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Joanna Newsom's type?

thereseenglish

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I'm not sure if any of you know of her... She is an amazing harpist/singer, and she is the best! I would just love to crack the code! My guess is either ISFP or INFP... She's so technical with her harp playing(S), but her lyrics are so fantastical and philosophical(N). If you don't know her, listen on itunes or see below for wiki-info... Thanks!

Joanna Newsom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

Aerithria

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She seems clear INFP to me. Her lyrics are practically dripping with metaphor, and having seen some of her interviews, the ways she answers some of the questions seems to hold the same fantastical quality. It doesn't always take an S to be a great musician.

I'm actually hoping people do go listen to her, as half the people who hear her sing thinks she sounds like a dying cat, which amuses me. Definitely a love-it-or-hate-it kind of musician.
 

thereseenglish

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thanks for replying! i was convinced that no-one knows about her and/or cares! i just think she's amazing... i think infp feels right to me too- that must be why i love her so much!!!(i just didn't want to sound like a jerk for saying "i i love this person, she's so smart and awesome- she must be like me!!"..lol but it makes me happy to know that someone else likes her! What is your favorite song? Or maybe what song seems the most infp? different songs can have different personality types, i think!
 

LowEnd

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She seems clear INFP to me. Her lyrics are practically dripping with metaphor

One person's metaphor is another person's fairytale. Without knowing for sure what the subject of the song is, you can't assume she's being metaphorical. I'm sure she is sometimes, but the song 'Monkey and Bear' could just be about a monkey and a bear.

You may be right about INFP, but performers use a persona to enhance delivery which inevitably clouds their 'true' type.

Favorite song? Colleen.

Or Cosmia.
 

Aerithria

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One person's metaphor is another person's fairytale. Without knowing for sure what the subject of the song is, you can't assume she's being metaphorical. I'm sure she is sometimes, but the song 'Monkey and Bear' could just be about a monkey and a bear.

You may be right about INFP, but performers use a persona to enhance delivery which inevitably clouds their 'true' type.

Favorite song? Colleen.

Or Cosmia.
I was thinking more of Only Skin when I was talking about metaphor. With Monkey and Bear, yeah I agree, it really depends on your perspective.

As for her type, I was going more based on her interviews than anything else. Like you can't type a writer based on their books, I believe that you usually won't be able to tell a performer's type based on their performance.
 

thereseenglish

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All of the songs on Ys are stacked with metaphors; I've read in multiple interviews that the five songs on Ys represent five major events that happened in her life( I really doubt one of those includes actual monkeys and bears!) She's talked about how the album all revolves around water: flooding, drowning, floating, etc... And she has talked about how it is important to her that the listener doesn't understand what she means, exactly. Her interviews as well, are so dreamy and idea focused- I just can't imagine her being an S.
 

maliafee

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Joanna Newsom: type?

What type is Joanna Newsom?
She is a California-based harp player, singer and songwriter.

Here is an interview of her (in which she says she is most comfortable in the mountains jumping from rock to rock like a mountain goat):
YouTube - Joanna Newsom

Here is a video of her playing a song:
YouTube - Joanna Newsom - Ca' the yowes to the knowes

Any guesses?

I say ISFP! (And not because I am one, teehee.)
 

Rajah

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She is such an INFJ.
 

maliafee

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I counter that with her VI, as well as her bright and colorful clothing (most times), as well as her strong connection to nature. But I could always be wrong.
 

Quinlan

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Could be, the way she described struggling to express her feelings out side of song all sounded pretty ISFPish.
 

Rajah

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I counter with this:

[youtube="A45s839vSqE"]Sprout and the Bean[/youtube]

Lyrics:

I slept all day
awoke with distaste
and I railed,
and I raved

That the difference between
the sprout and the bean
is a golden ring,
it is a twisted string.
And you can ask the counsellor;
you can ask the king;
and they'll say the same thing;
and it's a funny thing:

Should we go outside?
Should we go outside?
Should we break some bread?
Are y'interested?

And as I said,
I slept as though dead
dreaming seamless dreams of lead.

When you go away,
I am big-boned and fey
in the dust of the day,
in the dirt of the day.

and Danger! Danger! Drawing near them was a white coat,
and Danger! Danger! drawing near them was a broad boat,
And the water! water! running clear beneath a white throat,
and the hollow chatter of the talking of the Tadpoles,

who know th'outside!
Should we go outside?
Should we break some bread?
Are y'interested?
 

maliafee

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Uh, how is that song not ISFP?! :D

Almost all her songs include lots of description of physical nature, not so much concepts.
 

maliafee

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This song is SO ISFP, I can hardly breathe:

Emily

The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow
Set to the sky in a flying spree, for the sport o'er the pharaoh
A little while later the Pharisees dragged a comb through the meadow
Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?

There is a rusty light on the pines tonight
Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow
Down into the bones of the birches
And the spires of the churches
Jutting out from the shadows
The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks and the bale and the barrow
And everything sloped like it was dragged from a rope
In the mouth of the south below

We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
From that snow in the nighttime
Just going
And going
And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning
In the morning
Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been

And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror

Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed in December
I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember

That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee

You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I'm in
Threw the window wide and cried, "Amen! Amen! Amen!"
The whole world stopped to hear you hollering
You looked down and saw now what was happening

The lines are fading in my kingdom
(Though I have never known the way to border them in)
So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows and the grouse and the horse and the hen
Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen
And the mail is late and the great estates are not lit from within
The talk in town's becoming downright sickening

In due time we will see the far butte lit by a flare
I've seen your bravery, and I will follow you there
And row through the nighttime
Gone healthy
Gone healthy all of a sudden
In search of the midwife
Who could help me
Who could help me
Help me find my way back in
There are worries where I've been

Say, say, say in the lee of the bay; don't be bothered
Leave your troubles here where the tugboats shear the water from the water
(Flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper)
Emily, they'll follow your lead by the letter
And I make this claim, and I'm not ashamed to say I know you better
What they've seen is just a beam of your sun that banishes winter

Let us go! Though we know it's a hopeless endeavor
The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined and hold us close forever
Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning
There is a song I woke with on my lips as you sailed your great ship towards the morning

Come on home, the poppies are all grown knee-deep by now
Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow
Peonies nod in the breeze and while they wetly bow
With hydrocephalitic listlessness ants mop up-a their brow

And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
The butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours
And my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
Come on home, now! All my bones are dolorous with vines

Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight
The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light
Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders
Just asterisms in the stars' set order

We could stand for a century
Staring
With our heads cocked
In the broad daylight at this thing
Joy
Landlocked
In bodies that don't keep
Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being
Until we don't be told
Take this
Eat this

Told
The meteorite is the source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
 

Rajah

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The fact that it's written down and recorded and put in final product form and in metaphor almost screams non-ISFP.

Sorry, but I'm sticking with INFJ. She's like Bjork part deux.
 

Ivy

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Moved from Bonfire.
 

Quinlan

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She's very aware of the world around her isn't she? :D
 

Quinlan

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The fact that it's written down and recorded and put in final product form and in metaphor almost screams non-ISFP.

Well that ^ screams rudeness and condescension to me.
 

maliafee

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Well that ^ screams rudeness and condescension to me.

I agree.

First off, I have lots of songs written down and recorded and of course I'm an ISFP.

Also, she's not as much a poet as a singer/songwriter (sorry but there is a difference).

Also, she doesn't write purely metaphorically; a lot of what she writes is actually about the outdoors and stories.

She is metaphoric, a bit, but so is any intelligent person when they write, to be quite frank (it's not an INFJ trait ONLY).

The things that make me think ISFP are: song after song about nature and details about happenings but ALMOST NOTHING CONCEPTUAL.

And, she is not very mysterious.

Onstage, she talks about things like how she cut her thumb and used superglue to close it, and then demonstrates to the crowd the difference in the sound between the healthy thumb and patched up thumb.

She giggles onstage and is not super sophisticated (sorry but all INFJs are sophisticated HAHA just kidding but hey it's something I've noticed; they have an air of decorum even without trying).

She is like a grown up child.

I don't know why I'm so intent on proving her ISFP-ness, except that it's annoying how every time someone is talented, people scream NF. That's just not always the case.

Harumph!

P.S. Did I mention (of course I did) that she looks like an ISFP?
 
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