Sawdust & Diamonds ( Joanna Newsom Harp Cover )

Cover of Joanna Newsom's 'Sawdust & Diamonds' on the harp.
Sheet music from http://jntp.110mb.com/

Sawdust and Diamonds

From the top of the flight
of the wide, white stairs,
through the rest of my life,
do you wait for me there?

Theres a bell in my ears.
Theres the wide, white roar.
Drop a bell down the stairs.
Hear it fall forevermore.

Drop a bell off of the dock.
Blot it out in the sea.
Drowning mute as a rock;
sounding mutiny.

Theres a light in the wings, hits the system of strings,
from the side, where they swing
see the wires, the wires, the wires.
And the articulation in our elbows and knees
makes us buckle;
we couple in endless increase
as the audience admires.

And the little white dove,
made with love, made with love;
made with glue, and a glove, and some pliers

swings a low, sickle arc, from its perch in the dark:
settle down, settle down, my desire.

And the moment I slept, I was swept up in a terrible tremor.
Though no longer bereft, how I shook! And I couldnt remember.
Then the furthermost shake drove a murthering stake in,
and cleft me right down through my center.
And I shouldnt say so, but I know that it was then, or never.

Push me back into a tree.
Bind my buttons with salt.
Fill my long ears with bees
praying please please please love
you ought not
No you ought not

Then the system of strings tugs at the tip of my wings
(cut from cardboard and old magazines):
makes me warble and rise, like a sparrow.
And in the place where I stood, there is a circle of wood
a cord or two which you chop, and you stack in your barrow.
It is terribly good to carry water and chop wood,
streaked with soot, heavy-booted and wild-eyed;
as I crash through the rafters,
and the ropes and pulleys trail after
and the holiest belfry burns sky-high.

Then the slow lip of fire moves across the prairie with precision,
while, somewhere, with your pliers and glue, you make your first incision.
And in a moment of almost-unbearable vision,
doubled over with the hunger of lions,
Hold me close, cooed the dove,
who was stuffed, now, with sawdust and diamonds.

I wanted to say: Why the long face.
Sparrow, perch and play songs of long face.
Burro, buck and bray songs of long face!
Sing, I will swallow your sadness, and eat your cold clay,
just to lift your long face;
And though it may be madness, I will take to the grave
your precious longface.
And though our bones they may break, and our souls separate
Why the long face?
And though our bodies recoil from the grip of the soil
Why the long face?

In the trough of the waves,
which are pawing like dogs,
pitch we, pale-faced and grave,
as I write in my log.

Then I hear a noise from the hull,
seven days out to sea.
It is the damnable bell!
And it tolls well, I believe that it tolls for me.
It tolls for me.

Though my wrists and my waist seemed so easy to break,
still, my dear, Id have walked you to the very edge of the water.
And they will recognize all the lines of your face
in the face of the daughter of the daughter of my daughter.

Darling, we will be fine; but what was yours and mine
appears to me a sandcastle
that the gibbering wave takes.
But if its all just the same, then will you say my name;
say my name in the morning, so I know when the wave breaks.

I wasnt born of a whistle, or milked from a thistle at twilight.
No; I was all horns and thorns, sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright.

So: enough of this terror.
We deserve to know light,
and grow evermore lighter and lighter.
You would have seen me through,
But I could not undo that desire.

From the top of the flight
of the wide, white stairs
Through the rest of my life
Do you wait for me there?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Joanna
• Newsom
• Harp
• Cover
• Sawdust
• and
• Diamonds
• Ys
• Folk
• Live
• Music

[taigafuzi]

What do you think about 'Have one on Me'? (the album, not the song)

[sszreter]

@taigafuzi I really like it now, but I have to admit it did take me quite a while to get into it.

[catconley123]

how long have you been playing?

[sszreter]

@catconley123 I started learning when I was 11... and I'm almost 20 now... and I uploaded this one nearly 3 years ago :)

[boltlikeahorse]

dude you should go to a show and convince her to let you play a song. she would probably let you. you're realllll good.

[sszreter]

@boltlikeahorse I could never do that!!!! It'd be so scary :/ Also I bet loads of people who go to her shows can play the harp so I'd feel like a total show-off :P x

[southerncharma]

I love Joanna for making the Harp cool again. You did a great job covering this song and you have nice "harp playing" fingers... :)

[dontutremble]

startlingly beautiful.

[catconley123]

@sszreter thats really cool! I've only been playing for about 6 or 7 months

[LumberjackDeChristo]

This is super good!

[MermaidMidna]

You are incredibly amazing. I love singing along with these covers. <3

[Vikkilewis]

:3

[cannedkitty]

Thanks for posting this. It's easy to get lost in Joanna Newsom's voice and epic lyrics that its easy to forgot she's a great composer too. At it's base, the chord progression might seem a little simple, but there is so much going on rhythmically and melodically that it's clear her music is very well crafted (and that's just without singing). She's one of the most talented people making music right now.

[erikisPSYCHO]

I reeeeally love how you let the tension build in the beggining of the video, before you pluck the strings. It's funny because Joanna Newsom seems to do the same thing for this song, and Sprout And The bean.