I agree with MimiK about the song being about various fears (because it is also about the unknown), and with much of what queen_g said. And speaking of Can't Let Her Get Away, I do wonder what he's saying at the very end through what sounds like more pain, anger and emotion just as in, Who Is It.
This may seem a bit nitpicky but I do want to point out that in Who Is It the lyric seems to be, "I gave my money, I gave my time" which can be seen as he mouths the lyric in the Oprah bit...but on to weighter matters
I agree with queen_g that this song seems to be saying the same kinds of things as Can't Let Her Get Away. I feel one reason CLHGA is not an overwhelming 'fan favorite' is because it may have been designed to be "heard" by some 1, rather than everyone (although it is quite the jam when you get into it) because I notice amid so much undistiguishable, fast-ranting, he says, "she gone, she gone, she gone hear it" and how many others of us can "hear" that? lol.
I also agree that he felt she had lied to him (meaning in his absence of information as indicated by all his questions, he presumed this) because in Who Is It he says, "a promise so untrue" and in CLHGA he says, "is it just a lie" (the promise?) In Who Is It he is trying to figure out why in creation "she just up and ran away" and is guessing and trying to figure it out. In CLHGA he is guessing, eg., "I got a feeling ...this...and I got a feeling...that. If you listen very carefully you'll notice that toward the end it sounds like he says (really fast so you have to listen 'fast') that she "prolly never thought I seen her get away" and if he in fact did watch her leave, Lord, this certainly would add to the pain which could explain why it was stuck in his mind all the way up through the writing of Don't Walk Away.
Who Is It is about a lack of information coupled with fear that his greatest of fears were somehow so. (meaning, eg., his brother...his friend...the really painful stuff humans fear, perhaps from seeing it happen to others).
The song doesn't say, nor do his questionings indicate there was some other man involved, or that she intended to "abandon" him for that matter because we know there are always at least two sides to every story. We have only HIS story going by the music.
What are the chances that she (whether rightly or wrongly) felt that he had disconnected from her, spiritually? Maybe she misjudged something? Felt dissappointment of her own? Was going through something unrelated to him that no one ever knew?
I feel that, without exception, when people hurt other people they are themselves hurting. The degree of pain felt by the one is the degree of pain felt by the other. That being the case, and in the absence of actual information, her making the grave mistake of not talking to him, she could have been going through God knows what having nothing to do with anyone for all anyone knows, least of all, him.
Assuming for a moment that the songs up to the HIStory album are about the same woman, it seems that by the time he released You Are Not Alone, he realized on a certain level of awareness that it might have actually had nothing to do with him, and had developed compassion rather than just pure pain, dissappointment, fear, anguish and anger, because now compassion is what we hear, although he didn't have any more information than before (eg., "someone tell me why").
Speaking of fear, could it be that fear is one thing they had both been battling in relationship to eachother all along? His fear that there could be "someone else" - her fear that he'd not be willing or able (for whatever reasons) to bear her "burdens" ... and maybe by the releasing of YANA he realized this was her concern?
If it is indeed the same person, then could it be that perfect love was realized in the end, where it counted, and is now working itself out in this relationship, by and by, to cast fear out once and for all, forever?
I do know that the enemy of love is seeking to devour. If this is the same person, then it would seem there must be a tremendous degree of power for doing God's will, tied up in these two people actually being together or else the enemy/ies of love wouldn't have worked so hard to keep them apart.
This could indeed constitute a "mountain" to be overcome. I guess that's why it would take a really strong joint purpose to declare, "MOVE mountain Move'
In the end maybe one thing this relationship is about is faith.
