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submissions
Sufjan Stevens – Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair Lyrics 16 years ago
I think "National plan" means that his father was in the service, like the military or something.

submissions
Meg & Dia – Inside My Head Lyrics 16 years ago
"I had fallen, despite all of the things that I had told myself otherwise. I thought that he was going to save me, thought he was going to end my suffering. I held out my hand wanting desperately for it to end, knowing that he could stop it all with just three words. His eyes looked through me, he made me feel like I didn’t exist, like a rich man to a beggar on the street. Then his eyes fixed, looking down at me looking back up at him, he took a long drag from his Marlboro Mild and flicked the ashes into the palm of my open outstretched hand. A sigh of smoke crept out of the corner of his mouth, the soul escaping the body, and in me the same thing. That was the day the part of me that fell silent started screaming, the day something clicked in my brain to fight against the injustices of love, and to never fall again…"

submissions
Natalie Imbruglia – Butterflies Lyrics 16 years ago
Although the song can be interpreted in many different ways, I believe “Butterflies” was written about Imbruglia’s own battle with depression at the time. The singer has stated in numerous interviews that she suffers from “seasonal depression”. During the time she was dealing with relationship problems and friends who were only interested in her fame.

Swallow purple terror candy
Don’t forget to breathe
Sickened by the wanting
And drowning from the need
This dichromatic vision
Of one who does not care
To sipping cocktail sedatives
Two months to hide somewhere

I believe, “Purple terror candy” refers to a depression medication that was being taken like candy (the anti depressant Wellbutrin is purple). “Cocktail sedatives” another indication and classic sign of depression is to drink or form addictions because it makes you forget about all of your problems for a while the only problem with that is when you wake up the problems are there 10x what they were. “Two months to hide somewhere” could mean two months of alcoholism or addiction.

Butterflies, Butterflies
Cut the stomach out and hand it over
Butterflies, Butterflies
My heart will be the bridge that you walk over

I believe the chorus has to do with taking something that was once beautiful and ruining it, comparing a butterfly to love, friendship, or a person who has been hurt by a lover/friend. “My heart will be the bridge that you walk over” - In the process the person doing the hurting gets to live on because he or she used the other person to get by, while the used individual flutters around with broken wings trying to regain composure and live again.

The wolf has caught the chicken
And now I feel unsteady
Emotions on the blink again
So kick me when you’re ready
Here lies a violet coffin
The death of my control
Along with all my skeletons
They put them in the hole

In this verse she’s referring to emotions catching up to the individual. A lot of times people are in denial of their depression until it completely overtakes them and they give up on everything. “The death of my control”

Sickened by the notion
I give myself again
Choking on the bullet,
the gun that’s found a friend
So raise your glass to sorrow
And drink to all the pain
Tie a silver ribbon around
The pieces that remain

The last verse reads like a suicide note, the last and final straw of someone who has completely given up and although it’s dark, it leaves us with a glimmer of hope at the end. “Tie a sliver ribbon around the pieces that remain” leaves the listener with an indication (although it reads sarcastically) that the individual overcame things in the end by focusing on all of the good things he or she still had left in life and leaving the past buried where it belongs.


From Nat herself:
"It was very difficult, I got seasonal depression. I don't think people realise the impact that can have on you if your love life is not going too well."

"I had a lot of so-called friends. Then, when I sifted through the weeds, there weren't many left. And that's fine. I don't need a lot of friends, but I need the ones that I have to be solid.”

"When I went through some hard times and they weren't there, it was just obvious (who needed to be weeded), so when I was successful and they all wanted to be my best friends, I didn't return phone calls."

"I was going through a hard time being separated from Daniel (her fiancé at the time). I isolated myself from everyone and everything to try to make the album."

submissions
Jewel – Long Slow Slide Lyrics 19 years ago
I think the person is trying to find perfect love, where all the pieces fit together. He or she has found some pieces, but they never make a whole, so the person is never truly complete in the way other people "the geeks and the freaks" (who think they are truly in love) are. To me, the weight of the curtain is symbolic of life, and in this case, almost like an hourglass, like time is ticking, the curtain is slowly falling and you aren't even complete yet, and there's a chance you may never be. Maybe you aren't ever truly complete with out someone else to compliment and vice versa.

SIDE NOTE: Jewel compares "Bukowski's widow" to this perfect love. Bukowski was a famous poet and literary icon. He died years ago but his wife to this day, still feels a missing part, like half of her is gone. She was even quoted in August of 2000 in the Long Beach Press for saying "Every day I don't get over it, every day I cry. It's almost absurd. It's like when somebody loses an appendage. What do you do? The other half of me is gone."

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