Do you ever have times when you listen to a song and "get it" in a completely new way? I’m always shocked when this happens. And it happened on my drive into work this a.m.
One of my favorite songs, "Paper Bag," by Fiona Apple, shuffled into the iPod which was playing in my car as I turned from West Peachtree onto 10th. Now, my obsession with this song goes back to 1999 and I used to use it to warm up when I first started singing. So I’ve sang it a scrillion times, and know every line and actually thought I knew the meaning of it. WRONG.
Today, I realized that the song is about illusions and thinking someone is something they are not. And the underlying lyrical structure of the song was lost on me completely! She mistakes the titular paper bag for a bird of hope and she later mistakes the boy she is dating for a full-grown functioning adult. I feel like a doofus for admitting I was so wrong about it.
I couldn’t believe that something I’d adored so deeply was profoundly misunderstood by me for so long. I used to think the song was a self-indictment of her unworthiness of a relationship, instead of the opposite.
Things like this can make me wonder what else in my life I think I have figured out that I really don’t have a clue about. Maybe it’s true that songs, like people, only reveal themselves fully over time.
November 10, 2005 at 10:01 pm
All I have to say is that Fiona Rocks! I am enamored with this song. Her emotional lyrics in this song feel almost sinful because they are so pleasurable.
Finding a different meaning to a song you adore it’s common. Perhaps thats the reason we enjoy them so much.
November 13, 2005 at 12:56 am
I think sometimes a song and its lyrics are what we need it to be at that time in our lives. There are so many things, people, situations, etc in life that we just don’t fully understand- maybe never do- and yet will often times think we ‘get it’. Just like the universe, or god, or whatever you choose to believe- if it was revealed to us completely, we’d be too overwhelmed and could never hope to understand.
November 13, 2005 at 10:19 am
It makes me think of the time someone had told you that your CD was used as a get-your-groove-on CD. The cool thing about music is sometimes not in the details. How something sounds, the feelings they evoke, the things we are reminded of by song – sometimes we don’t have to “get” it to be moved. I still think you’re a real smart cookie, so don’t worry bout not getting Fiona. She’s sometimes a tough nut to crack anyway.
January 23, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Okay I am reading these older posts and I’d like to say that is one of my fave Fiona songs. In 2000 I went to China ALONE – which terrified me! – and I remember being in a Hong Kong hotel, sleepless at 4am, and seeing the BRILLIANT video for this song and feeling so comforted that it was FIONA there with me. Here it is:
http://youtube.com/w/Fiona-Apple—Paper-Bag?v=WM2-tlx8-OE&search=paper%20bag
I should note that the other video I saw that night was a debut of “Spinning Around” by Kylie…totally different, but just as pleasing.