Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Weightless Again - The Handsome Family

Weightless Again - The Handsome Family
3:37
Through the Trees, 1998
Written by Brett Sparks and Rennie Sparks

This song, like the rest of its album, was written after Brett Sparks was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hospitalized.  The song's lyrics reflect this grim and probably frightening time.  Disjointed images of an Indian tribe who must carry burning sticks, having forgotten how to start a fire, dying of TB after contact with the white man, are interspersed with memories of a first kiss, sitting in a motel room reading, and suicide by overdose and leaps from the Golden Gate Bridge.  These eerie lines land like punches to the brain, powerful despite being delivered in an offhand, almost lazy baritone.

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