Dissect - S6E8 - Sandcastles by Beyoncé

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

We continue our serialized analysis of Beyoncé’s Lemonade by dissecting its eighth chapter “Forgiveness,” which features the song “Sandcastles.” Beyoncé finally opens herself up completely, requires her husband to do the same, and forgives. As a result, Beyoncé breaks the curse of broken male-female relationships in her family. A visual guide for this episode can be found at dissectpodcast.com. Follow us on social media @dissectpodcast. S6 merch can be purchased at shop.dissectpodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm Cole Kushna. And I'm Titi Shadilla. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Lemonade by Beyonce. On our last episode, we dissected the chapter of Reformation, which included the song Love Drow. There we heard Beyonce offer her husband an olive branch, replacing her desire for retribution with a hope of restoration. She voiced her insecurities and self-doubt. and asked her partner to do the same.

Beyoncé was joined in her journey by a procession of black women. Together they stood knee-deep in baptismal waters and raised their arms as if to take flight from an inherited cultural prison. Together they created the conditions that make glorious healing possible. It is with this emphasis on healing that Lemonade continues into its next chapter, the subject of our episode today, forgiveness. Baptize me. now that reconciliation is possible.

If we're going to heal, let it be glorious. Girls raise their arms. Having firmly established herself as ready to begin the healing process, we see Beyonce lying on the shores of the baptismal waters in a white dress. The gentle tide wrinkles back and forth

as if she's been rebirthed from these waters. With the baptism complete, Beyonce is ready to move forward toward reconciliation. As such, the black and white visuals move away from the water and into a noticeably more warm, colorful interior space. We're welcomed with an active fireplace inside the house, and a barefooted Beyonce walks in from the cold. She's home now.

Do you remember being born? Are the hips that cracked the deep velvet of your mother and her mother and her mother. Beyonce begins with a series of rhetorical questions. She asks, Do you remember being born? Are you thankful for the hips that cracked? The deep velvet of your mother and her mother and her mother?

Just as Beyonce turns away from retributive justice to a restorative model, here we are seeing a shift from the masculine posturing of the first half of the album to a more feminine approach. She evokes the pain that's inherent in this life-giving power, citing the cracking of hip, and asking if we're thankful. Childbearing is a pain foreign to men, and thus it appears that she's acknowledging not only the pain and sacrifice exclusive to childbirth, but motherhood more generally.

She praises the generations of mothers who made life itself possible, who possessed the superhuman capacity to not only suffer, but to provide care, comfort, protection, and love. It's during these lines that we see old photos and frames on a dresser, a reminder of her ancestry and forebears. It's also during the recitation of this poem that we hear a song playing beneath Beyonce's voice. Are the hips that cracked, velvet of your mother?

The song used here is The Look of Love from Nina Simone's 1967 album, Silk and Soul. Later, we see a record player spinning this exact album, as if Beyonce herself has chosen to put it on after coming home. The lyrics of The Look of Love express how the love Simone feels for her partner cannot be articulated with words alone. Near the end of the song, Simone sings about the timelessness of the love she feels, then suggests that her and her lover take a vow.

Given that the forthcoming song Sandcastles will depict Beonsay and her partner renewing their love for and commitment to one another, it appears that the look of love is intended to set the stage for this new beginning. But like so many of the women featured in Lemonade, we also recognize that Nina Simone's presence here is likely calling attention to her as a strong, black female icon, who was a loud and active voice in the civil rights movement. Simone's activism actually began at a young age. At her first classical piano recital at the age of 12 in 1945,

Simone's parents were forced to move seats to make room for one. white audience members, Simone refused to play until her parents could return to their original seats. This early knack for activism would continue throughout Simone's entire career. Her original song, Mississippi God Damn, of 1964, was according to Simone, her first civil rights song. They try to say it's a communist plot. All I want is equality for my sister, my brother, my people, and me. Mississippi Goddam was written in response to the Birmingham church bombing of 1963, a terrorist attack coordinated by the Klu Klux Klan that killed four black girls all under the age of 15. Mississippi Goddamn was released as a single in 1964 and became an anthem for the civil rights movement.

The song was banned in several southern states, and some of the boxes of promotional singles sent to radio stations were returned with the records deliberately cracked in half. Simone would later perform Mississippi Goddame to a crowd of 10,000 at the Selma to Montgomery marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mississippi Goddamn is just one of many examples of Simone's lifelong activism. Songs like Old Jim Crow, Four Women, Backlash Blues, and her rendition of Strange Fruit all speak to her commitment to using her music and celebrity to fight for freedom and equality for all. While songs like The Look of Love express a softer, more vulnerable side of Simone, songs like Mississippi Goddamn and Simone's activism make clear that vulnerability does not equate to weakness. It's likely for this reason that Nina Simone was highlighted here in forgiveness.

It is this blueprint of resistance and benevolence that Beyonce will adopt here in the latter chapters of lemonade. Just before the start of the song Sandcastles, we see one of the more brilliant strokes of the entire visual album. The shot is a close-up of a small black ceramic bowl sitting on a dresser. Large cracks run down and across the bowl. Clearly this bull was broken at some point, but it's been reassembled and the cracks have been sealed in gold. This is what's known as Kinsugi, which translates to golden repair, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold.

The Zen philosophy behind Kinsugi is that breakage and repair is part of the history of an object. And so rather than something to hide, its damage is something to accentuate as a source of unique beauty. When we consider this philosophy within the broader context of lemonade, the Kinsugi Bowl becomes the perfect symbol for Beyonce's approach to healing gloriously, not just individually and within a relationship, but also for the black community writ large. We recall Beyonce's quote, I come from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust. Only when I saw that clearly was I able to resolve those conflicts in my own relationship.

Connecting to the past and knowing our history makes us both bruised and beautiful, unquote. Bruised and beautiful, golden cracks, making lemonade from lemons. This philosophy will be Beyonce's guiding star as she finally confronts head on the curse that's plagued her throughout the entire film. there is a curse that will be broken. Throughout our examination of Lemonade this season, we've discussed how Beyonce viewed her broken marriage as symptomatic of a broader curse that can be traced back to the enslavement of her ancestors.

This curse was formally introduced in the opening chapter of Lemonade. The past and the future merge to meet us here. What luck. What a fucking curse. Though it looms over the entire film, Beyonce herself has not referenced this curse directly since these opening moments. Here now in the eighth chapter, Forgiveness, Beyonce is empowered and resolved to break that curse, not to suffer under it. She declares that it will, with certainty, be broken. And Sandcastles, a declaration of forgiveness is what breaks it. Sandcastles was written by Vincent Barry the 2nd,

Beyonce, Malik Yousif, and Midian Mathers. The song's arrangement is the most stripped of all the songs on Lemonade, just a piano and some very light synth. This simple, intimate arrangement allows Beyonce's voice and lyrics to be the centerpiece. This intimacy is also reflected in the visuals we see during the performance of the track. We're still inside the home we entered after coming inside from the beach. A makeupless Beyonce sits on the floor of a sparsely furnished living area. She's wearing headphones, playing a keyboard, and singing into a microphone.

The impression we get is that she's recording this song all alone, and we're getting a glimpse into this very personal, vulnerable moment. Her voice is raw, wounded, but also hopeful. We built sandcastles washed away. Beyonce begins first one singing, We built castles that washed away. Sandcastles are inherently impermanent. They crumble and wash away by ocean tides soon after they're built.

In this way, there's irony in the concept of a sandcastle itself. Like a relationship, castles or fortresses are supposed to be symbols of strength and protection. But the castle Beyonce and her husband built was made of sand and was destined to be destroyed by the flood of an ocean's tide. This idea of a poorly constructed home brings us all the way back to the very first lines we heard in the opening moments of lemonade. I tried to make a home out of you, but doors lead to trap doors. A stairway leads to nothing. full of trap doors and deception, the home Beyonce and her partner made was doomed in its current form. Its foundation wasn't solid enough to withstand adversity, which in the broader context of lemonade

are the burdens of our past, our insecurities, our flaws, all the things that threaten the stability of relationships, the castles we construct. While betrayal through infidelity was the catalyst for destruction, we've learned throughout Lemonade that the cause of such behavior can be more complicated than simply succumbing to lust. It's behavior that is learned, passed down from generation to generation. And specifically within the Black family, its behavior complicated by the denigration of the black community throughout American history, starting with slavery. We also recognize how Sandcastles contributes to the symbolic use of water we've seen and heard throughout Lemonade. Water is a source of destruction, like the levee that broke and don't hurt yourself, or the Oshun-inspired

wrath and hold up. But water is also the redemptive source of cleansing and healing, like the baptism we witnessed in Reformation. Sandcastles captures this duality of the water metaphor beautifully. It displays water's power to destroy and to build. And like the Kinsugi cracked bowl, it's both the acceptance and mastery of this duality that will allow Beyonce and her partner to move forward and construct a new, stronger, more sustainable castle. In the song's second line, I made you cry when I walked away. Beyonce for the first time explicitly says that she did in fact leave her husband at some point. The other detail here is that her husband cried, showed remorse, and was genuinely devastated by her leaving. The partner seemed to realize what he had,

only when it washed away. Sandcastles continues into its brief refrain, which centers around promises made and promises broken. We'll unpack this idea, along with the rest of the chapter, right after the break. Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we heard Beyoncé compare the home she constructed with her partner to a sandcastle, something that was washed away by the flood of an ocean's tide. Just after Beyonce acknowledges that she did, in fact, leave her partner, she continues with the song's refrain.

Baby, every promise Don't work out that way. Beyonce sings, And although I promised that I couldn't stay, every promise don't work out that way. Here we get the second motif of the song, the idea of promises made and promises broken. The husband broke his marital vow of fidelity,

and Beyonce broke her promise to leave him for good. The implication here is that Beyonce has returned to her husband, ready to try again, ready to, as the chapter title suggests, forgive. Meanwhile, her husband's tears seem to imply that he is truly remorseful and also ready to try again. During this first verse, there are a few brief but significant shots interspersed with Beyonce singing at the keyboard. We see a close-up of wilting white flowers in a vase. They aren't dead. Rather, they're clinging to life and in need of fresh water, a metaphoric nod to the state of Beyonce's relationship. We also see a shot of watercolor paintings done by a child.

This is a reminder of the magnitude of their bond and the stakes of their union. They can continue the curse of broken male-female relationships in Beyonce's ancestry and pass the curse down another generation to their child. Or as Beyonce herself put it, quote, I pray that I'm able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives. unquote. The third image we see relates to this curse. An old wristwatch sits on a dresser next to an antique key. The metaphor here is clear. Time, history, looking to the past, is key to understanding and

unlocking their present moment. As stated all the way back on intuition, the past and future merged to meet us here. What luck. What a fucking curse. Now Beyonce is no longer haunted by this curse. She's done the work, she's confronted the past, she's found the key. As Sandcastles continues, Beyonce describes broken dishes from an encounter, likely a passionate argument or fight. It's here we can again recall the symbolism of the Kinsugi Bowl. The smashed dishes of their relationship are broken, but not impossible to repair. There's even the potential that it can be made stronger and more beautiful than before. Beyonce then describes scratching and cutting out her husband's face from photographs together.

It's likely this is more symbolic than anything and seems to represent her failed attempts to erase her husband from her memory. There's palatable anger and resentment in her voice, recalling the pain and aggression we heard expressed throughout Lemonade's first half. Just like her failed attempts to avoid, to forget, to vindicate, to threaten, to feign apathy, to leave, she can't fully rid herself of her feelings for him. This leads us to one of the most beautiful, most moving moments of the entire album. baby, will never be promised. Won't work out that way.

Beyonce impassionately sings, What is it about you that I can't erase? The answer to this question is implied on screen, because it's during this line we find Beyonce in bed reading the morning paper. We see just the arm of someone wearing a wristwatch playfully covering her mouth, which makes Beyonce laugh warmly. He tickles her neck and Beyonce kisses his hand, still smiling. It's a small yet revealing memory of the love her and her partner share,

the love that withstood the flood and still remains after all the sandcastles, pictures, names, and faces are washed away. It's a love that demands reconciliation and healing. And it's with this love as their foundation that the two will start over and build again from the ground up. At the end of the refrain, every promise don't work out that way. It's revealed that the man in bed with Beyonce is her real-life husband, J. Z. While here in the present day, we know that Beyonce and JZ have resolved their issues and have continued to be role models for millions around the world. At the time of Lemonade's release, the status of their marriage was very unclear. The infamous elevator tape of 2014 resulted in a continuous rumor mill about the couple's relationship, something that

lasted all the way up to the release of lemonade. And so to truly understand the significance and impact of Jay Z's presence here some 40 minutes into the film, you have to take yourself back to that time when the rumors were rampant and their marriage was in question. JZ in the film heavily implies that the infidelity story told in Lemonade is based on their actual relationship, something later confirmed in interviews. Thus, Lemonade becomes in part a response to the noise, a public acknowledgement of their marital problems. But more importantly, we have to recognize the way in which JZ is used in the film. He is introduced precisely at the moment of healing, the moment of forgiveness. To introduce J2 early in the film would risk emphasizing this real-life component and overshadowing

the larger message being conveyed in the film. Rather than exploit their marital problems for press, they instead use it to provide a model for redemption and healing. And so the aha moment of seeing JZ for the first time is immediately countered by his role in the film, which is to see him at his most vulnerable. He silently embraces Beyoncé, truly present with her in this moment, looking into her eyes, nuzzling her cheek, and later caressing her feet. He's also described in the lyrics as having cried when Beyonce walked away. There's an implication here that Jay-Z has also undergone his own transformative journey to bring him to this moment of healing, something he later documented in his album 444. As Sandcastles continues, Jay maintains his presence throughout the

remainder of the song. Indeed, it's directly 2J that Beyonce sings the song's final verse. In verse three, it's Jay's heart that's broken. Despite the fact that she left, she shows a willingness to come back singing, Show me your scars and I won't walk away. Beyonce needs to know that he too was wounded by the pain caused by his betrayal. She needs to see his broken heart. The scar tissue she looks for is evidence that he also underwent his own individual's self-reflective journey like she did. Having both done the necessary work to heal and evolve as individuals,

They can now come together to begin the process of healing their relationship. Showing one's scars also requires openness and vulnerability. Beyonce's demand to see them is a reminder to her husband that hiding his scars or emotions is a form of walking away, even within a relationship. Going forward, she needs to see him in his flawed and complex entirety. Finally, we recognize that scar tissue is stronger and more dense than undamaged skin. Like the Kinsugi Bowl, the two can use the wounds in their relationship to form a stronger union going forward. During this final verse, we continue to see Jay and Beyonce embrace.

The overall impression we get is one of reconciliation, of restoration of their love, their family, and their home. There are two specific images that stand out more than others. The first comes just after Beyonce sings, show me your scars, and I won't walk away. It's here that we see Jay, lying in bed at Beyonce's feet, caressing her ankles. Traditionally, being at someone's feet implies a sense of worship, gratitude, and humility. This is a reversal of what we heard from Beyonce back in Lemonade's second chapter, Denial. Got on my knees and said amen and said, I mean, I whipped my own back and asked for dominion at your feet. The patriarchal servant and master

dynamic here in denial is replaced with true humility and appreciation in a moment of extreme intimacy. Jay looks fully engaged at her feet, savoring this moment knowing that he almost lost her completely. There's a sense that somewhere along the way, he came to understand and repent for the damage he caused. The second image of significance is a close-up of the two of their hands clasped together. Jay's wedding ring is the focal point, but just as prominent is his antique wristwatch, a blatant callback to the watch and key we saw during the first refrain. In many ways, this is a screenshot that summarizes the entire album's purpose. The wristwatch, the wedding ring, and the black hands in union,

signifies that the generational curse has been broken as a result of their decision to forgive and grow stronger together. Again, we have to recall Beyonce's direct quote, I come from a lineage of broken male-female relationships, abuse of power, and mistrust. Only when I saw that clearly, was I able to resolve these conflicts in my own relationship. Connecting to the past and knowing our history,

history makes us both bruised and beautiful. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time. I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives. It's at this point in the visual album that we can look back on the album's first half with a little more clarity. There we saw Beyonce demonstrate a masculine posture of power learned through observation, the teachings of her father, and her own survival, and a patriarchal society.

Through her grief, Beyonce tried on variations of this theme in order to reclaim her agency. Though this was necessary to her process, we also understand that such posturing was not a sustainable, holistic way to live, nor was it any way to completely heal. Beyoncé then looked to her roots in daddy lessons to understand her actions, realizing

that her more harsh, vindictive instincts were inherited from her father. While she seemed to understand that his behavior was a survival tactic shaped by a society that is hostile to black men, she also seemed to understand that to adopt his behavior would only perpetuate the curse of broken relationships in her family. There is a time and place to let your guard down, and it appeared that Beyonce came to understand the value and vulnerability as a gateway

to healing. This leads to the song Love Drought in the chapter of Reformation. Channelling the strength of her female ancestry, Beyonce does in fact let her guard down, expresses her pain and requires that her husband do the same if they are to reconcile. Her newfound understanding of her father's behavior also applied to her husband, allowing her to view his actions through a more empathetic lens. And it's this combination of accountability, vulnerability, and empathy that allowed her to heal through forgiveness here in Sandcastles.

Sandcastle cements the dramatic reversal in Beyonce's approach to justice, from retributive to restorative. While strength is something we typically associate with masculine qualities such as toughness, force, and hostility, Beyonce here is proving that forgiveness and vulnerability may actually be the best representatives of true strength. English philosopher Joanna North defined forgiveness this way, quote, To forgive, we must overcome resentment, not by the definition. denying ourselves the right to feel resentment, but by forcing ourselves to see the culprit with compassion, benevolence, and love, even while knowing he's voluntarily relinquished his right to these, unquote. A simple Google search on acts of forgiveness will direct you to hundreds of moving and

often unbelievable stories of forgiveness. You'll read about the man whose wife and two kids were killed in a car crash by a drunk driver, and how the victim chose to eventually forgive the killer, even visiting him in jail and developing a relationship with the killer's children to help them heal. You'll read about the mother whose child was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, how her anger left her emotionally and physically exhausted, and how the choice to forgive allowed her to regain agency in her life. Quote, forgiveness felt like I was given a big pair of scissors to cut the tie and regain my personal power. It started with a choice, and then it became a process, unquote.

And I think herein lies the key. Forgiveness is a choice. We can choose to forgive. And while it can be an extremely difficult process, for some, it seems to be the only way to move forward. For Beyonce, the forgiveness of her husband paired with his accountability for his actions, allowed them to renew their relationship and break the curse for the sake of their children. It is this beautiful exhibit of strength that allowed them to heal together like the golden cracks of the Kinsugi Bull. Having healed her damaged relationship, Beyonce will now look outward in order to see how she might use her experience to lead the next generation of women forward. So how are we supposed to lead our children to the future? What do we do? How do we lead them?

Love. This is Ford from Lemonade's next chapter, Resurrection. A chapter will examine note by note, scene by scene, next time on Dissect. Dysect is the production of Spotify Studios. Remember, you can find visual guides for each episode on Dysectpodcast.com, which also includes links to any articles cited on today's episode. While you're there, be sure to check out our limited season six merchandise, and be sure to follow us on social media at Dysk Podcast.

Today's episode was written by me with additional help from T.T. Show Dia, Diasi, Maggie Lacey and Michael Bundalo. Additional research by Gail Acosta. Audio editing by Eric Bass and me. Song Recreations by Andrew Atwood. Theme music by Bureaucratic. Okay, thanks everyone. I'll talk to you next week.