Meaning of 'That old rocking chair's going to get me'



In the Joni Mitchell song Stormy Weather, there's this line:



That old rocking chair's going to get me



What does that mean? I suppose that old rocking chair is a symbol of something, but what? Death? Something else?



Answer



Long before Stormy Weather was “the Joni Mitchell song Stormy Weather” it was a signature tune for Lena Horne and was recorded by numerous other singers.


“That old rocking chair's going to get me” expresses the idea that grief will reduce the singer to an old lady at the end of her days, just rocking back and forth in an old rocking chair and contemplating her sorrows.


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