Hi all,
having been listening to the album a lot in the last days, I always found myself drawn to "unbound". This is the song I always listen to a second time, while some others are sometimes likely to been skipped over.
Not being a native speaker, the earcatching melody of "unbound" attracted me first, the lyrics later. To me, it's a shiny little masterpiece in both lyrics (which work in different ways) and music.
Sometimes I wonder why it is always left out in the reviews for "beauty & crime" - am I the only one who is drawn to this song?
Well (unable to find the right words for a more elaborated review), thanks, Suzanne, for having make such a song!

Nothing much (not much),
Moni.

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chance is the only thing that doesn't happen by chance

 

I recall I think a comment in the post from Suzanne a while ago before the album came out about this being a 'spiritual song about a plant'.

I must admit, I love it, although was not sure what to make of the song at first or the post about 'spiritual song about a plant' (what?).  But once you hear it it makes sense.  I think it has marvellous depth - seems to me to be all about freedom - mental/spiritual but also spilling over into action (mind *and* foot both) and I guess most of us can relate to that in some way.

Definitely not one to write off.  Love the rythm and melody too.

Helen 

 

I absolutely love this song - the sound of it is awesome, and everytime I hear it I feel like getting up dancing to the beats of it! It's definately a refreshing song! :) 

As english is my second language, there is something in the lyrics I don't quite understand, and I would really appreciate some help to figure it out.

As for the plant having roots bound to the ground. Is it the roots that is the boundary, because they tie the plant to the ground?

Or is it a twine? I looked up 'twine' in my dictionary, and so I'm wondering if it is a sort of a thread that is binding it?

Even though the roots are being bound the ground, I wouldn't think of that in itself being a prison for a plant - as the soil to a plant would be what our bodies is to our spirit and mind.

*bLiPp*

=)

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... By ThE mOoNs Of JuPiTeR ...

 

Hi there Miriam,

'As for the plant having roots bound to the ground. Is it the roots that is the boundary, because they tie the plant to the ground?' ...

Well, I thought of roots binding the plant to the ground too, at first.  But if you listen I think what is happening is that here the roots are tied up with twine (yes, a kind of thick strong string, the kind you would use in the garden with plants to attach them to a frame to climb up or something like that) ... before they go into the ground.  So, being tied up with twine, the roots can't grow down into the ground like they should, hence the struggle.  Suzanne then comes along and cuts the twine and the roots, and the plant too, can grow properly.

I also think there is something rather profound going on here (hey, is that a surprise) in that it is after freeing something (could also be interpreted as someone?) else that Suzanne then sings of being freed herself.  I can't help thinking that's kind of significant, in freeing and helping other people, or I guess perhaps things too, we can find ourselves being freed too.  A call away from too much introspection and to some kind of outward-looking action perhaps?  Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it makes sense to me where I am in my life now, anyway.  Interesting that in the most recent interview Suzanne mentions this one taking a long time to write - I guess being freed is something that takes time.

... happy bleeping Miriam!

(BTW, there was another post about this playing in a club, you're not the only one wanting to get up and dance to this one).

Helen.

 

Helen wrote: "A call away from too much introspection and to some kind of outward-looking action perhaps?"

Very interesting, especially when taken in the context of this album compared to Songs in Red & Gray. She has said in interviews that she felt strange touring an album of personal songs right after September 11th. So maybe you are onto something there...the need to write something about the world around you, and not about yourself. And from that outward-looking, gaining freedom from the personal stuff floating around in your head.

I do tend to think of the song as about songwriting and maybe being stuck creatively, until you find a little key to something that releases a whole torrent of words. Or in the case of this song, cutting the twine that's binding everything together, so that the plant can thrive.

Kathleen

i agree with you both, helen and kathleen, about that "call away from too much introspection and to some kind of outward-looking action". but, as i see it, i take it further back than "songs in red and gray". in fact i believe this has been suzanne's struggle throughout her career and her approach to songwriting (so, yes, kathleen, "unbound" can also be about that struggle you mention, just like "rusted pipe", for example).

after "99.9F" this need to step back or outward has been increasingly insistent, especially on "songs in red and gray". this was labelled as a personal album, wrongly so, in my opinion. suzanne just had to step and look back in order to "keep perspective". she did the same in writing "beauty & crime", which is as personal as "songs in red and gray", which means, in my opinion, that it isn't. except if you take it literally, but then i'd say all of suzanne's albums are personal, since even when she's writing about something or someone around her she's always writing about herself too.

"beauty & crime" is an album about people (specific ones, yes) and their struggles, just like all the others. it's not just an album about new york, and sometimes that emphasis on that angle of approach alienates songs like this one we're discussing or "pornographer's dream", which deserve much more attention. this is only my vision of things, but it feels, while writing this album, suzanne understood she really had to look back and inward in order to look ahead and outward. and move on. she had done it before but this is it, and that's why this album is as important as "99.9F" was. "unbound" couldn't express it better. and, finally, as i said before, this song has all the potential to be a hit on the clubs and a source of many other takes by other musicians. freedom and love (since there can't be one without the other) are sung and danced here like suzanne has never done before.

  

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chance is the only thing that doesn't happen by chance

Musically, this is the best song on the album. Anniversary seems like a close 2nd. And Bound may be 3rd. Pretty much all the songs are really good.

 But i've been playing Unbound the most, and i hope Suzanne works it into the setlist @ Town Hall in Nov.

An excellent song, both as an acoustic live performance and the beefed up studio version.  I can´t get away from the hunch that Suzanne is referring to Ruby and her own personal rebirth, however.  But that´s just me.

Lefty

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"...when the armies of emotion
go out to fight..."

I love the way this song is produced. And the whole melody and lyrics... it just makes you feel happy from the first listen.

It reminds me 99,9 in terms of production, but it's much brighter and dynamic than most of the 99,9 songs. Besides, it's incredibly addictive! Good one for a single probably...

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http://poland.vega.net

Polish Suzanne Vega fan-site/community

 

 To my native speaker polandveganet:)

Masz racje trochę przypomina styl z 99.9. Jest taka dynamiczna rytmiczna że aż chcę się słuchać. Osobiście uważam że powinna  być singlem. Może dzięki tej piosence wiecej osób zainteresowało by się tą płytą.

 Once I listened this song I knew that it should be a single.What do you think?
 

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I am turning in your hand...

the-bleepy-one:

Or is it a twine? I looked up 'twine' in my dictionary, and so I'm wondering if it is a sort of a thread that is binding it?

This is such a wonderful song -- in my opinion, this plus "Bound" are the emotional heart of this album, different from most of the other songs with their overarching theme of loss but not altogether separate from them either. And this one has taken me the longest to think about.

To answer your question:  Often when you buy a tree or shrub, the roots will be bound with twine, which you're supposed to cut before planting it in the ground.

the-bleepy-one:

Even though the roots are being bound the ground, I wouldn't think of that in itself being a prison for a plant - as the soil to a plant would be what our bodies is to our spirit and mind.

Exactly. And this, I think, is the paradox at the heart of the entire song: Freedom is not the same as total, aloof independence from the world, and is not the same thing as being hermetically sealed off from the people around us. That kind of separation might feel safer, but it's no different than the plant sitting in the Home Depot garden section with its roots bound by twine and burlap. Maybe this kind of protection will keep anything scary from getting inside, but it also will keep the plant from growing.

Instead, freedom is letting go of this protection, surrendering this separation, allowing yourself to become rooted in the earth, becoming involved in something beyond your own "simple need," and maybe becoming part of something that will endure long after you're gone. ("The flowers go but the earth must still remain.")

Interesting wording at the beginning of the song: "I knew a plant." Do people normally describe plants as though they're people? Is Suzanne herself the plant in this song? Is it a coincidence that the CD booklet has the lyrics to this song and "Bound" on the same page as her wedding photo?

 

fatima:

"freedom" was the word etched on the run-out groove of suzanne's debut album. love of freedom: this is a theme also "at the root" of all her body of work. but here it feels suzanne is referring especially to spiritual freedom. freedom of the body and mind, sure, but also freedom of the spirit. letting the essence of something (a plant, in this song) or someone come to full fruition. 

 

"at the root bound at the root, confined both mind and foot, am free now am free, as anything alive can be". 

 

uni-verse

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chance is the only thing that doesn't happen by chance

Hi there,

“Cut the twine” was discussed before, but I wish I could add something what seems to me. Forgive me this almost mathematical analysis. So, plant whose roots were bound both minds and foot, then we have roots bound into the ground, then roots unbound and roots unbound into the ground in the end of the song. It seems to me that we have two meanings of word “bound”, “unbound” in this song. I imagine that there was one plant whose roots were fastened to each other in some way. Then twine was cut, I understand this as if one part of this plant was freed from the other and then returned to the ground to grow and becoming own (mine). It is something like separating oneself from strong relationship, influence, which in fact can only kill and becoming free and alive and on ones own. Unbound means to me to be not fasten together (like leaves in a book) but also unbound into the ground (background?). oh, well, I’ve already got lost after looking up all my dictionaries ;-) But the truth is too, world would be awful without friendship and being bound to someone, but maybe in spiritual life we need to be alone and by themselves only?

be well,

anna

PS. I can see strong connection between “Straight Lines” and “Unbound”. Theme of killing delusions and being finally alone and free.

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"like a shadow, I am and I am not"