View Full Version : Half A Gift
mmmender
Jan-24-07, 5:17 AM
Who do you think Liz is referring to in the song "Half-Gifts"?
It's an old game, my love
When you can't have me, you want me
Because you know that you're not risking anything
Intimacy is when we're in the same place at the same time
Dealing honestly with how we feel, and who we really are
That's what grown-ups do
That is mature thinking
Well I'm still a junkie for it
It takes me out of my aloneness
But this relationship cannot sustain itself
Intimacy is when we're in the same place at the same time
Dealing honestly with how we feel, and who we really are
That's what grown-ups do
That is mature thinking
I just have to know how to be in the process
Of creating things in a better way
And it hurts but it's a lie that I can't handle it
I still have a world of me-ness to fulfill
I still have a life, and it's a rich one even with mourning
Even with grief and sadness
I still care about this planet
I am still connected to nature and to my dreams for myself
I have my friends, my family.
I have myself
I still have me
fornasetti
Jan-24-07, 5:42 AM
I just assumed it was an ode to Mr G.
I never really listened to the full lyrics. Now I like it even less than I did before. Could have been off FCC. Anyways i always assumed it to be about Robin. Who else?
could be a song to the entity 'Cocteau Twins'
Quisquose
Jan-24-07, 9:55 AM
her fans?? *ouch*
no kidding.
Quisquose
Jan-24-07, 9:56 AM
could be a song to the entity 'Cocteau Twins'
Yep. Also, I can't listen to "At last I am free" without getting that vibe.
randomrob
Jan-24-07, 10:47 AM
ode to a vibrator
fornasetti
Jan-24-07, 10:49 AM
It looks like you just couldn't stay away, Rob ?
randomrob
Jan-24-07, 10:50 AM
sshh im incognito
fornasetti
Jan-24-07, 10:51 AM
Ah, yes - as RandomRob. Its ok then, no-one will know its you.
randomrob
Jan-24-07, 10:53 AM
jus keep it under yr hat:D
Daphne
Jan-24-07, 10:56 AM
who was that masked man??
Rondel
Jan-24-07, 11:47 AM
The most astonishing thing about 'Half Gifts' is it's blinding honesty - Liz gets top marks in my books for saying how she feels (if that is what's going on in this song - safe guess being 'sure is')
Sometimes the truth isn't what anyone wants to hear because of it's effects but at least it's the truth.
The little EP Twinlights is kinda like her 'exit off stage 1' from the Cocteau Twins - I see such dignity and self respect in that - I quietly applaud Liz for this gift.
who was that masked man??
Sarge?
http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/hongkong/sarge.jpg
No!
Rosemary, the telephone operator?
http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/hongkong/rosemary.jpg
No!
Random Rob, the mild mannered poster?
http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/hongkong/penre.jpg
Could Be!
elysium
Jan-25-07, 10:13 PM
Yay yay yay!
Hong Kong Phooey! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkjdP92PGDg)
randomrob
Jan-25-07, 10:20 PM
Sarge?
http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/hongkong/sarge.jpg
No!
Rosemary, the telephone operator?
http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/hongkong/rosemary.jpg
No!
Random Rob, the mild mannered poster?
http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/hongkong/penre.jpg
Could Be!
you just completely ineffably rocked my world...
thanx david:D
(rosemarys hot!)
I'd always assumed Guthrie, too. I always wondered how that was for him, to hear the words in the studio as she recorded them. Although maybe he knew they were about someone else.
As much as I hate the song, I always assumed it was about me...
Who do you think Liz is referring to in the song "Half-Gifts"?
Liz specifically said that song was about Jeff Buckley, as was all of Twinlights and a lot of Milk and Kisses. ("Milk and kisses for the first man / my old man / love and a thousandfold rose for Buckley / my Rilkean Hearted friend".)
"I'm just getting good boundaries with Robin now. We just didn't communicate," Fraser says, over tea. If her break-up with Guthrie afforded her some independence, it also opened up romantic opportunities, and when the Twins went on tour in 1994, Fraser fell in love. "My love addiction was worse than ever. I was maniacal," she confesses.
"The EP is about that man," she says of Twinlights. "My last goodbye, as it were. I was too needy and he was too much of an avoidance person. Naturally."
Twinlights finds Fraser voicing words of self-reliance and comfort. When she panics, she says she feels about five years old. "You kind of go back to the age when you were being abused," she explains. Singing helps her soothe her younger self.
"There's some of that going on in 'Rilkean Heart': 'You're lost and don't know what to do/But that's not all of you.' It's all a bit corny, really. It's really simple language; it's how you have to speak to yourself at that age. That's the part of me that's so hungry."
Particularly poignant are the EP's closing lines - yes, audible lyrics - in which Fraser plaintively intones over a fading melody, "I have my friends/My family/I have myself/I still have me." The message is to herself. "I just have to remember I have my friends and family. It's not just about a man," she says in exasperation.
It's good advice, but it embarrasses her. "Sometimes I cringe when I think about what I'm singing, but I've never been more real in my life."
AP Jan 96
There is a LOT more to this story. The BBC doc presented her basically as his widow.
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