The album Wild God by Nick Cave, released in 2024, made a profound impression on me, particularly the song “Cinnamon Horses,“ in which the neologism “Cinnamon Horses” appears three times across the lyrics, each time followed by a distinct image: “In the turpentine trees” (verse 1) Stroll through the castle ruins” (verse 2), and “Dance beneath a strawberry moon” (verse 4).
This immediate connection to the album and these evocative phrases led me to choose the three central recurring images: moons, trees, castles – as the direct inspiration and title for a sub-exhibition to The Wrong Biennale tiltled “Moons, Trees, Castles | AI Chronotopes”.
The three words also reference the ending line of one of my favourite poems, ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ by Wordsworth, ‘with rocks, and stones, and trees’.
Cinnamon Horses Lyrics
I told my friends that life was sweet
I told my friends that life was very sweet
And the cinnamon horses
In the turpentine trees
I told my friends some things were good
That love would endure if it could
And the cinnamon horses
Stroll through the castle ruins
I said we can love someone
Without hurting someone
And a dozen white vampires
Under a strawberry moon
You said that
You said that
You said that, ooh
You said that
You said that
The strawberry moon
’Cause love asks for nothing
But love costs everything
And the cinnamon horses
Dance beneath a strawberry moon
I said we should not hurt one another
Still, we hurt one another
And a dozen white vampires
Sung themselves in the castle ruins
You said that
You said that
You said that, ooh
You said that
You said that
You said that, ooh
I told my friends that life was sweet
I told my friends, life was very sweet
You said that
You said that
In the castle ruins
I told my friends that life was good
That love would endure if it could
You said that
You said that
You said that, ooh
Grammatical analysis
Grammatical analysis of sentence 1 (the most interesting):
‘And’: conjunction
‘The cinnamon horses‘: subject, noun phrase
‘In the turpentine trees’: adverbial (locative prepositional phrase) or subject complement
(are or were): Elided copular verb?
Symbolism and etymology
Cinnamon-colored horses, which evoke sensations of touch, smell, place, spirituality, and nostalgia, and whose name has roots in Ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Phoenician, move from the alliterative turpentine trees to dancing among castle ruins, and finally to dancing beneath a strawberry moon.
I initially thought “strawberry moon” was a neologism, but it turns out to be the traditional name for the first full moon in June, with origins in Old English.
Verb-less haiku
It’s as if the lines “And the cinnamon horses / In the turpentine trees” could be read as a simple verb-less, haiku-style poem in itself – reminiscent of Ezra Pound’s iconic “THE apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough” single-line poem.
The Nouns in Cinnamon Horses
Looking at the text’s nouns from beginning to end, we get the following sequence:
friends
life
things
love
cinnamon (used adjectivally but part of compound noun below)
horses
turpentine (used adjectivally but part of compound noun below)
trees
castle (used adjectivally but part of compound noun below)
ruins
someone
dozen (used numerically but refers to quantity of the next noun)
vampires
moon
nothing (used abstractly like a noun)
everything (used abstractly like a noun)
Mostly short, everyday words, except for the cinnamon horses and the strawberry moons, and a lot of ‘s’ sounds—especially the kind Nick Cave draws out in words like friends, things, horses, trees, ruins, dozen, and vampires.
Also see: Recoding Jacques Derrida’s Archive Fever
Nothing and everything
Semantically, we have cinnamon horses and a strawberry moon suspended, in a way, between a nothing and an everything.
Might it be about Christmas?
The simplest interpretation could be a strong memory of cinnamon-flavored gingerbread cookies (in the shape of horses), blended with the pine smell of a newly cut Christmas tree.
Tree as a recurrent motif
Blind fish being used as musical scales
Sharks puffed for fish and whales
I long to be by the sea where a blossom falls from a cherry tree
That’s what jazz is to me
From the B-side of ‘Red Right Hand’ titled ‘That’s What Jazz Is to Me’ (1994).
Also see: Copenhagen Chronotopes Art Gallery
Re-interpretation
I said that one thing fades, and another waits
That time slips sideways through rusted gates
and a dozen pale angels
Trace circles in the orchard gloom
You whispered,
You whispered,
You whispered that
Beneath a cinnamon sky.
The chemistry of cinnamon
Some types of cinnamon, particularly cheaper varieties, have a certain metallic taste akin to blood, which can be experienced during nosebleeds, for example, due to oxidized iron and the cinnamaldehyde compound. So not everyone may find the associations entirely pleasant.
In addition, there are overlaps between the active compounds in cinnamon and turpentine.
Turpentine: α-Pinene, β-Pinene, Limonene, Camphene, Myrcene, Terpinolene, Linalool
Cinnamon: Cinnamaldehyde, Eugenol, Limonene, α-Pinene, Linalool, β-Caryophyllene, Myrcene, Terpinolene
The smells of many of these compounds travel directly to our amygdala and hippocampus (bypassing the thalamus) – often leading to very powerful sensations, compared to vision or hearing, creating powerful emotions and a sense of instantaneous unfiltered recall of memories decades old.
Intertextuality
‘Cinnamon horses’ is a reference to Neil Young’s ‘Cinnamon Girl’ from 1969 (Wikipedia lists more than 20 cover versions, among others by: The Who, The Smashing Pumpkins, Kashmir, Radiohead, Foo Fighters).
Here the sentence structure and meaning are simpler:
“I wanna live with a cinnamon girl / I could be happy the rest of my life / with a cinnamon girl”
Lana del Rey’s ‘Cinnamon Girl’ 2019) starts with a sentence fragment:
“Cinnamon in my teeth / from your kiss”
Also see: The Art of Artificiality & Edgar Degas’ Obsession
Sycamore Tress in Twin Peaks
“And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.”
Possibly a nod to “Sycamore Trees,” composed by Angelo Badalamenti for David Lynch’s Twin Peaks (with lyrics by David Lynch).
“Sycamore Trees” appears in the series’ final episode, titled “Beyond Life and Death,” which aired in 1991. The rendition by Jimmy (July 17, 1925 – June 12, 2014) is, to my ears, very reminiscent of Nina Simone’s contralto.
Badalamenti has worked with Nina Simone, in addition to Shirley Bassey, with whom I also feel a certain likeness.
I got idea man
You take me for a walk
Under the sycamore trees
The dark trees that blow, baby
In the dark trees that blow
And I’ll see you
And you’ll see me
And I’ll see you in the branches that blow
In the breeze
I’ll see you in the trees
I’ll see you in the trees
Under the sycamore trees
‘Cinnamon’ and ‘sycamore’ are phonetically similar: /ˈsɪn.ə.mən/ versus /ˈsɪk.ə.mɔː(r)/. Both begin with s, followed by an ‘i’ vowel followed by a ‘schwa’ – three syllables, with the stress on the first syllable.
More jazz references: Cinnamon versus Sinnerman (Nina Simone)?
Taking it even further, ‘cinnamon’ (/ˈsɪn.ə.mən/) is very close to the iconic ‘Sinnerman’ by Nina Simon. I hear the compound word pronounced as “SIN-na man” or “SIN-uh man” r-free(ˈsɪn.ɚ.mæn/) with Gospel-influenced emotional and rhythmic drive
Simone’s ‘Sinnerman’ is played at the ending of David Lynch’s ‘Inland Empire’ from 2006.
Lee Morse ‘In the Sing Song Sycamore Tree’ (1928)
Angelo Badalementi’s ‘Sycamore Trees’, in turn draws from Lee Morse (And her Blue Grass Boys) ‘In the Sing Song Sycamore Tree’) released in 1928 by Columbia Records, one side of a 10-inch 78 RPM record. Lee Morse also has a distinctive contralto voice. It also connects to ‘Down by the Sycamore Tree’ by Stan Getz (1954).