you caught me lingering
in another girl's paradise
the way she paints the world --
i want that in my life
emeralds, you should know,
are renting in her meadow
with a stroke beauty lives
how could i resist you are desire
when it all is said, said and done
who can love you and still be standing
there's mary calling up a storm
can i take from you and not keep taking
naked as day Gemma follows him
does it all come down
to the thing one girl fears in the night
is another girl's paradise
through twists and turns
Jasmine foxed me in her grove
arms filled with honey-bells,
st michaels sanford bloods
you have come to discover what you want
what i want is not to want what isn't mine
but i am desire when it all is said, said and done
who can love you and still be standing
there's mary calling up a storm
can i take from you and not keep taking
naked as day Gemma follows him
does it all come down
to the thing one girl fears in the night
is another girl's paradise
does it all come down
to the thing one girl fears in the night
is another girl
is another girl
is another girl's paradise


Lyrics submitted by merchantpierce

Another Girl's Paradise Lyrics as written by Tori Amos

Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing

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Another Girl's Paradise song meanings
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9 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment

    i've never read anything about the song's intended meaning or source... but to me, it's one of those songs that just perfectly describes the longing for someone you love who's found happiness with someone else.

    Salineon December 19, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i feel the same way saline, my darling left me and shes the love of my life and she still wants to have me in her life but i dont know if i can handle it emotionally. i dont know if shes found happiness with someone else

    cynicalimbecileon January 10, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Okay this is going to sound a little weird but this song makes me think about how I feel about the State Of Florida. The whole time Ive been here I kinda feel like i've snuck into another girl's paradise. It's so beautiful here but at the same time terrifying like I'm someplace I shouldn't be and Im getting away with it LOL only to find out Ive been caught red handed. Then all of the sudden a hurricane is pointing at you and your scrambling to get out.

    anteniuson February 01, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This song is definitely about longing for another person's 'paradise', and almost being overcome with envy. Tori has discussed in the past that this song is about jealousy, particularly between woman.

    'can I take from you and not keep taking'

    This person is obviously fearful of losing themselves to envy, and fear they may not be able to stop once they give in.

    abey85on August 15, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Tori explains it well in the following quotes but I really love how she says that the music is what helps you understand and that is where the clues are. I totally feel what everyone else is saying here, but in my personal experience with this song, I am seeing it in relation to someone who has been cheated on. As someone who has been cheated on, I see that what one girl fears in the night (which would be him in the arms of another woman), is another girl's paradise (she is in heaven because she has him while the other girl's nightmare is coming true). To me the music leads to that. Its calm then hurried and urgent at times like there is something to hide, but that is my personal interpretation. Here is what Tori and Scarlet have had to say....

    New Orleans is warm and balmy with the smell of honeysuckle in the air. But Scarlet is grappling with covetousness in ANOTHER GIRL'S PARADISE. Her travels take her through Florida and to Hawaii, before she returns to Miami. "All the time she's having a conversation with desire. And she realises that very few of us can genuinely wish each other good in a selfless way." -- Scarlet's Walk bio

    "She's on this idea of women now. And, when I think being around all these women who have all these different kind of perceptions of each other. And you could say, some of them are intimidated by each other and some of them are envious and some of them really kind of like the other one but are afraid of being rejected so they don't know how to approach them. And there's all that going on. So busy, like bees. And uh, she makes her way into the warmth of Florida. She takes her time. She's driving now, she's on her own. And she's thinking about women, and women and women's relationships with each other and...what it brings up. And so, she sort of um, goes to the land for this one. This one place that's, where alot of people come to soak in, to feel sensual and warm and healed and delicious. So she's in Florida, and goes to another land where people go to feel delicious. Another paradise. And she finds that there's room enough for both of them, that they're both very different. And desire is very much a part of all this. And at the end of the day, Desire will do what she does best, which is make you desire that which is not yours. She moves on to away, and then comes back to Florida. Not feeling like she needs to betray one or the other. That she can value both of them, that there's room enough for both of them. I think there's healing all along the way in different parts of this. But that's really for the reader, and the listener to sense, because it's in the music alot of that. Those are clues that it takes you, I think, to our real feelings. The music is always the place where the clues are." -- Scarlet Stories CD

    faerieambitionon February 03, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Yeah, the way I think of like that as well-it's envy. Seeing a woman who has something beautiful that she wants as well, but she doesn't want to keep feeling like that-not being content with her own life and always wanting what she doesn't have. She wonders if she can take or copy or mimic what it is that she admires about said girl and still maintain her uniqueness and not be something fake. She says "does it all come down to the thing one girl fears in the night is another girl's paradise", and it makes me think she feels like she doesn't want to see any other girls living lives better than theirs or having something she doesn't. I can totally relate.

    Frostypeanuton September 22, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I swear this part :

    Through twists and turns Jasmine foxed me in her grove arms filled with Honeybells

    Sounds like: Through twists and turns Jasmine "f***ed" me in her grove arms filled with "Hornybells"

    I don't know why...

    vannabananaon July 29, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    [another girl's paradise] is who she's actually singing to using her as a 3rd person perspective. I don't Believe this song has anything to do with envy. More so, the admiration of the 'another girl's way 'she paint's her world.

    [when it all is said said and done who can Love you and still be standing there's Mary calling up a storm ]

    "when it is all said and done"

    • The relationship has lost it's ambiguousity and the relationship has been someone put in the open.

    "The Virgin Mary calling up a storm"

    • could possibly reflect a stage of celibacy. A STORM.
    • The commitment and loyalty she still feels for her significant other thus, she is still "standing".

    "can I take from you and not keep taking?"

    • unrequited love or attention. Emotionally unavailability.

    "through twists and turns Jasmine foxed me in her grove arms filled with Honeybells, St. Michaels Sanford Bloods"

    • through the thick and thin, she stuck by her side.

    I'm not very sure about the bit "I'm Desire"

    "Does it all come down to the thing one girl fears in the night"

    This is purely subjective and can be interpreted many ways.

    faerieambition: "I am seeing it in relation to someone who has been cheated on. As someone who has been cheated on, I see that what one girl fears in the night.

    Or it could sinplyr be that the power balance in a relationship. Certainly an unhealthy abusive one. One leaves the other with nightmares by showing no signs of affirmation, emotional security and pain, which is "another girl's paradise".

    maaaaaaaadnesson January 01, 2009   Link
  • -1
    General Comment

    I actually think that Tori Amos wrote this while she was in Hawaii, so you might not be too far off with the florida thing..

    luxie123on February 01, 2006   Link

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