I did a study of Don't Interrupt the Sorrow at college when I was about 16.
I compared it to 'The Colour Purple' by Alice Walker, which we were studying
at the time. TCP is loaded with allusions to animism, as is DITS. Animism is
a form of pagan religion which believes that every object, animate or
otherwise, has a male (animus) and/or female (anima) spirit. Therefore, if
you burn a piece of wood, you are releasing its spirit - hence "god goes up
the chimney" (the comparison to "childhood santa claus" in the next line
also referencing another kind of (fslse) belief). Animism originated in
Africa, which was formerly known as Ethiopia, hence the "Ethiopian wall".
The song is definitely dealing with feminism and women's lib (as many of you
have pointed out), but is also kind of paganist, almost confronting
christianity with an alternate truth, one that doesn't blame woman for the
fall of man ("wash my guilt of Eden"). Thats about as much as I can
remember - I did a big essay on it and I recall being incredibly impressed
by the density of the imagery in the song, as was my English teacher, who
insisted on photocopying the lyrics for everyone in the class to study. I
had kinda worried that Joni's lyrics might not stand up to such detailed
analysis(this was early in my Joni loving career), but boy was I wrong!
Owen
