Music Review: Jewel "Down So Long"

Jewel

Down So Long

Album: Spirit

Year:1999

           Jewel hopes the worst is over in the   receptive  “Down So Long.”

              A matter-of-fact guitar opens the single, setting a blunt tone. She just decided to take off. On the beach, she watches as the sun sets and thinks of what to do next. Her road trip took her to California, which seems to be her final stop. Ohio doesn’t even seem like it exists. A stay in Nevada led to a short-term fling. She was a server at a diner and started dating one of the cooks. Nonetheless, it didn’t last long. She was crying, so distracted that she didn’t notice she left pocketbook out in the open. When she wasn’t looking, someone must’ve taken it. The day continues on. No one really cares except for her it seems. Despite the cook, she can only think of her ex-boyfriend back home. She wishes he was her to help her out.  (“Sun sets 'cross the ocean /I’m a thousand miles from anywhere /My pocketbook and my heart both just got stolen /Sun sets 'cross the ocean /I’m a thousand miles from anywhere /My pocketbook and my heart both just got stolen /And the sun act like she don't even care/The wind blows cold when you reach the top /It feels like someone's face is stuck to the bottom of my shoe /I got a plastic jesus, a cordless telephone for every corner of my room /Got everybody but you telling me what to do.”)

                In the chorus, the relationship has been over for awhile now. At least a year now. But it still depresses her. It has to be over soon. It just has to be. (“But I've been down so long  it can't be longer still /I’ve been down so long /That the end must be drawing near.”)

                She has asked advice from everyone: where to get a job, where to live, how to  get over him. Then, one evening, she was out at the bar when a woman began talking to her. The woman told her it’s useless to find the good in people. A blind man told her you have to take the good with the bad. No one really knows a person. Everyone gets burned eventually. (“I look to everybody but me to answer my prayers /'Til I saw an angel in a bathroom /Who said she saw no one worth saving anywhere/And a blind man on the corner said it's simple, like flipping a coin/Don't matter what side it lands on if it's someone else's dime.”)

            In the second chorus, she’s heard from her family that her ex isn’t doing that well. Maybe things can be repaired back home. (“But I've been down so long/It can't be longer still/We've been down so long/That the end must be drawing near.”)

               In the bridge, she can’t escape her problems. She’s going to have to face them. (“I take a trip, I catch a train, I catch a plane/I got a ticket in my hand /And then a man takes my money/And like cattle we all stand.”)

                In the final chorus, she believes a change will happen if she goes home. (“But we've been down so long/It can't be longer still/We've been down so long/The end must be, I know the end must be/I know the end must be drawing near.”)

                 Jewel puts her head into her hands. She can’t take anymore pain. Something has to change. Belief is all she has left. Like in previous songs, she meets other people. However, they are actually interesting here and not some ironic props for her lecturing.

                 The miminalistic “Down So Long” keeps it simple and lets the images be.