Niche Beach 02: Greetings From the Youtube Comment Section of that one Joanna Newsom Song
Niche Beach Ep.2: An exploration of lost/found archives in the hidden corners of the the Wild West (aka the internet, aka YouTube comment sections, aka the never ending party)
Niche Beach Ep. 2: Greetings from the Never Ending Party aka: I will Love you til the Noise has Long Since Passed
TO LISTEN
Soundcloud link:
Spotify Link:
TRANSCRIPT:
“Hello and welcome back everyone to Niche Beach! I’m your host, Sarah, and I want to thank you all for coming back for episode two. Today’s episode will just be me on the mic but in the near future, we will have some episodes featuring interviews with other people and special guests so, stay tuned for those coming up.
It is a pretty beautiful day today in New York City. Today is Monday, June 10th, 2024. And it is June, which means that it is my birthday month, it is pride month, so, best month of the year ? ! It is 6:47pm in the evening and - welcome back to the beach. Lay the towel down, grab your blanket, lay it down on the sand, put your sunglasses on, put on your sunscreen because sunscreen is mandatory on Niche Beach because we support having healthy skin. (of courseeeee, duh!)
For today’s episode, I want to talk about a personal Niche Beach of mine. I want to talk about this one song. This song came out in 2010 on Joanna Newsom’s album Have One on Me. I first heard of this song in 2019, I would say.
That year I went to a lot of parties with my friends who were a part of our college radio station. Parties where we would listen to albums all the way through on a record player in the corner of the room. I was at one of these radio station dance parties at an apartment complex in Boulder, Colorado called the Spanish Towers, where my friend, Sierra, lived. The Spanish Towers were a two-sided apartment complex maybe about five or six stories high. And between the two side of the apartment complex, there was this big pool, indoor pool in the middle of it that I swam in a couple times at the end of some of these parties. And the water in it was glowing this like bright fluorescent green. The apartment complex was called the Spanish Towers presumably because of it’s somewhat Spanish architecture, but it also had kind of a Colorado-y lodge type feel to it as well. It had these big metal doors and these tiered chandeliers right when you walked in with candle sticks on them. And there were a lot of arches and stones and these red balconies. I remember those balconies. With also like a red patterned rug in the hallways of apartment complex. I went to a lot of parties that year in those apartments - in 2019.
I remember this one party where my friend, Sierra, played the harp. And I remember them playing a song by Joanna Newsom. I don’t know which song it was but I remember being amazed at Sierra’s harp playing, as well as being just moved by the song - thought I don’t remember what the song was. I was 19 in Boulder, Colorado. I was dancing on the carpeted floor of these condos. I was having fun. I was drinking wine probably out of someone’s thrifted mug from the Boulder, Colorado GoodWill, the one that used to be on Baseline (if you know, you know) and it was probably red wine. And then we probably listened to songs on a record player afterwards and someone probably did a taro reading that I probably attached a lot of meaning to.
After that party where Sierra played the harp and I danced the night away in the Spanish Towers overlooking the Boulder, Colorado mountain range, I decided to start listening to Joanna Newsom myself. And I found this one song that really stuck with me. I think I was at first drawn to it from the title. And then, I listened to it just over and over again.
It’s a song that I would describe as, like, an epic. The song comes in at about seven minutes, at least from what I’m look at on the YouTube lyric video. And I remember being in college in Colorado, listening to this song over and over again. It would narrate my walks to school and accompany me on car rides in the passenger seats of my friend’s cars through the mountains. I listened to that song so many times back in 2019. And at the time, I was using one music streaming service and then the next year I switched over to a new one and this song wasn’t on that new streaming service. And so, I kind of just forgot that it existed.
It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that the song came back into my mind. And so, I went on YouTube and searched up the song. I pulled up a lyric video entitled, “Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions Paving Company (with lyrics)" a video created by username HaveOneOnMe1. They have 2.98k subscribers and their whole channel is just a whole lot of Joanna Newsom lyric videos. So I sit in my bedroom and I listen to this song and I’m immediately flooded with the memories of being 19 listening to this song over and over again. And it was kind of like running into an old friend. You’re like, “why did we ever stop hanging out? How have I been living without you all of this time?”
I’m sitting there listening to it and I am just like tearing up listening to this song, reading the lyrics, letting the whole journey of the song take me. And the song is about a relationship that kind of drags on a little bit too long. Some relationship, some love, that you’re just clinging to desperately to keep going. And yeah, the song is about a relationship, some love, or even a friend that you’re in this thing with and it’s just dragging on. Despite all the possible good intentions that you have, there might be a paving company somewhere within you that just, needs to kind of pave this long windy route that you’re driving down.
And the song starts with the line, “twenty miles left to the show [Hello, my old country, hello. Stars are just beginning to appear, and I have never in my life before been here].” Which I think already encapsulates the whole vibe. That is a long time. Twenty miles is not short, but, that depends on how fast you’re driving. And that’s still a limited amount of time. You know, there is still a cap on that amount of time. We only have the next seven minutes to finish this thing off cleanly. And we’ll see if that happens. So that line starts the song off with an immediate sense of tension.
I love this song. I think it is a genius song. Not only lyrically but, the music of it, which I can speak to maybe a little less intellectually than perhaps my analysis of the lyrics would be. It’s such impressive piano and just really interesting sound musically. And her voice is so unique and cool and passionate and bittersweet. The song itself has really stuck with me all of these years.
But what really hit me this time listening to this song a couple of weeks ago was not only my experience of listening to the song, but also, as I’m listening to it on YouTube, I start to scroll through the comment section. And as I scroll through the comment section, it feels like I have stumbled upon this treasure chest. Like this time capsule - of all of these people’s experiences. Their connections to these songs. It’s almost like this whole group of people have had this deep and almost like, spiritual connection to this song. Like, the comments on this song are from years and years back. I mean, some of the comments on this video are from 12 years ago. Only about a year after the song came out - when this video was posted.
Stumbling upon these comments in the year 2024, these twelve year old comments, these comments from 2011, these comments that people commented when I was eleven years old. It was kind of a- very beautiful thing. It kind of felt like I was stumbling upon this party. Or like, this party that had been going on for years and years. And it kind of felt like a party at like 4am when you’re kind of in that awkward phase where people- the rager part of the party is over but only kind of the real ones are still lurking around. And everyone has migrated to the backyard. And they’re sitting around the last sparks of the fire that was made at 9pm that night. And they’re keeping that fire burning in the backyard, finishing the last of the beer. And someone is starting to clean up. And someone is already asleep on the couch inside - so everyone is talking a little bit quieter. But that’s the time of the night when the best conversations happen. And the time of the night when you feel the closest to the people who are there. People become kind of real at that time. It becomes more intimate and special. And that’s how I felt coming upon this party (!) in the YouTube comment section.
It’s this never ending conversation. It’s like this ongoing dialogue - that people just keep coming back to this song - which I think means there must be something special in it. I came back to a part of myself hearing this song. My 2019, 19 year old self listening to this song and a lot of people in the comment section of this YouTube video are coming back to themselves as well, from what it seems.
In fact, only about a year ago, username mariegueuledeloup, commented
“i always come back to this song whenever i need to exercise mercy (towards myself, the people i love, the times we’ve hurt each other)”
That comment has been upvoted (liked) twelve times. And I picture those twelve people sitting in a circle in a backyard in plastic chairs, nodding their heads in silent agreement. No further words stated between the group, just this understanding of each other through the power of someone else’s words - exercising mercy in their own ways.
Somebody who might be lingering around this circle is hhhehehe4800 who commented three years ago,
“I come here everyday”
and there are 72 thumbs up to that comment. I wonder if hhhehehe4800 still comes here everyday. With his lizard profile picture and sits around the camp fire, cracks open a beer with the commenters below and hangs out in this really special digital time capsule space.
A lot of the comments are mostly just expressing how great of a song this is and what a lyrical genius Ms (Mrs ?) Newsom is. But a lot of the comments - there’s something really special about them. I mean, one of the commenters calls the song, in the comments, “Timeless” and you can really tell, based on the time stamps of all of these comments. It is a timeless piece of art. It is something we are constantly coming back and back to talk about and experience again. Here’s one that really made me tear up, username joemama2499 commented one year ago,
“Anyone else been here since they were 13 and are now 25 or older or just me”
and let me tell you, joemama2499, I do not think it is just you. In fact, you have nineteen thumbs up on that comment. And you have people commenting like username janieswurld419, eleven days ago saying,
“First listened back when I was only 22 and now I’m in my mid 30s — she’ll always have such a special part of my heart !”
and eleven days ago as well, username MrZevers commented,
“First listened when I was 23, now I'm 37, and this is still one of my favourite songs on this life.”
Seven months ago, username Alijahwright commented,
“this is one of 2 songs to ever make me cry but dude i cry everytime. it’s not even a sad song”
and three people agreed.
Three years ago, username sojo6429 commented, “listening in 2021 and i feel optimistic”
Username J0ELLEx, five years ago, commented “I don’t feel like anyone besides God really gets me, so to have a song that gets me and to know that someone else is experiencing something similar is monumentally comforting” with 36 thumbs up.
Username okcampmerricat commented five years ago, “I've listened to this about thirty times in the past three weeks. I first heard it about two years ago but it didn't speak to me or relate to me. Now it does, and I can't turn it off.”
Username hbot208 commented six years ago, “Just heard this on the radio the other night and I dunno why, but it makes me a little sad. Lovely song though, easily worth crying a little on the inside to listen to” and 38 people agree.
Some people talk about past loves and lost relationships, or even lost family members listening to this song.
Username dylonlascelles5169 commented six years ago, “She's the smartest most beautiful woman I ever knew” and maybe he’s talking about Joanna herself, or someone else, we may never know but ten people thumbs-ed up the comment.
A lot of the comments on the video are just people quoting their favorite lines of the song, such as username zee9134, one year ago, commented the song lyric, “when i only want for you to pull over and hold me till i can’t remember my own name” which is the final line of the song - the note that this long journey ends on. The plea to be held one last time by your lover after the long and imperfect journey of the relationship has come to it’s final end. Another one, where they just comment their favorite line of the song, which is, from username oaoj835, four years ago, “I regret how I said to you "honey, just open your heart" when I've got trouble even opening a honey jar” -the [song’s] commentary on emotional unavailability which can be detrimental to any relationship. Or the line, that username sillydog commented two years ago, “the line "i'm in love with the hook upon which everyone hangs" which sillydog says, “makes me feel like a slug being salted i love it so much” and 203 people agreed. Five people commented back, with one saying, “this is so real”. And then, username cooporlando commented two years ago, the lyric of the song, “watching me sit here, bolt upright, and cry at no good reason at the Eastering sky." To which username cooporlando says, “The power of a moment like this and to share it with someone.” And 63 people agreed. Username j.c7719 wrote, one year ago in response, '“That line never fails to give me goosebumps.”
But a lot of the comments are just people talking about their own lives and connections to the song. Username hashkeeper wrote only two months ago, “this song is absolutely ridiculous. quiet possibly one of the best songs humankind has ever produced.” And username MrZever’s (he’s back!) commented again, from eleven days ago, he said “I love how this can almost feel like an understatement.”
Most comments are really about just people’s personal lives. Such as, username user-fi5q8tq7g wrote two years ago,
“Just dumped out of nowhere after 2.5 years. This song hits more than ever. I think it’s gonna define this time in my life for a long long while. Hope she starts doing live shows again soon. Joanna, thanks for giving us the gift of your music”
and username dumbguy 5949 commented to that comment,
“Heard this at a wake 13 years ago. It definitely becomes a song for decades if you capture the moment”
and username llsspp wrote six years ago,
“This is one of the great Americana albums. As an English person it feels so richly infused with American culture, like the feeling of the frontier, white picket fences, the America we only know from movies, somehow is captured for me in this album. Love her x”
And username sgtlonelyheartsclubband2844 commented three years ago,
“This song has been so important to me over the last few years it has really helped me to deal through some serious times”
Username marcmt4171 commented,
“Probably some of the best lyrics of any English language indie song. period. Really gets at your guts and everytime I give it a good listen I discover a new feeling or memory.”
Username charlottemerrick7133 commented five years ago,
“the soundtrack to the first time i ever drove cross country, moving from ny to california, with my siblings the 2 most important people in the world to me.” And then she quotes the song by saying, "and i have never in my life before been here..."
As username matthewsciberras3279 commented eight years ago, he put it simply, just saying, “masterpiece” - And this is the one that encapsulates it all for me, simply put by username yiasemide commented, six years ago, “Magic” ~
And I agree. Not only is the song itself a piece of magic, but so is this comment section, so is this circle of plastic chairs in the backyard sitting around a burning fire that never seems to go out at this never ending party that we can always come back to time and time again. And tell stories of our lives and the ways that it relates to this song.
The way that Joanna paints this world of the story of the song - she brings you on a journey. And I love when an art piece - when the form of an art piece, when the structure of it, speaks to the content and the actual story and meaning of why it exists and what they’re trying to tell - what the artist is trying to tell. And so you really do feel like you are going on the journey with the people in the car ~ twenty miles left to the show. And you’re seeing what they’re seeing out the window. The relationship is just ending bit by bit. They’re on that road to hell that is paved with good intentions. Nobody wants to say that it is over but it is.
And it’s kind of even like this party metaphor that I’m describing, like, we’re all still here talking about this stuff that we are holding on to - that we can’t let go of. We are leaving the light on at the party, leaving the one candle lit, hoping that one person comes back or hoping that that one friendship doesn’t end, or hoping that someone, something, comes back to life. [Hoping the love remains alive, somewhere, even after the end.] But really, it is about accepting that things are over. [While still being able to appreciate all the love and joy the relationship brought you in it’s height.]
And, you know, the internet is a very strange and scary, big place. It has been called the final frontier, the wild west, and I still think that that rings true today even though the internet has been around for a while. I think that comment sections like this, internet forums are a really fascinating place. Kind of like an underground network, a subculture almost, it’s a form of digital archiving. And it’s - all these stories being told in these YouTube video comments, you know, I feel like deserve to be archived and like, really noticed. The internet really is crazy thing. And like, something that I feel like we can’t even really understand yet and probably won’t understand, like, in a historical context for a really long time.
What is interesting is so many people do work in the field of archiving media and archiving these special spaces on the internet but that’s also a fairly new kind of field of study and a new career that people have, like, digital media archiving. And so, it feels kind of vulnerable. Like, this random YouTube user could delete the video at any time and then this whole archive is lost. Like, all of these stories of these people kind of spilling their hearts- kind of spilling their souls a little bit in the comment section, could get lost. In that way, it is a special thing because it could all go away in just the click of a button. But for now, it is like a party. Like, the party could get, you know, busted by the cops at any second or shut down or over or, you know, it’s just this thing that can end easily, yet, we are all here, and we are all coming back to it over and over again.
There’s a lot of really special stuff here. All these people uniting over music in ways that we haven’t really seen too much of in this contemporary age because people don’t, you know, sit down and listen to the new records together, like, everyone just streams music on their own and there’s less - I guess what I’m saying is there is less discourse about music, or really about anything, like, done in person anymore. Or even in like, a collective way, like, music and music consumption and art consumption, because of the internet- stream has become such a private thing for people. And so, having this archive, this space, this playground for people to come back to time and time again, and comment and be in discussion with each other about this one uniting piece of art, is a really beautiful and honestly profound thing. And surprisingly, we actually can thank this internet [in this case] for that. For utilizing the internet and media (social media) to bring us back to a place of community. In it’s own new and unique way.
I’m really glad that things like this exist. And are still like, as I’ve described, an ongoing party. And with all that people said, I hope that this party remains here forever - still going, still talking, still hanging around the campfire, quoting our favorite lyrics. I hope that I can continue coming here to these comment sections anytime I’d like to feel in community with the other commenters and feel like I’m a part of this great big world - even in this small corner of the internet.
And that is my Niche Beach of today. So, with all that said, thank you all for listening. I will be back soon with the next installment of Niche Beach. Thank you all for following along. Have a lovely rest of your day and I will talk to you all next time. Bye!”