“GOLDWING” by Billie Eilish

As noted late in the post, Billie Eilish’s “GOLDWING” commences with a hymn. And without diving too deep into it, the main character of the segment appears to be akin to an angel. So basically it is a setup for the main story at hand, even though the song is not centered on a literal angel, i.e. a spiritual being but instead one that is very much earth-grounded.

Billie Eilish talks about “GOLDWING”

In fact according to Billie Eilish’s direct explanation of this tune, the angel-inspired term “goldwing” is an attribute being ascribed onto its main subject. Said individual, most simply put, is a “young lady” who has never suffered the same type of trauma that many of her female peers have already gone through. So we can say she is somewhat of an anomaly or notable individual.  For instance, as far as pop musicians go, when they speak on the topic of young women it usually is anything but innocent.

And the fact that this person is unique in that regard is also something which the vocalist herself notices and admires to the point of wanting to preserve it. For instance, from the onset, she instructs the addressee not to let her pristine status be known to the world. And why? Because there’s always those ‘starving’ individuals lurking about who would love to defile her. 

And to note, Billie has explicitly stated that this person whom she is referring to is not a virgin.  So she isn’t necessarily being advised to protect her cherry, if you will. It’s more like she still possesses happiness and optimism in this dark world. And Eilish doesn’t want to see any of the fiends out there seduce her and subsequently snatch that attribute away from her.

Billie’s Advice

So the advice the songstress is giving the addressee specifically is to ‘keep her dead down’. In other words, as she is going about her business outside of the safety of home, she should just stay to herself and keep it moving, avoiding all social contact, if you will. 

And yes, the tone of this admonishment does read a lot like Eilish is warning her of certain romantic interests in particular. And the said romantic interests would be the types who’ll make her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world and later, inevitably do her dirty.

In Conclusion

So conclusively we will say that Billie Eilish, as we know her, is not someone who herself would be commonly classified as an angel. However, she is clearly sympathetic to ladies in her age group. And here she is warning the more innocent ones not to sleep like everything is all good.  For there are people out there who would be attracted to their innocence like vampires are to blood. 

This is something Billie is aware of likely based on her own experiences. So in this particular song instead of harping on her personal issues the singer, who is pretty young herself, is taking on more of the role of a mentor.

Facts about “GOLDWING”

It has been noted that this is Billie Eilish’s first song actually to feature what some analysts have referred to as a “church hymn”. However, upon further analysis, it has been noted that said poem, which dates back in English form to the early 20^th century, is actually of ancient Hindu origin. And to further note, the composer who translated it into English was Gustav Holst (1874-1934).

As expected, “GOLDWING” was written by Billie Eilish alongside her big bro, Finneas. And Finneas, who is primarily a producer by profession, also served such a role on this track.

“GOLDWING” can be found on “Happier Than Ever”, the Billie Eilish album that came out on 30 July 2021. And the record labels that put the song out are Interscope and Darkroom.