maxwell called "this woman's work". What is the meaning to you?

Pray God you can cope
I stand outside
This woman's work
This woman's world
Oh it's hard on the man
Now his part is over
Now starts the craft of the father

I know you've got a little life in you left
I know you've got a lotta strength left
I know you've got a little life in you left
I know you've got a lotta strength left
I should be cryin' but I just can't let it show
I should be hopin' but I can't stop thinkin'
All the things we should've said that we never said
And all the things we should've done that we never did
All the things we should've given, but I didn't
Oh darlin', make it go
Make it go away

Give me these moments
Give them back to me
Give me your little kiss
Give me your...

(I know you've got a little life in you left)
Give me your hand baby

(I know you've got a lotta strength)
Give me that pretty hand
(I know you've got a little life in you left)
Oh surely you understand
(I know you've got a lotta strength left)
My lovechild
(I know you've got a little life in you left)
Whatever you need
(I know you've got a lotta strength left)
Give me your hand
(I know you've got a little life in you left)
Give me your hand
(I know you've got a lotta strength left)

I should be cryin' but I just can't let it go
I should be hopin' but I can't stop thinkin' and thinkin' and thinkin'
All the things we should've said that we never said
And all the things we should've done that we never did
All the things that you wanted from me
All the things that you needed from me
All the things we should've given, but I didn't
Oh darlin', make it go
Just make it go away.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I've heard the Kate Bush version... which is beautiful and stunning... this is a birth song... of course, that's coming from a birth junkie...

it was also used in "She's Having a Baby" (Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth... oh what's her name...) when he thought their baby was going to die during childbirth... "I stand outside this woman's work..." Great scene.

 

[Guest]

I've heard the Kate Bush version... which is beautiful and stunning... this is a birth song... of course, that's coming from a birth junkie...

it was also used in "She's Having a Baby" (Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth... oh what's her name...) when he thought their baby was going to die during childbirth... "I stand outside this woman's work..." Great scene.

i'm with you on this one

wondered what it might mean to others

 

[scheherazade_79]

My interpretation's probably going to be different from everyone else's

I have a fair idea. I need to eat dinner and think about it in more detail first, though

 

[neonlyte]

I'd have said illness, severe.

Elizabeth Shue? - Selena

 

[ImpureThoughts]

Elizabeth Shue?

No, Elizabeth McGovern (far right, in below photo)

http://www.riverblue.com/hughes/behind/shab-hughes.jpg

Having seen that movie (She's Having a Baby), this is also what I think of.

 

[Guest]

bumping.

come on peeps!

Read the lyrics and tell me what it means to you!

If you wanna hear the song, go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHQ0_pTBEGM


please?

 

[rachlou]

Before I read the rest of the thread, my own first impressions were childbirth, from the mans perspective. Obviously I was not the only one!

Golly Kevin Bacon looks young in the photo....

 

[Tuomas]

I get the image of a man standing in a hospital corridor, outside a door fretting over what's going on inside. He's worried about his wife, who is about to have a child in that room he can't enter, for whom he can do nothing... all he can do is think about all that he should have done, but didn't.

 

[Remec]

Hmmm....perplexing...there are a few threads of thought that come up, but it also seems really vague and open to interpretation in a number of ways. Have you looked for an interview with Maxwell to see what he has to say about it?

 

[Guest]

Thank you Tuomas and Rachlou

 

[Remec]

Alright, I left half of my first impression then read the posts, now the impressions I got were both about death and carrying on afterwards, but I was unsure if it was a man having to deal with a child after losing the mother, or a mother having to be both parents after the demise of their relationship post-birth...

 

[Guest]

Hmmm....perplexing...there are a few threads of thought that come up, but it also seems really vague and open to interpretation in a number of ways. Have you looked for an interview with Maxwell to see what he has to say about it?

No. I will later. First want a kind of a free association thingie.

I'll check out Kate Bush too.

 

[Guest]

Alright, I left half of my first impression then read the posts, now the impressions I got were both about death and carrying on afterwards, but I was unsure if it was a man having to deal with a child after losing the mother, or a mother having to be both parents after the demise of their relationship post-birth...

death and carrying on afterwards

yup

agreed.

thanks darlin

 

[neonlyte]

Actually, reading the lyrics again, they kind of appeal to your fear, you can easily read them to see your personal nightmare.

 

[Tuomas]

I don't see it as in death and carrying on afterwards, but more like feeling like it's death, the fear of death ... but then neonlyght might have a point, and it's just a psychologic association of mine

 

[Guest]

Actually, reading the lyrics again, they kind of appeal to your fear, you can easily read them to see your personal nightmare.

tell me more please

 

[gauchecritic]

Post feminist male intuition about traditional family roles and the marginalisation that the male suffers as father in same.

Pray God you can cope I have little or nothing to add since I jizzed in your box
I stand outside
This woman's work Pain is one thing, but this is something else that I can't hope to come close to.
This woman's world
Oh it's hard on the man Having only one small part to play in a miracle.
Now his part is over
Now starts the craft of the father striving to maintain a 'dead' couple relationship.

I know you've got a little life in you left That I can cling to now that you've essential become my mom.
I know you've got a lotta strength left More than you ever showed me that was never meant for me.
I know you've got a little life in you left
I know you've got a lotta strength left
I should be cryin' but I just can't let it show I'm emotionally detached because I could never be as involved as you are.
I should be hopin' but I can't stop thinkin' about what the future holds
All the things we should've said that we never said
And all the things we should've done that we never did Because now I realise what I'm going to be missing
All the things we should've given, but I didn't Whoa Freudian slip there, you gave me everything you had but I held back knowing the most you had to give would be for our kids.
Oh darlin', make it go
Make it go away (not the kid but my selfish pain.

Give me these moments
Give them back to me
Give me your little kiss
Give me your... love as a lover and a mother which is what you are going to be regardless of anything I can do or say.

 

[neonlyte]

tell me more please

Well... in my case, having suffered recent illness, it was illness that immediately sprang to mind. My biggest fear (unashamedly selfish) is not my own illness, but how I'd cope with the one nearest to me if she ever fell seriously ill.

Equally, you can read this as letting go of someone, an infants first day at school, remember that fear? Or a young adult leaving home, stepping alone into the world. My daughter recently went to Brazil, each day was a nightmare waiting for an e-mail or phone call. Hell, I even gave her enough money to home every day 'so her mother wouldn't worry'! Thank God she didn't phone, the lurid tales of crime she told on her return would have terrified us. (She's 26 - not exactly a kid!)

So yeh, I think you can spin the words.

 

[Guest]

Post feminist male intuition about traditional family roles and the marginalisation that the male suffers as father in same.

Pray God you can cope I have little or nothing to add since I jizzed in your box
I stand outside
This woman's work Pain is one thing, but this is something else that I can't hope to come close to.
This woman's world
Oh it's hard on the man Having only one small part to play in a miracle.
Now his part is over
Now starts the craft of the father striving to maintain a 'dead' couple relationship.

I know you've got a little life in you left That I can cling to now that you've essential become my mom.
I know you've got a lotta strength left More than you ever showed me that was never meant for me.
I know you've got a little life in you left
I know you've got a lotta strength left
I should be cryin' but I just can't let it show I'm emotionally detached because I could never be as involved as you are.
I should be hopin' but I can't stop thinkin' about what the future holds
All the things we should've said that we never said
And all the things we should've done that we never did Because now I realise what I'm going to be missing
All the things we should've given, but I didn't Whoa Freudian slip there, you gave me everything you had but I held back knowing the most you had to give would be for our kids.
Oh darlin', make it go
Make it go away (not the kid but my selfish pain.

Give me these moments
Give them back to me
Give me your little kiss
Give me your... love as a lover and a mother which is what you are going to be regardless of anything I can do or say.

incredible.

i'm speechless.

 

[neonlyte]

Post feminist male intuition about traditional family roles and the marginalisation that the male suffers as father in same.

Pray God you can cope I have little or nothing to add since I jizzed in your box
I stand outside
This woman's work Pain is one thing, but this is something else that I can't hope to come close to.
This woman's world
Oh it's hard on the man Having only one small part to play in a miracle.
Now his part is over
Now starts the craft of the father striving to maintain a 'dead' couple relationship.

I know you've got a little life in you left That I can cling to now that you've essential become my mom.
I know you've got a lotta strength left More than you ever showed me that was never meant for me.
I know you've got a little life in you left
I know you've got a lotta strength left
I should be cryin' but I just can't let it show I'm emotionally detached because I could never be as involved as you are.
I should be hopin' but I can't stop thinkin' about what the future holds
All the things we should've said that we never said
And all the things we should've done that we never did Because now I realise what I'm going to be missing
All the things we should've given, but I didn't Whoa Freudian slip there, you gave me everything you had but I held back knowing the most you had to give would be for our kids.
Oh darlin', make it go
Make it go away (not the kid but my selfish pain.

Give me these moments
Give them back to me
Give me your little kiss
Give me your... love as a lover and a mother which is what you are going to be regardless of anything I can do or say.

Brilliant Gauche. Incisive or intuitive - can't decide.

(He's a nice guy really.)

 

[Guest]

Well... in my case, having suffered recent illness, it was illness that immediately sprang to mind. My biggest fear (unashamedly selfish) is not my own illness, but how I'd cope with the one nearest to me if she ever fell seriously ill.

Equally, you can read this as letting go of someone, an infants first day at school, remember that fear? Or a young adult leaving home, stepping alone into the world. My daughter recently went to Brazil, each day was a nightmare waiting for an e-mail or phone call. Hell, I even gave her enough money to home every day 'so her mother wouldn't worry'! Thank God she didn't phone, the lurid tales of crime she told on her return would have terrified us. (She's 26 - not exactly a kid!)

So yeh, I think you can spin the words.

i love how this has different meaning to different people.

and she will always be your little kid. just so you know

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

It's not Maxwell, it's Kate Bush, who's a goddam genius one-of-a-kind, up there with Joni.

And the song is about the sadness of motherhood, a continual loss

 

[Guest]

It's not Maxwell, it's Kate Bush, who's a goddam genius one-of-a-kind, up there with Joni.

And the song is about the sadness of motherhood, a continual loss

Maxwell also does a version

I prefer Kate

 

[gauchecritic]

Just goes to show (female view)

Pray God you can cope with being sidelined.
I stand outside If I'm objective about...
This woman's work
This woman's world
Oh it's hard on the man
Now his part is over
Now starts the craft of the father The only way a woman can really change a man.

I know you've got a little life in you left I still need you but in a different way.
I know you've got a lotta strength left I'm nearly out and I'm going to need a lot of yours.
I know you've got a little life in you left
I know you've got a lotta strength left
I should be cryin' but I just can't let it show death of one relationship start of another, with no time to mourn.
I should be hopin' but I can't stop thinkin' will you be the same
All the things we should've said that we never said
And all the things we should've done that we never did should have given totally so that a child is an addition to instead of a possible division of our relationship.
All the things we should've given, but I didn't this love for a child that I didn't know was there to give to anyone else.
Oh darlin', make it go
Make it go away this love that is different and so seems stronger than the love I showed for you, make the difference go away.

Give me these moments
Give them back to me
Give me your little kiss
Give me your... Love as a partner not as a child because I'm not only a mother.


which just goes to show, interpretation is not only subjective but also requiring of full evidence.