Just Like Honey

The third song from Anita’s Mix is “Just Like Honey” by The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Here are the lyrics:

Listen to the girl
As she takes on half the world
Moving up and so alive
In her honey dripping beehive
Beehive
It’s good, so good, it’s so good
So good

Walking back to you
Is the hardest thing that
I can do
That I can do for you
For you

I’ll be your plastic toy
I’ll be your plastic toy
For you

Eating up the scum
Is the hardest thing for
Me to do

Just like honey (x 17)

What’s this song about? Um, I’m not totally sure. Strong woman taking on (half) the world. But she’s better with him than without, but he messed up. Now he’s coming back and it’s hard for him but good for her.

And what is just like honey? Is it her? Is this some sort of bee metaphor where she is the lone queen and he is the faithful worker drone who eats the scum for her?

Who cares?

This song was used in the movie Lost in Translation starring Scarlett Johannsen and Bill Murray. It’s a weird but wonderful little slice of life movie about two married people staying temporarily in Japan. Murray is there to shoot a commercial. Johannsen just finished college and is there with her photographer husband, who works so much that she is practically alone. Murray and Johannsen meet and connect, becoming friends and you wonder if they will become more. They are not unhappy with their spouses, but just at that point in time need a connection. At the end of the movie, Murray is leaving but he stops and comes back. They embrace and he whispers something in her ear that we’re not privy to. “Just Like Honey” is playing through this last scene.

I can’t be sure what Anita took from this, but for me this song is a song of longing. These two people had this connection, these feelings, but realized that their lives lay in different directions. So while the connection was fulfilling, it was sad to leave it behind. Bittersweet, you might say.